"Sorry to interrupt the fucking," Astrid's voice called, making me bury my face in Roderick's chest as a chuckle moved through him. "But lunch is here. You need fuel for all the fun times. And, Roderick, it's been a while for Liv. She's going to need to go a few rounds. You might want to consider Gatorade!"
"I'm gonna kill her," I told Roderick's chest before pushing up to look down on him.
"She's proud of herself," he declared. "She's been scheming for this since I showed up here. It's Cam who is likely not the happiest camper right now."
"You make it sound like he's into me. He's not."
"No. Not into you, but probably wants better for you."
"Better? What's wrong with you?"
"I... it's... nothing. Never mind," he said, for once, him being the one to close down. "Come on, let's get some clothes on so we can eat. You didn't touch breakfast."
With that, he moved up and out from under me, redressing, leaving me with no choice but to do the same, moving out into the main area of the loft feeling awkward.
It was insane, of course. I was a grown woman. We were all adults. We all had sex lives, even if they were maybe not as active as others. Though, as a whole, we engaged in it outside of the loft, none of us ever having to face each other directly after everyone else had likely overheard things happening.
"You can blame Cam for it if you don't like hot subs. He's almost as crazy about them as he is his donuts," Astrid told Roderick as she handed him a plate, doing so with a strange, satisfied smile, murmuring something to him that made him tap his hip into hers playfully.
And despite thinking everything would be weird, overall, it wasn't. Cam had given me an odd look, something penetrative, but it was over almost before it began.
We ate.
We all did some work trying to track down the gun. Astrid baked cookies. From a tube, but still. We ate them in front of the TV watching some silly sitcom the name of which I didn't even think to learn because Roderick pulled me onto his lap, and all I could focus on was the way his fingers sifted through my hair.
Cam took off to bed.
Astrid pretended to, though I knew she would be awake in her room for hours still. She just wanted us to be alone, to be able to go to bed.
Which was what we did, having sex until our bodies couldn't take anymore. Then falling asleep in each other's arms.
We spent almost the whole next day in bed, only leaving to shower - together - and grab slices of pizza when Astrid told us there were pies in the kitchen.
My body ached in a delicious way, in places I hadn't felt in ages. I shared more details about my life when our bodies were too spent to go another round, letting it all gush out as he demanded more, wanting everything.
So I poured it all into him, not giving a thought to the fact that by doing so, I would be empty when he was gone.
Because we had been living in a little bubble, cut off from the world, cut off from outside interference.
Or so we thought.
Or so I thought at least.
Roderick had gone out to the kitchen to get us coffee in the morning, everything about the day suggesting it would be just like the previous one - spent in bed, loving, laughing, sharing stories.
I had been making my way out to see what the hell was taking so long when I heard his phone ringing.
It had been silent.
So silent, in fact, that it must have been dead, laid up forgotten somewhere until he remembered to plug it in while he went about the motions of making breakfast for us.
It rang and, because he was busy, he put it on speaker on the counter.
"Roderick, the fuck is going on?" a commanding male voice demanded to know. It didn't take too much deducing to realize it was his president. Reign.
"Sorry, shit has been crazy, prez," Roderick said, body stiffening a bit. "My phone was dead."
"Crazy how?" Reign demanded, sounding tense himself. And, from the stories Roderick had told me about the problems the club had faced over the past few years, right down to losing his own daughter, I didn't blame him for getting worked up at the idea of any type of trouble that might blowback on his club.
"There was a lead about one of the guns. And we went in too quickly."
"We?"
"Me, Liv, and one of her people, Cam. We met the contact in The Bronx. We were outmanned, outgunned. It went south fast when he made a move toward Liv."
"Fuck," Reign hissed. "Don't make me pry it out of you."