Chapter 41
Chapter Forty-One
Cat
I don’t know how many hours pass before I finally swim out of the fog, but I wake up in Bennett’s arms. My head rests on his chest, and my arm drapes over his warm waist.
A soft purring sound radiates from somewhere above my head. I blink back the sleep still clinging to my eyes and squint through the dim morning light. Shorty is fast asleep, right on top of Bennett’s head.
Wait.
Shorty. Morning light. My room.
Bennett.
I move to sit up, and a deep ache radiates through my ass. The memories of last night’s events flit through my mind, and I wince when I remember how it ended. With me on the floor, sedated to the point of delirium as Rosie gave me the most uncomfortable asshole tickle of my life. I’m just grateful I didn’t end up at the hospital.
But now I have bigger concerns than an embarrassing butt plug. Kindra made me promise I’d attend the hunt, and that’s today. If she comes to my room before I can get Bennett back to his?—
“Bennett,” I whisper as I shove his shoulder. “Bennett, wake up.”
His eyes pop open, and he looks around as if I’ve just shouted that the bed is on fire. “What’s wrong? Are you okay? What do you need? I’ll get it for you.”
God, I want to wake up to that gravelly morning voice for the rest of my life.
Shorty runs to the end of the bed and looks back at Bennett, as if annoyed by the sudden movements. Not too annoyed, though, because he licks his lips, swallows, and settles at Bennett’s feet.
“I’m fine,” I say, “but you have to get out of my room before anyone comes looking for me. The hunt is this morning.”
He sighs and closes his eyes. “Are we really still doing this?”
“What? Hiding, or going on the hunt?”
“Hiding.”
“Yes, we are still hiding. And we will continue to hide until I grow the balls to come clean to Kindra.”
“Maverick, Rose, Grim—three people already know, and they seemed to handle it pretty well.”
I toss the covers away from my naked body, then slide off the bed. “Yeah, well, they aren’t Kindra.”
He turns onto his side, then props himself up with his elbow. “What is it you fear she’ll do, exactly? If you don’t want her to crack jokes, just tell her that. I mean, it never worked for me, but she likes you.”
“It’s not that simple, Bennett.” I move around the room, gingerly bending at the waist to gather his clothes from the floor. “Today is the last day. We leave tomorrow. Can’t we just hold it together for twenty-four hours?”
Bennett sighs and shakes his head. “Whatever you need, kitten.”
There’s that pained look in his eyes again. I toss his clothes at his head so that I don’t have to see it anymore. If I look for too long, I’ll break and tell him to stay, and I can’t do that.
“So how do you expect today to work, exactly?” Bennett asks. “Kindra and Ezra will do whatever they can to keep us apart. They’ll probably push you and Maverick together.”
I rifle through the dresser, searching for my warmest and most comfortable undergarments. “That could work in our favor.” I hop on one foot and step into an unflattering pair of granny panties in a pretty shade of light pink. “You and Maverick hunted as a team at the summer retreat. Just run that pairing again, and I’ll tag along.”
“God, I love it when you scheme,” he says as he watches me dress.
“That’s great, but hurry to your room before the rest of the cabin comes looking for us.”
He grabs his clothes, slides off the bed, and gives me a kiss before exiting my room. I shove down the butterflies and remind myself to play it cool. If we can just make it through the next twenty-four hours, we’re going to be just fine.
Kindra peers over her shoulder to be sure I’ve followed her into the makeshift armory at the base camp for the winter hunt. I’m grateful she had a spare set of snow pants for me to wear. I’d forgotten all about the hole I slashed into mine. Now my outfit is a regular hodgepodge of mismatched snow gear.
“Are you sure you don’t want to team up against the guys?” Kindra asks. “I thought me, you, and Eve in a head-to-head against Ezra, Bennett, and Maverick would be fun. Plus, it would ensure you and your arch nemesis don’t cross streams.”
“Oh, I think I’ll be okay.” I step toward a table filled with weaponry of every shape, size, and caliber. My hand drifts toward the familiar crossbow, and I pluck it from the pile. “Where do they keep the ammo?”
Kindra smiles at me, and water brims in her dark eyes. “Oh, Cat. I’ve hoped for this day for you for so long. You’ve finally claimed your weapon.” She pulls me into a hug, and I can’t even hug her back because I’m so shocked. She leans back and places her hands on my shoulders. “I’ll get the bolts for you. You stay right here.”
She shuffles off to a side room and returns with a bag full of bolts. With a grunt, she hefts it onto the table.
“It’s kind of heavy,” she says. “You might need Maverick to carry it for you.”
“No need,” someone says behind me, and I turn to see Bennett.
My heart picks up speed in my chest, and not just because he looks so ruggedly handsome with all that stubble on his jaw. He’s offering to do something nice for me, and that’s certain to send up warning flares for Kindra.
Kindra pulls the bag closer to her. “No fucking way. You’ll ‘lose’ them just so that Cat can’t hunt today. Fuck no and fuck you .”
Ezra enters the shed and hurries to get between his fiancée and his brother. “What’s all the fuss, you two? Today is supposed to be fun. Let’s leave all the paltry bickering to children, shall we?”
