Chapter 7
Layla turned around from where she’d been talking to Ariel when she heard someone descending. She was kind of glad and relieved to find Jay approaching them. His brow was furrowed and he didn’t look happy.
“Is it time to go?” Layla asked, her words nearly choking her. She knew the plan. She and Ariel would leave with these three strangers while Jay would stay here to do his job greeting newcomers at the cabin. He’d explained that to her earlier. It couldn’t be helped.
Ariel leaned in and gave Layla a hug. “I’ll wait for you upstairs.” She paused as she reached Jay, tipping her head back to meet his gaze.
For a moment the two of them stared at each other, and Layla’s mouth went dry. The standoff between Ariel and Jay was comical. Ariel was even shorter than Layla. She had blond hair and pale skin. She was dwarfed by Jay.
Finally, Ariel surprised Layla when she lurched forward and gave the much larger man a hug before turning to rush up the stairs and disappear.
Jay came to Layla, taking her shoulders in his hands and meeting her gaze. “You have to go,” he stated, his voice rough.
“This is so weird. When will I see you?” She set her hands on his hips, her heart racing.
He slid his palms up to cup her cheeks, his thumbs brushing over them. “In a few days, give or take. I can’t leave this post. When you five get to the compound, Gatlin will send someone to relieve me. I’ll have to wait for my replacement before I can join you.”
“How long, Jay?” she asked again, wanting a more specific timeline. The thought of walking away from him was nearly unbearable. She’d known him only one day, and part of that she’d spent sleeping. She’d woken several times, and they’d talked about a lot of things, but she wasn’t prepared to leave him.
It felt like she was leaving a piece of her heart here. Irrational. Besides, there were three other men upstairs who would theoretically come to mean as much to her as Jay did right now. It was hard to imagine that at the moment, but she had to believe it was true.
As crazy as it sounded in her head, she had to admit she’d felt connected to all of them when they’d arrived. It wasn’t something she would have considered before she’d met Jay, but by the time his partners had arrived, she’d felt like she’d known them. At least a little.
All three men had been kind and cautious and gentle with her. If they were Jay’s partners and he trusted them then she needed to also.
He licked his lips, making her want to feel them against hers again. “It takes nearly twenty-four hours to reach the main road. A van will pick you up and take you the rest of the way.”
“Will we go straight through?” she asked.
“Normally, no. It’s a long walk. You would do it in two days. But if you and Ariel can manage to keep moving, you don’t have to stop too often. Don’t push yourselves though. Rest often.”
She nodded. “We’ve been walking for two weeks, Jay. Another day won’t kill us.”
He set his forehead against hers. “Three, maybe four, days, baby.”
A tear slid down her cheek at the endearment. He brushed it away with his thumb.
She wrapped her arms around him and rose onto her tiptoes, reaching up to kiss him.
He lowered his face to meet hers, their lips colliding in a far more desperate kiss than the one they’d shared earlier in the day.
When his hands slid down to splay across her back, his thumbs reaching under her arms, grazing against the sides of her breasts, she moaned.
He held her tighter, tipping his head to one side, deepening the kiss. A tangle of tongues and lips and sighs.
She was gasping for air when he released her mouth. His forehead returned to hers, his gaze on hers. “Three days,” she insisted. “Not an hour more. Promise me.” She hated begging, but three days suddenly seemed like a lifetime.
He nodded. “Okay, baby.” He held her tighter. “Listen…”
When he didn’t continue, she leaned back to meet his gaze. “What? Talk to me.”
“Don’t…” he swallowed hard. “Don’t wait for me.”
She flinched. “What do you mean?”
He sighed. “I mean Gatlin, Ledger, Nile, and I… We’re a unit, baby. Let them in. Let them know you too. The four of us won’t always be with you, but at least one of us usually will. I want you to have individual relationships with all of us. Sometimes we’ll spend time together as a family unit, but more often than not only a few of us will be together. There’s no room for jealousy or competition. When you’re with one or two or three of us, live life to the fullest. Eventually, it all evens out.”
She stared into his eyes. It was hard to internalize what he was insinuating. He was giving her permission to let relationships develop with his other partners in his absence. What freaked her out more than anything was that she would know those three virtual strangers even better than she knew Jay right now in three days. She’d known him a handful of hours. Three days from now, how would she feel about him?