19
Chapter 19 Karly
The men shiftedas they climbed out the water to join me, taking my bold demand to come to me with ease. How could they not when everything was so hot and heavy between us, the air thick with sexual need? It brought a smile to my face when they clawed their way to me, like predators coming for their prey. And holy shit, I was more than happy to be their prey right now. I needed it. We were here for a reason, and that was to get to know one another properly and to really explore our feelings. Well, if there was one way to do that, it was this.
“You are something else,” Alek growled as he got to me first, wrapping his arms around me and kissing me passionately, his hands knotting in my hair.
“You have no idea how badly I need you,” Hatcher agreed as he pulled me backward until I was lying on the floor. The ground was soft and slightly muddy, but I certainly wasn’t worrying about getting dirty right now. I wanted to get dirty. I wanted to writhe in all of it.
“You are gorgeous,” Chase declared as his hungry lips clamped around one of my nipples, teasing me into an oblivion. Fuck, he knew what he was doing with me.
Rory didn’t say anything. But he didn’t need to. I could feel our bond reconnecting and resealing as his lips kissed up my inner thighs, getting closer to where I was aching for him. I rolled my hips needily toward him, but it was hard for me to demand too much when my attention was all over the place. It was hard to focus on just one thing when all the men were touching me and tasting me in a way that felt phenomenal. Space dust trickled through me.
They already had me on the edge. The anticipation of it all had me all fired up, as did seeing the guys all in bear form, splashing around in the water with me. But the moment the tip of Rory’s tongue grazed over my clit, I knew I was in danger. There was no way I could think straight when he was doing this to me. Pleasure swirled and darted, it swelled within me, causing my whole body to spasm with desire. The tsunami of bliss, the endless waves of pleasure, had me screaming out in the open air even louder than the waterfall. Thank goodness we were in the middle of nowhere, because there was no way my screams of ecstasy would be able to go unheard. And this was just the beginning. We still had the whole night of camping ahead of us…
* * *
“No,”Alex said to me, a frown playing on his lips. “I can’t do this. You know I can’t.”
“I have to agree with Alek,” Chase joined in. “My allegiance to the Virgo clan has to come first. You understand that, right?”
“Even though I said I came here for an adventure, now I’m invested in the competition,” Hatcher said, really breaking my heart.
“I told you, didn’t I?” Rory said with a nod. “That waiting too long would only result in heartbreak? We have all decided to focus on taking down Drew and the Unaligned clan. We can’t let anarchy happen. We want to marry Azariyah, and that’s more important than anything that’s happened between us.”
I gulped audibly. This was hard to hear, fucking impossible, especially after such a wonderful night, but I guess that’s what we came out here for. To find out the truth. I knew I might not like it, but I had to know. We all did. “So, it’s over?”
But no one nodded or said anything, no one confirmed or denied anything, and it hurt. It was like they were tearing me apart limb from limb. I wanted to scream out to them to just tell me already. I could only assume this was the way Rory felt. I wanted to reach out to him specifically to say sorry.
“Rory… Rory…”
Hands touching my shoulders, shaking me from my sleep, shocked me. It took me a couple of moments to realize that was all a dream, it hadn’t happened yet, no one had given me an answer. In fact, we hadn’t even broached the subject. I guess I was relieved about that because it meant the rejections were all in my imagination, but it also meant we still had to go there.
“You okay?” Rory’s soft voice filled my ears.
“Oh…yeah. I…” I replied sleepily. “I was just thinking that maybe we should talk.”
He massaged my shoulders, which was really nice. “I agree. I have a lot to say to you. Mostly sorry for my outburst. That was really shitty of me. I get that now. I understand. I was just trying to figure out where we stood.”
I spun around to face him in the shadow of the tent covering us. “You were frustrated, I get that. I should have given you more to go on. I just freaked out…”
He pressed his lips to mine in a gentle kiss, forgiving me without saying it out loud. All the awfulness that had been enveloping us melted away. We could just be us again. I cupped his cheek in my hand and kissed him with more passion. It wasn’t quite at the level we were last night, but it was definitely a sexy feeling, which only grew as Chase hooked his arms around me from behind and buried his face in my neck.
“Mmm, where are Alek and Hatcher?” I moaned as I lost myself in the gorgeous feeling of bliss and happiness. “I need them too…”
“They went out.” Rory’s words were a mood killer, and I stiffened. “Only to collect fire wood for breakfast, they won’t be long.”
It didn’t mean anything that they weren’t here, but it felt off. I knew it’d be great to be with any of these guys, or even a combination of them, but without all of them, it wasn’t the same. A part of me had been thinking that the harem could work even if one of the men did go on to win the Astro Games, but now I was certain that without Alek, Chase, Hatcher, and Rory, something would always be missing. That put a lot more pressure on things, didn’t it? Because they all had to agree to want me and to want this life together. It could be a wild adventure, or a car crash waiting to happen. Who the hell would want to put everything on the line for a risk like that? Not that I would consider myself a prize like Azariyah. She was beautiful and the daughter of the Bear King. Being with her could mean ruling the Zodiac Empire, where as I was just me.
“We are here with wood!” Hatcher’s voice was so welcome, I practically melted. Immediately I felt so much better knowing all of us were here, that we were together at long last. Being separated was way too hard. I honestly wasn’t sure what I would end up doing if they did say no. “It’s time to get the fire burning and breakfast started. Plus, we found a great little spot to go hiking again later.”
“Are you going to be okay with that? How is your leg doing?” Rory whispered to me.
I nodded and smiled. “My leg is okay. It’s doing better actually. I think walking and swimming is helping a lot.”
“Are you sure you’ll be okay with that much walking?”
It was so sweet that he cared so much. “I will…but only if I get some food in me first. I am starving!”