Chapter 14 Pete
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
PETE
Icheck the feed ramp of my gun for carbon buildup, and when I’ve cleaned that, I twist the barrel out of the slide.
Breaking down a gun to clean is instinct by now, but I’m doing it to try and clear my head—to give me something solid to focus on that doesn’t involve fucking Wren senseless.
Watching her getting spanked unlocked several new fantasies for me. My mind keeps toying with the idea of having my cock inside her while I spank her. I’m so tempted to find out if the angles will work.
But between Captain Cockblock, Sly, and Mr. Party Pooper, Elias, I feel like I’d be a real d-bag to try anything with her now.
How long until those scabs faded, anyway? It can’t be more than a day or two, right?
I listen to the Russian words coming from the laptop as Jagger types away his own translation and Wren nods along, offering a change here or there. I shake my head. That woman doesn’t even understand how smart she is. She thinks she doesn’t add any value to the team, but she does.
In fact, she adds more than any one of us. Not only is she incredibly intelligent, but she’s our glue. She’s like one of those sticky fly traps, and we’re the flies that choose to land in her orbit and get stuck for life. Okay, that analogy sucked. I’ll think of a better one.
Right now, I’m just trying to distract myself from crawling over to her, ripping those tight leggings and her panties off, and sinking my mouth between her legs.
She had to be drenched right now; she didn’t even go clean up when Elias finished with her.
I was pretty surprised he didn’t take the opportunity to get her off.
I think he’s trying to assert his dominance.
I find it amusing. I’m not sure how she’ll take being denied. None of us has had any reason to do it before; we’re all too smitten with watching her come to hold back from giving her what she wants. I could see Sly being into that, but so far, he's always given in to her pleas.
When the groceries arrive, Wren excitedly jumps up and runs to the kitchen. Didn’t she hate cooking? I hope she wasn’t doing this because she thought she needed to.
Deciding I need to know the answer, I get up from the couch and move to the kitchen, which is located behind the dining table through a set of French doors that we’ve left wide open.
“Hey, Wren, you need any help in here?” I ask, watching her dart around the space.
“No, you just relax. I got this.”
“Really, I can help,” I push, seeing the large amount of ingredients she’s lying out on the counter. This looks like a lot of work. The best I could do for dinner was spaghetti, and that had exactly 2 ingredients: pasta and a can of sauce. I wouldn’t even know what to do with most of this stuff.
She doesn’t answer, her focus on the food as she pulls out knives and cutting boards. I round the counter and grab her wrist, stopping her from moving as I step into her space.
“Hey, look at me.” Her eyes seem a little chaotic as they keep darting to the ingredients, so I cup her face, forcing her to look at me instead.
“Look at me, Wren.” Her bright blue eyes finally connect with mine.
“There you are, now tell me what’s going on.
You seem like you’re freaking out a little. ”
Her eyes dart to the side before she bites her lip nervously. Her eyes move back to mine when she admits, “It reminded me of being back there. In Arizona.”
“Angel, you don’t have to do this. Nobody is expecting you to cook for us.”
“But I want to.”
“I won’t let you do it if you don’t enjoy it, though. I don’t want you reliving bad memories.”
I can see her struggling with that. She clearly wants to cook for us, but it’s bringing back bad memories of being trapped in that home, cooking for her brother.
An idea starts to form in my mind, and hoping this will help, I tell her, “I have an idea. Why don’t you let me help you.
Every time you get a flashback or a feeling of unease, I will help distract you, give you a new memory of working in the kitchen. ”
“Me too,” Dex says, coming to stand nearby.
“Count us all in,” Sly says as he, Elias, and Jagger all step into the space.
“All of you? I don’t think I have enough tasks for everyone.”
“Try us,” I tell her, dropping my hands to her hips and giving her a small squeeze.
Her eyes roam over all the food, and she lets out a long breath. “Okay, I suppose you can help. Pete, you’re good with a knife. Can you peel the carrots and cut them into quarters, then cut them twice lengthwise?”
“Uhh… sure,” I say, not totally understanding.
“I’ll help,” Sly says, surprising me. After that, Wren starts assigning tasks like she owns this kitchen, and considering we’ve been here for nine days and none of us have cooked anything yet, I guess she does.
I wish I had some cooking skills so I could cook for her.
It’s just not something I’ve ever done before, nor has anyone else.
As we all move about the kitchen, doing our assigned tasks, it’s clear that Jagger and Elias have the best understanding out of all of us, which isn’t saying much. With so many of us helping, it doesn’t take long before the last part of the meal is placed into the oven.
We all go about cleaning up the mess we made, and I glance at Wren, seeing a smile on her lips as she tries to find something to clean, only for someone to step in and do it before she can.
“Having fun?” I ask, moving to her side.
She looks up at me and grins. “Thank you, Peter. This was actually… fun.” My chest literally swells up with pride to hear those words. She turns to face me fully, laying her palms on my chest as she presses up on her toes, her destination clear.
Being mindful of her back, I hold her face instead as I press my lips to hers. When she tries to pull away, I double down, unable or unwilling to let her go just yet, not until a soft moan escapes.
I pull back with a satisfied smirk, and she just looks at me with a dazed expression on her face, making me chuckle.
“Wren, there isn’t a timer on the oven. When do we know it’s ready?” Sly asks, breaking our moment together as he frowns at the appliance, as if it personally assaulted him.
Wren gives me a little smile before moving over to him and switching on the interior light.
