Chapter 17
MINHO
Noah was a girl.
No, that wasn’t accurate at all, and honestly downright demeaning to phrase like that. Noah was a woman, and now that I knew, I could hardly fathom how the hell I hadn’t worked it out sooner. That it’d literally taken her getting naked in the rain for the penny to drop.
But holy shit, it’d dropped.
Helping her get dressed again was pure torture, but at the same time I hated the idea that someone else might see her.
The confessions she’d made about Torin and Ace had made me want to kill them both, but I kept that part to myself.
Noah didn’t want to see jealousy; it would make her back off everyone—-I was perceptive enough to see that.
And now that I’d had a taste? I desperately needed more.
The wind kicked up right as we walked the path back to the cabins—-within sight of the cameras—-and my wet skin pebbled with goose bumps.
Noah shivered and rubbed her delicate arms, shooting me a slightly unhinged grin.
I wanted to hug her so damn bad. I wanted to wrap her up in my body and share my warmth and keep her safe.
“I need a hot shower and dry clothes,” she admitted, shaking her hair to send droplets flying. “Do you think we can sneak in to grab towels without waking anyone?”
My chest swelled with a deep inhale as I let that play out in my mind. She wanted a hot shower together? Fuck yes. I’d happily chloroform the whole fucking team to make that happen.
“What have you two been doing out here at this time of night?” Xavier snapped, stepping out of the shadows near our cabin and jump scaring the crap out of me. He glowered at us both, his sharp gaze running over our soaked and muddy state, then scowling at our bare feet.
“Nothing,” I answered quickly, taking a step closer to Xavi and trying to angle myself to obscure his view of Noah. Her chest binder was still tucked under my arm, and with only a saturated T--shirt on her body, her tits were hard not to notice. Really hard. So hard. Fuck.
Xavier eyed me with suspicion. “You good, bro? You look…weird.”
Good? No. I just got hard thinking about Noah’s exquisite breasts and that intriguing little birthmark I’d seen on her ribs, and now I’m worried you’ll notice and ask why I’m pitching a tent while out here in the rain with two other dudes.
The small saving grace of the storm was how dark it was, and even with the lamp posts dotted around the cabin area, we were largely in shadow.
Still… “Yeah, fine. Whoa, did you see that?” I pointed behind Xavier, and the moment he turned to look, I tucked my boner into my waistband and covered it with my oversized T--shirt.
“See what?” Xavi asked, puzzled when he turned back.
I shrugged. “Oh, it was a big spider.”
“A…spider?” my teammate repeated skeptically.
“Big one,” Noah offered, playing along. “Huge. Biggest I’ve ever seen.”
Cute. Now I was really hard, even if she was just teasing. I could still hear the startled noise she made when I first thrust into her deliciously tight pussy…
“What the fuck have you two actually been doing out here?” Xavier demanded with a glower. “You don’t get that wet and filthy for nothing.”
Noah gave a strangled laugh, and I shifted my position again to block her more effectively from Xavier’s sharp, assessing glare. She chuckled in that lightly husky voice of hers that I could easily get lost in, and I reached behind myself to give her a playful swat.
“We went to the bathrooms,” I smoothly lied, holding eye contact with Xavier to try to keep him from looking too carefully at Noah.
I’d definitely left my mark on the side of her throat, and we’d need to work out how the hell to hide that before morning.
“Ace didn’t seem convinced that the danger was over, so we figured it was safer to go together. Safety in numbers, right?”
“So you went out in the rain with no coat, no umbrella, and no shoes…and what? Got lost? You’re drenched, Min. You really expect me to believe—-”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Godzilla,” Noah snapped, giving me a reassuring pat on the small of my back as she brushed past, heading for the bunk cabin.
“What do you want us to say? That we crept out in the middle of the night, in the middle of a fucking cyclone, to fuck against a tree? Oh no, you caught us!” She gave a husky, mocking laugh, shaking her head as she passed him quickly with arms folded over her chest.
Xavier scowled after her, then swung his frown back my way when she slipped through the cabin door and out of sight.
“I wasn’t accusing you guys of hooking up, fucking hell.
I saw someone else come out of the woods a few minutes before you guys, and I thought maybe you were making alliances with other teams or something. ”
My brows shot up in surprise. “Wow, seriously? Nice to know you have so much confidence in our loyalty, Xav. Pretty sure it was you I spotted flirting with Lily at the bonfire on arrival day. Sure you aren’t cutting your own collaboration deals without the rest of the team?”
Lily was his ex--something. I couldn’t say she was ever his girlfriend; it hadn’t lasted long enough for that. To be fair, his longest lasting relationship with any woman was the ClikByte: Adults Only star he was obsessed with, and she was literally paid to chat with him.
