I pulled away slightly, as his mouth created a delicious buzz down my spine, and I’d reached and surpassed my public sex quota for the day. “How about we piss all these people off, and I show you how hot I am?”
He just stared back, smiling that damn crooked smile of his. “You know how much I want that.”
“But...? There’s a but coming, isn’t there? And not in the way it was this morning.”
“Goddamnit, Jules, don’t remind me of that. Walking around with a raging boner I can’t satisfy will crack the Nanas up.”
“They can tell?” I said, aghast.
“Those old bitches know everything. If you decided you were into pony play and stuck a horsehair buttplug up my arse and rode me about the room, one of them would be neighing at me before the day ended.”
I shook my head, trying to process that very vivid, if unconventional, image.
“But this is your introduction to Sanctuary, your real one. You’re becoming part of a community. You’ll be living and working beside these people, making decisions about our future.”
“OK, you convinced me,” I said, leaning into his embrace. I felt so damn tired.
“And anyway, think what it’ll be like tonight, when I peel this bloody confection my mother selected, off your lush body.”
“Stop,” I said, pulling away, but his arm yanked me back beside him. “I wondered how the hell I was going to keep up with you guys sexually, but it feels like my sex drive has multiplied for each new partner. Walking around with five times the lady boner isn’t as comfortable as you’d think.”
“Five? Or is it six now?”
He nodded over to a corner of the yard where Jack, Hawk, and Shaun stood with a bunch of other single men. “Do you mean Jack or Hawk?”
“I dunno, what do you think?”
“Brandon told me to be honest with you.”
“Yeah, so what do you honestly think?”
“I don’t know about those two. Jack and Hawk, there’s obviously a thing going on there, and I’m not sure why they want to put me in the middle of it.”
“A smart observation, but he’s just given you a person. There’s no real precedent to this, but if I had to guess, Hawk will be living in the house with us. He belongs to you. What I’m asking is what you’re going to do with him?”
“What do you want me to do with him? That one word he spoke today is the most I’ve heard from him, ever. I have no idea who he is. He’s a complete stranger.” Slade just watched me, taking a swig from his beer. “I don’t know what to do with him. No one's ever given me a person before.” He nodded. “What do you want me to say, Slade? Do you want me to fuck him? Want him to be the one who comes in me first, so you can after, like you said about Aaron?” He shrugged noncommittally. My teeth ground together, my fingers gripping the neck of my bottle hard. “Look, there was this moment—”
“And there it is,” Slade said with a smirk.
I scowled at him. “Do you want me to tell you, or not?”
“Of course, princess. I got something down the bond, but I couldn’t tell what. Jack, that’s pretty straightforward. Outsider girls love an arsehole, but Hawk...” We both turned to look at the man in question.
“I saw him when I was out running, on my first day. I ran past the creek down the bottom of the hill and saw him working in the afternoon sun. Everything looked golden, you know the way it does late in the afternoon. He was standing there, no shirt on, all those muscles on display, but with no idea I was looking. And then he saw me. I felt the most intense need to run, so I took off up the hill. He wasn’t going to chase me, I knew that, it was just some weird feeling, but...”
“But...?”
“When I turned around, he was halfway across the field, looking like he was about to climb over the fence after me.”
Slade smirked at that. “He probably was, catching scent of a receptive female. All right, now I know what we’re working with, I can accommodate that.”
“Working with what? Accommodate what? Slade, this is your night. If what people tell me is true, then it's the most important night of your life, apart from maybe the birth of your kids. Isn’t it bad enough that I blew Brandon in the storeroom and Finn just got me off in the lounge room?”
“That right?” His eyebrow jerked up. “Well, you have had a busy day. So what’s the problem?”
“The problem is in my world, a woman looking at another guy on her wedding day is reasonable grounds for stoning, let alone discussing adding yet another dude to her bedroom roster. I get that you guys have this whole polygamist thing going here, but even in that situation, shouldn’t today be about you? I didn’t even stick around to meet your parents.” I felt my Tirian rise up inside me, my eyes tightening. “I’m a fucking shitty partner, Slade. You made this huge leap with me, and I’ve been off with everyone else but you.”
“Jules...” He reached out to touch my face, but I shook him off. I couldn’t let the lovely sucking warmth of our bond reassure me into thinking this was right.