“It won’t take long, we just have to watch for the pastry to turn a nice golden brown, but we can’t open the oven door, or it could deflate.
We need to keep the heat in.” Sly nods, bending over with her to look inside.
When she stands back up and says it will need a few more minutes, Sly squats down, his focus fixed on the food. Jagger silently grabs plates, and when I see he’s setting the table, we all move to help him.
It’s strange, working as a unit. It’s not something I’m used to, but I’m starting to enjoy it, to appreciate what each person here brings to our dynamic.
Wren announces it’s done as Sly pulls the tray from the oven, and the sight of the golden brown pastries has my mouth watering, even though I’d never even heard of a beef wellington before today, let alone tasted one.
Sly pulls the carrots and fancy potatoes out of the oven, and everything is placed on wooden coasters that line the center of the table.
Elias surprises me by pulling out a couple bottles of red wine that I had no idea we had, and pours everyone a glass.
And as we all take our seats, with Wren at one end and Sly at the other, I get this weird feeling in my stomach.
I glance at each person as plates are filled and conversation flows, and realize what’s changed.
We are no longer a unit. Now, we are a family.
“Pete, what are you doing? It’s my turn,” Elias whines like an annoyed teen.
“I say Jagger is healed enough that he should give up his spot to someone else.”
Elias eyes the other side of the bed and slowly nods. “You’re right. He’s gotten to spend every night beside her since they’ve been back.”
“Besides, she’s practically healed now, so cuddles are back on the table.”
Sly had tried to outright ban cuddling and allowed only one more of us in the bed with her and Jagger each night. However, that didn’t stop her from moving in her sleep to wrap herself around whichever one of us was lucky enough to claim that spot.
“No cuddling,” Sly says as he steps into the room, glaring at us both.
“I didn’t see you complaining when you woke up this morning with her wrapped around you,” I fire back.
“Besides, there’s no harm in cuddling. It’s not going to damage her back,” Elias adds, and I toss him a grin of gratitude.
“I don’t—”
“Do I get a say?” Wren asks, cutting Sly off as she steps out of the bathroom.
She raises an eyebrow at him as she crosses her arms, unknowingly pushing her boobs up, as if offering them on a silver platter.
It doesn’t matter that they are covered in one of our T-shirts, Sly’s, if I’m not mistaken.
They still look like temptation wrapped in sin.
“Of course you do,” Sly answers, treading carefully. “I just don’t want you to reopen any of your wounds.”
“It’s just cuddling, Sly. You wouldn’t deny me that,” she asks, her eyes turning big and round as she steps toward him. “Would you?”
I watch in amusement as he seems frozen by her pouty, pleading expression.
Finally, he nods, and she reaches up to kiss the edge of his chin.
She turns away, facing me with a grin of satisfaction, but he doesn’t let her get far, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her back to him as he crashes his mouth down on hers.
She gasps in surprise, and he takes that opportunity to deepen the kiss. Watching them make out is hot, and I have to adjust myself through my boxers.
“Why is watching her with other people so hot?” Elias whispers from my side, sounding confused.
“It wouldn’t be like that with just anybody. It’s because it’s us,” I tell him with a grin. “We’re family.”
He turns to me as a wash of emotions rolls over him, as if he knows what I’m saying but is trying to decipher the real meaning.
“I wish this room had both beds in it,” Wren says when she finally breaks the kiss with Sly.
“Why? You want all of us in one bed?” I ask jokingly. But when I see her eyes fill with heat, I realize she’s serious.
“Done,” Dex says from where I hadn’t seen him standing in the doorway. Then he turns and leaves. We all just watch him, confused.
“What is he…” Wren starts to ask, but stops when we hear loud noises coming from where he disappeared. Having a feeling that I know what he’s up to, I jump up and start moving the chairs and coffee table in the sitting area of the room, off to the side, creating a large open space.
“Help me with this?” I ask Elias as I grab the edge of the mattress and look at him expectantly.
He catches on quickly and moves to the other corner, and helps me drag it to the floor—sheets, blankets, and all.
Sly grabs the pillows that fell off and throws them on, just as Dex returns, carrying a mattress with Jagger on the other end.
“Shit, you shouldn’t be carrying that,” Elias says as he moves to take Jagger’s spot. But he refuses to let go, so Elias rolls his eyes and leaves the room, mumbling something about getting the blankets.
They place the mattress on the floor beside the other one, giving us a giant, double-king-sized impromptu bed on the floor. Elias brings the blankets and pillows from the other room, and we even add some couch cushions at the sides in case whoever’s on the ends needs more room.
Wren tries to help, but we keep passing her back and forth, distracting her with kisses until everything is perfect.
The only thing it’s missing is Bluey, her stuffed whale, but we’d already explained that we had it safely stored with the rest of our meager possessions back in the States.
We didn’t want to risk losing it here if we had to leave in a hurry.
I don’t think she minded, since she seemed to prefer cuddling us at night anyway.
“What do you think, angel?” I ask, forcing her to pull away from the heated kiss she was having with Dex to glance at our new bed.
Her smile is wide and contagious as she takes it in. “It's amazing. You’ll all stay here tonight?”
Everyone nods or says yes as Dex leads her to the center of the bed.
“How about a movie night?” I ask, looking for the remote as she settles down under the blanket.
“Sure! What are we going to watch?” she asks as I find the remote and settle on her free side. The other three leave the room to get ready for bed as I search for the movie I have in mind.
She’s started watching action movies, and I want to show her a classic one, one of my all-time favorites. Die Hard.