11
Chapter 11 Karly
I didn’t needto have bear senses to know when there was way too much testosterone in the air, and thankfully that had now subsided. My soft yet commanding voice must have magically worked. I let out a relieved breath and leaned heavily on my crutches. I had a feeling that would send Alek spiralling all over again, and that was the last thing I needed.
“I fell while I was jogging,” I told Alek. “I guess I tripped over a rock or something because I wasn’t looking where I was going. I don’t know exactly. But I do know Hatcher was there for me right away. He picked me up and took me to the medial tent where I got these super sexy crutches.” I sighed heavily. “That’s going to look great on TV, isn’t it? Me, not even a participant in the games, with a dumb injury. Great, just great.”
He chuckled weakly. Mostly because this wasn’t funny. “Oh, Ben isn’t going to be impressed with you, is he?”
“I know.” I rolled my eyes. “But what can I do? The doctor said I have to have these or I won’t heal for so much longer. I guess I have no choice.”
He laughed once more. “I can’t believe you fell.”
I glanced down, unable to meet Alek’s eyes because I didn’t want to get into the real reason why I fell. Why I was out running so early in the morning. I couldn’t tell Alek it was because I could hardly sleep because of him. Well, not just him. All of them. All four men. I’d spent all night dreaming about them, kissing them, being touched by them, tasting them. I kept thinking about how it might actually feel to be in a harem relationship and how much I might like it. I fell because I was so lost in my dreams, in my fantasies, because I couldn’t stop wondering what they might be feeling about me, and what they might be considering. All of it was far too much for me, and I guess that distraction made me fall. God, I was an idiot.
“You need to be more careful,” Alek continued, not sensing my inner turmoil. “You don’t want to break those lovely legs of yours.”
I always loved getting compliments from him. They were always going to excite me and make me feel incredible. The fact that I couldn’t get enough of those words brought a thick lump to the base of my throat. There was so much that I wanted to say to Alek, but I couldn’t seem to find the right words, so I just continued to stare up at him like a dumbstruck idiot, my heart racing like crazy for him.
“We might have to do our run once you’re feeling better,” Hatcher offered, reminding me that he was here as well.
“Yeah, don’t go running on your own again,” Alek scolded me. “Look what happens when you do.”
Instead of getting upset about the assumption I couldn’t do this alone, my heart weirdly soared. I guess I kind of liked the way these two men really seemed to care about me and what I was going through. Warmth travelled through my veins, bringing a smile to my face. This was a different feeling to the one that swallowed me up last night, but it was just as overwhelming, just as shocking, just as intense actually. It meant a lot.
“Oh God.” All the positivity ebbed away in a heartbeat when I spotted someone who threatened to knock all the joy out of my life. “There’s Drew. He’s still watching us.”
I thought he’d stormed off after the fight, but it seemed like he was still trying to figure out what we were doing. I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to send him away, but he didn’t look like he wanted to go anywhere.
“Asshole,” Alek spat. “He’s just showboating. It’s nothing serious, I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”
“Is that what he was doing before I stepped in?” I glanced back, but this time he was gone. What was Drew’s problem? “He was just showboating?”
Alek simply shook his head, refusing to give me anything more. That did make me a little suspicious, but the pain in my leg was too intense to really focus on anything else.
“I think we should get you upstairs,” Hatcher jumped in. He always seemed to be really in tune with my emotions, which was nice. I liked the way I didn’t have to explain myself to him. He just got it. “Get you to your room before your leg causes you any more trouble. The doctor told you to rest…”
I nodded, knowing I really didn’t have much choice. Hatcher let me lean on him once more, but this time Alek joined in. He slipped my crutches away and allowed me to rest my other hand on him. The men were basically carrying me, and the heat of them surged through me all the way to the elevator and up to my room.
“There you are!” I jumped as Ben called out to me, a little shocked by his presence outside my door. “I’ve been trying to find you. Where have you been?”
He wasn’t alone. But it wasn’t the camera crew with him, he had Chase and Rory by his side. Perfect, just what I needed. I thought that if I had to deal with these men again, it would be one at a time. I thought I could look them all in the eye and work out how to feel. But no, just my luck, they were all here at the same time, and my mind was spinning out of control. I didn’t know if I could handle all of them right now.
“Oh God.” Ben eventually noticed why I hadn’t been in my room. “Your leg. What the hell happened to your leg?”
I handed him my key and waited for him to unlock the door. Then I hobbled over to the bed. Hatcher quickly helped me prop up some pillows under my ankle and behind me so that I could rest. He was so sweet, and I couldn’t stop smiling at him. I was pretty sure my cheeks were pinkening because I didn’t quite know how to be the center of attention. At work, when I was in front of the camera, I could handle it, but I wasn’t vulnerable there. Here I felt exposed and reliant on others. I wasn’t normally like that. I looked over at Ben and noticed his wide-eyed expression. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing like a crazy person.
“Well, what happened?” Ben demanded. “You still haven’t told me.”
“I fell.” I shrugged my shoulders in a blasé manner, trying my hardest to play it down. “It’s all good, I just need to rest. But what about you guys? What are you all doing here?”
“Just some recon,” Ben replied. I wasn’t sure if that was a genuine innocent look on his face or not. “We have training videos of most of the other Astro Games participants, but there’s still a few we need. I thought we could get some of these two,” he said, pointing behind him at Chase and Rory.
“But these two aren’t the only two…” I knew there was more to what Ben was saying, and I wanted to know what it was.
Ben blushed. “Okay, I thought we could also give a helping hand to our favorite players. Give them a chance to see what their competitors are up to. If someone is going to marry the princess, we want it to be a good person.”
The guys laughed, but I sensed something deeper, like the laugh wasn’t quite genuine. What Hatcher had told me earlier had me thinking. I may have been a bit out of it when he was telling me all about his competition plans, but that didn’t mean it didn’t all sink in. But more than that, I liked the way his answer felt. He wasn’t interested in the competition for the princess, he wasn’t going to even try to win. It was more for the adventure and to shake his life up. I didn’t see anything wrong with that. Everyone needed a little escape from time to time, nothing wrong with that at all. It stopped us from getting in a rut. Which meant I could really explore the feelings I had for him in a way I couldn’t with Alek. He was fiercely ambitious and I knew for sure that nothing would knock him off course. There wasn’t a chance in hell of him changing his plan. In his mind, he’d always been engaged to Azariyah, this was merely a formality. That was why it was so easy for him to get into things without the fear that he might lose himself along the way.