Chapter 32 Twenty-eight
Twenty-eight
Brea
He flitted around the apartment, all giddy energy and smiles. Joy, unmitigated and overwhelming, shone from his eyes. His smile engulfed his whole face, and his scent filled the apartment like a three-wick candle.
Honestly, he was downright adorable.
Not usually the adjustive used to describe Caine Arceneaux.
The whole pack was home, spread over couches in the living room after dinner—which he’d missed. Business meeting, Lin had told us. Only we were learning differently now.
“Five years’ worth of Sudoku books,” Caine continued, unable to even stand in one place. “Every time he made notes in the official lab logs or what fucking ever, he’d go home and recreate them in code in those books. Dates, formulas, results. Names.”
Lin sat in the leather armchair, a frown across his face. “You lied to me?”
“Noo.” A small shadow crossed the brightness of his face. “I took those meetings. And by the way, I should get a bonus for not knocking the everliving shit out of the Jefferson. Fucking prick.”
Ah, there you are, old friend.
“I just…I wanted the chance to gauge the man, maybe suss out if he could help us. And, holy fuck, can he.”
Taryn sat cross-legged on the floor in front of Brooks on the couch, who absentmindedly twisted her hair into…not really braids, but it seemed to soothe them both.
She looked to our head alpha, some of her hair slipping out of Brooks’ hands. “Would it?”
Lin sighed. “Gail will be the one to determine that.” He lifted his eyes to Caine’s, squeezing and releasing his fist as the thoughts churned in his head. “I’ll see she gets the copies you brought tomorrow.”
“You’re not really mad, babe?” Brooks asked as he combed through Taryn's hair, undoing his creation and starting over. “This is a good thing!”
Lin’s hackles rose. I scooted forward on the loveseat I occupied alone.
“It’s not about mad or not mad right now.
” I rarely pushed out my alpha pheromones intentionally, but I did so now, hoping the notes of calm and peace would infect my increasingly agitated packmates.
“All our emotions are close to the surface right now. It’s good we’re all actually home tonight.
” I reached out, grabbing Lin’s tic’ing hand and holding it between mine. “I think we all need the closeness.”
For weeks now, Caine and Taryn had been the only ones consistently in the apartment every evening.
Lin spent many of his catching up on business matters, Brooks volunteered for every overtime shift and swap he could to make up for his time away, and I left with the closing crew of the Farendale Library more nights than not.
When was the last time the five of us had actually fallen asleep together, in one room? Was it Taryn’s heat?
No wonder we were all on edge.
Lin’s hand lay limp in mine for a full minute, and the room stayed silent. Finally, though, he threaded his fingers with mine and leaned in toward me. “What did you have in mind?”
“Ha.” Brooks.
“Ha, ha.” Lin.
Pause. Caine.
“Keep it moving, Esquire,” Taryn called from her place in the laugh circle.
It was an icebreaker I’d learned at a student retreat my first semester at Rem U.
Everyone laid on their backs, each person resting their head on someone’s stomach so that we made a weird, thorny circle.
Then, one by one, we’d Ha. The first person said it once, the second person twice, and so one, until eventually someone—so far, largely Taryn—broke into genuine giggles.
In the camp version, we’d simply called that the end of the round and started again.
The Arcenox version, though, meant the laugher had to discard an item of clothing.
So far, Lin was down a shirt, Brooks shirt and pants, I’d lost both socks, and Taryn had only her panties left.
Caine, though, was fully clothed.
I practically heard his eye roll, even though all I saw was the industrial-style ceiling we all stared up at.
With a mild chest rumble I felt in his stomach, Caine finally obeyed. “Ha, ha, ha.” His stomach bounced my head with each word, and I bit my lips to hold in my giggles. Taryn’s directive had been clear.
Caine.
Must.
Laugh.
Yet he remained infuriatingly close-lipped.
My turn. “Ha, ha, ha, ha.” Taryn’s head bounced in the lower field of my vision.
Don’t break, kid.
Taryn. “Ha, ha, ha—” And then the giggles erupted, my omega rolling onto her side, face pink.
“Noooo,” she whined, even through the laughter. “Dammit, you can’t put me at the end of the loop then tell me I can’t actually laugh!”
“I propose,” Brooks piped up from his spot, far left of my periphery, “that the least-clothed person, if they lose the round, gets to pass their loss to any other member of the circle.”
“Can I get a second to that motion?” I said, voice all business.
“Second!” Lin nearly shouted, refreshing Taryn’s giggles.
“Motion seconded! The decree passes! Who’s stripping, Teacup?”
We all knew the answer. The target sighed in resignation my head.
“Caine!”
Everyone sat up, all eyes toward Caine. Who still lay supine, arm thrown over his face in apparent disgust.