“Paltry bickering?” Kindra says as she wheels around to face him. “He’ll block her kills, and you know it! The only reason she even got her first kill was because Maverick was nice enough to give her the time and patience she needed. Bennett is incapable of that kind of care. He’ll rush her, Ezra. Or worse, he’ll keep kill-blocking her.”
Bennett winces, and I want to comfort him as the hurt reaches a visible level. Because the praise belongs to him, yet he’s denied it, and it’s all my fault.
I have to do something.
“We came to a truce,” I blurt.
The three of them face me, and each face displays a different expression. Kindra is offended, Ezra is shocked, and Bennett is panicking because there is no predetermined story and I’m about to wing it.
“Yes. We talked,” I say. “Last night.”
“You were with Maverick last night,” Kindra says. “I’m pretty sure the entire mansion heard your screams of ecstasy.”
Bennett cocks his head behind Kindra and Ezra. His eyes widen. What the fuck are you doing ? that look says.
Shit.
I hold up a finger. “Right, but it was before that. I went to the kitchen to clean some mustard from my shirt, and Bennett was in there. That’s when we talked.”
Kindra’s eyebrows pull together. “Mustard? Cat, we had soup for dinner.”
Double shit.
“Maybe it was some turmeric. I don’t fucking know.” I sling the crossbow over my shoulder. “There was a stain on my shirt, and I went to clean it off, and that’s when I saw Bennett. That’s when we talked and made a truce for the hunt. What is with the third degree?”
The pressure weighs on me until my skin heats to a painful temperature. Before she asks anything else and forces me to lie to her again, I rush out of the shed. Cold air caresses my face, soothing me the moment I’m outside. I suck in a deep breath and power walk to the other side of the building, where I can collapse in private. Lying is not my favorite thing to do in general, but lying to someone I care about? It fucking sucks.
Footsteps crunch in the snow behind me. I turn, expecting to see Bennett, but Eve strides up on long legs draped in designer snow gear.
“Hey, is everything okay?” she asks. “I saw you run back here, and I wanted to make sure you’re good.”
“I’m fine. I think I’m just nervous.” I swipe my glove beneath my nose before the snot freezes in place, and then I turn to face her. “This cold is making my eyes water. I’m not crying.”
Eve purses her lips and raises an eyebrow. “Honey, we don’t do that here. I don’t know when it became cool to stuff down your emotions, but we don’t do that. Now let it out and tell me what’s got you so worked up.”
I look into her eyes and consider breaking the news to her as a trial run. She and I are on our way to becoming close friends, but we aren’t Kindra-Cat level close. If she doesn’t completely disown me, maybe Kindra wouldn’t either.
“What if I told you I’ve done something . . . really weird? Something that might change how you think of me.”
“What are we talking about here? Like, you’re addicted to coffee enemas weird? Or you want to be the next Mary Kay Letourneau kind of weird? Because one of those things I can look past, and the other, not so much.”
“What? No. It’s nothing like either of those things.” I blow out a breath. “What if I had some . . . sexual preferences that you considered harmful?”
“I used to enjoy putting lightbulbs in my pussy and squeezing until they broke. Is it worse than that?”
I open and close my mouth. “I have so many questions.”
She shrugs. “You put the bulb into a baggie so that it?—”
“Actually, I’m good.” I shake my head. Beating around the bush is getting me nowhere, so I just need to come out with it. But as I open my mouth to tell her everything, Kindra rounds the corner and comes toward us.
“Cat, I’m really sorry,” she says. “You aren’t leaving again, are you? I’ll keep my mouth shut if you’ll stay.”
“Oh, fuck.” I flop down on my ass and immediately regret it when pain makes me wince. “Kindra, I’m not going anywhere. Eve, I stuck something in my butt.”
“Maverick’s into ass play ?” Eve whispers. “He seems so . . . vanilla.”
“Or turmeric,” Kindra says with a smirk. “Sorry, couldn’t help myself.”
I finally crack a smile. “It’s okay. I actually shared a sandwich with Bennett when we talked, and I was too afraid to say so. That’s how the mustard got on my shirt.”
A question springs onto Kindra’s tongue, but she closes her mouth and swallows it. I already know what she wanted to ask. When we were in the armory, I said the mustard on my shirt was there before talking to Bennett. That was the entire reason I went into the kitchen in the first place, per my lie. She wants to make sense of that, but now she’s too scared to ask. Which works in my favor, even if it makes me feel like shit.
But I deserve to feel like shit, so again, it’s fine.
Eve drops down beside me. She looks up at Kindra and motions for her to sit as well. “We might as well get comfortable. Jim isn’t here yet, and if I’ve learned anything about these retreats, it’s that we can’t start without him.”
“No, we certainly can’t,” Kindra says as she sits at my other side. “So . . . you really plan to hunt with Maverick and Bennett?”
“Bennett?” Eve’s spine straightens. “Why is he part of the equation? Doesn’t he have other friends he can follow around?” She places her hand to her chest and laughs. “Oh, wait. It’s Bennett. Of course he doesn’t.”
Kindra and Eve burst into a rush of giggles, and I’m ashamed that I would have willingly joined them only a few days ago. But now their laughter stings. Eve is right. Bennett doesn’t have a lot of friends, and he’s partially to blame for that.
But only partially.
I pretend to laugh along with them to keep up the farce, but my smile drops when I look up and see Bennett standing near the edge of the shed. He’s looking right at us.
And he heard everything.