“Fair’s fair, Caine.” Lin’s legs crossed, knees raised, and his arms wrapped around them. His biceps and abs on full display. If all worked out, maybe I’d be licking them a little bit later.
Taryn lounged back on her palms, bare breasts on proud display. “You’re really falling on a grenade for me, Esquire. If I had to strip, the game would be over, and I’d be sad. And we can’t have that, can we?”
A sexy, pouty lip popped out, and she tucked her chin just a little so her long dark hair shadowed her face. Brown eyes wide, pleading. “Please, Caine?”
Exhaling an amused chuckled, I pulled his arm off his face. “Would it be better or worse if I did it for you?”
He grumbled a sigh. “Better.”
Interesting.
“All right, then.” I raised myself to my knees and scooted closer to the condemned man. “Up you get.”
If I’d detected any hint that Caine was actually uncomfortable, or unhappy, the game would’ve been over immediately. As he rolled himself up slowly, face set in a dramatic scowl, his citrus and cinnamon scent wafted over me like a delectable autumn dessert.
I nearly choked.
The bastard was hamming it up for his omega.
He met my eye and—oh, my god, Caine Arceneaux fucking winked at me. Quick, subtle, on the side faced away from Taryn.
Was our group grump…being playful?
…Grumpily playful?
My skin tingled with the prolonged eye contact, my nipples hardening under my shirt and bra. Red seeped up his neck and into his face.
Let’s see where that red begins, shall we?
“Arms up.”
With an astoundingly convincing death glare, Caine raised both arms above his head. Eyes still locked to mine. As I grabbed the hem of his gray tee and dragged it up his torso, my fingers dragged over his warm skin like whispers, until I pulled the fabric from his hands.
Taryn let out an appreciative noise. “You two smell good together, you know.”
Blood warmed my cheeks. Caine’s lips twitched. “Back to it,” he murmured as he returned to the floor. “Taryn starts this time.”
“Yes!” she cheered as we all resumed the position. “Get all the giddy out now. Five seconds!” Everyone—sans Caine—made a show of getting the wiggles out and exhaling dramatically, to prepare for the challenge to come.
Taryn. “Ha.”
Brooks. “Ha, ha.”
Lin. “Ha, ha, ha.”
Pause.
Taryn groaned. “Caine, my dude—”
“HA. HA. HA. HA.”
Four of the biggest, loudest Ha’s in the history of the laugh circle made my head fucking boing like I was a ball in a bouncy house. I couldn’t have stifled the hysterical screech of a laugh that came out of me if I’d tried.
Eyes watering, couldn’t breathe, holy-hell-I-needed-that laughter.
Which, of course, set off Taryn and Brooks, and even Lin was hiding his behind his fist. I sat up to glare at Caine. He only met my gaze with the smug grin of a mad genius.
“Strip.”
The room melted away as I locked in to Caine again. His eyes heated my skin like physical touch as reached for the top button of my rose-pink blouse. I pushed the small plastic button through the hole, and Caine’s eyes dipped to the tiny bit of chest that exposed.
Again. And again. Until my shirt hung open, revealing the simple flesh-colored bra beneath. On the plain side, but sacrifices had to be made in the name of invisibra in the workplace.
Nothing sexier than professionalism.
Now I was the flushed one, pink warming my cheeks and chest. Four pairs of eyes bore into me.
“Should we leave you two alone?” Brooks asked, amusement in his voice.
I licked my lips. “No.” I finally tore my gaze from his, scanning the others’ faces. Brooks, gleeful. Taryn, giddy. Lin, calm and peaceful.
Caine. Ravenous.
“Tonight’s about pack. Wherever the night takes us, it takes us all.”
“Here, here!” Taryn exclaimed as she raised an imaginary glass in the air. Brooks faux-clinked another and they took huge, fake gulps.
Caine’s eyes never left me.
We’d had plenty of sex since coming back to Farendale, but always in subgroups. Lin and Brooks. Brooks and Taryn. Lin, Taryn, and me. Yet the last time we’d all shared a bed in any sense had been our last night at the Greysmoke Cabin.
Even then, Caine’s attention had been laser-focused on Taryn. All of us had been, really. She’d needed to feel connected and close to us all, needed to feel vital and desired and in control after so many weeks spent entirely out of control.
Caine’s attention wasn’t on Taryn now, though. But me.
The question was, what did he want?
Caine
Fuck me, she’s beautiful.
Brea being beautiful wasn’t a secret. She was a punch-you-in-the-face kind of gorgeous, features intelligent and angular with the exact right amount of softness to her edges.
Tonight, though. Tonight was different.
The five of us had been spinning in different orbits, sometimes passing through another’s for a spell before drifting off alone again. Brea had realigned us, centered us on our sunshine where we all should be.