“I wasn’t flirting, dickhead,” he glowered. “Whatever, I’m going for a piss. Just…stay in the cabin. Something weird is still going on out here, I’m sure of it.”
I rolled my eyes but didn’t argue. I was too eager to get Noah back in my sights, even if I couldn’t touch her the way I wanted to until we were alone again.
Fuck. That reminded me about how Tor and Ace had both managed to find the time…
They both knew she was a woman, too. I needed to quietly kick some asses but also not make Noah mad at me about it, because fuck giving up what we have for the sake of jealousy.
It was something I seriously needed to ruminate on because my every instinct was to steal her away and keep her all to myself.
Screw the team. We didn’t need them.
Except, Noah had alluded to her contract enough times that I had a feeling she was on Team Olympus under duress. And then there was my debt, which being on the team had helped me make a dent in…
“Minnie?” Z asked with a sleepy yawn when I quietly entered our bunk cabin. “What time is it?”
“No idea,” I admitted in a whisper. “Go back to sleep, though.”
“Mmmkay,” he mumbled, rolling over with a sigh.
I barely dared to breathe as I grabbed dry clothes from my bag and changed, then quickly climbed up into my bunk without waking Z again.
Noah was already in her bed, her pillow at the end of the bed where mine started.
I smiled into the darkness as I lay down, and just a moment later her hand slipped over the join of our bunks to toy with my hair.
There was no way in hell I would be able to actually sleep knowing she was right there, close enough to touch but completely out of my reach thanks to our six other roommates.
Even worse, she hadn’t showered, so she was lying there still slick with my cum, and that was enough to make me squirm uncomfortably in my bunk.
I was so hard it physically hurt, but we couldn’t risk running into Xavier again, so I just reached down and squeezed myself in a vain attempt to relieve the pressure.
Noah’s hand was still on my pillow, her fingers twirling around a wet strand of my hair, and I reached up to grab her hand, bringing it to my mouth to kiss her fingers. I wanted to do so much more…
Now it all made so much sense. The way she had tried to push me away, her weak denial of the chemistry between us. She couldn’t tell me her secret for some reason and thought I was only attracted to her as a man.
I guess I hadn’t been clear enough with her.
I’d never slept with another guy before, but had 100 percent been willing to try just for my Chicken.
I was that far gone for her but also quietly relieved because I had no idea how to fuck a guy.
I mean, sure, I was no stranger to ass play, but how did two guys decide who was giving and who was taking?
Or was it a swap and change situation? Either way, I hated feeling like I didn’t know what I was doing.
This was definitely not an unwelcome development for my confidence.
My lips closed around her thumb, my tongue tracing her nail, and she rewarded me with a soft whine in her bunk, making me grin.
Yeah, I wasn’t mad about this development at all. But in all honesty, I would have been more than happy if Noah had flopped out a monster cock and asked to rail my ass. Sore, undoubtedly, but happy for anything to progress the connection between us, regardless of bedroom positions.
Except now there was Torin and Ace to worry about.
Tor had always been a threat; I’d clocked that early.
But Ace? That shocked me. Especially with how much she seemed to hate him now.
He must have really fucked up after whatever happened between them, and that kind of amused me.
Ace was always so smooth, so confident, so fucking charming.
So to know that he had his shot and blew it? Hilarious.
All too soon, Noah fell asleep, her hand relaxing against my face and her breathing deep and regular. It was insanely peaceful, listening to her sleep. Skye was too fucking lucky, sharing a room with her this whole—-
Motherfucker! Skye must know, too. No wonder he and Tor were the only ones permitted to visit Noah in the hospital.
There must have been too many opportunities for her secret to be exposed, so her manager had locked down access to only those who knew.
Little shit… I couldn’t even be mad at him because he was keeping my Chicken safe all this time, and it made me want to hug the crap out of him.
Somehow I must have fallen asleep, despite how fast my pulse was racing and my mind whirling. But somehow, listening to the soft, steady sound of Noah’s breathing so close to me, I drifted back asleep.
When I woke, sunlight streamed into the cabin, the storm totally gone and a bright new day already underway. Noah was already awake, too, lying on her stomach with her pillow on the join between our bunks while she twisted delicate little braids in my hair.
“Hi,” she whispered when I met her soft green gaze. She looked nervous, her cute freckled nose wrinkled slightly like she was worried in the light of day I’d regret what had happened.
Not a damn chance.
I raised my head to look around the cabin, noting Augie still fast asleep, Ace and Xavier nowhere to be seen, Torin awake but yawning. Skye’s foot hung out from below Noah’s bunk, and Z was probably still asleep beneath me but, screw it.
Quicker than she could retreat, I rolled onto my belly and cupped the back of her head, crushing my lips to hers in a kiss that hopefully eliminated any doubts about my feelings this morning.
“Dude!” Torin protested, and I shot him a smug smirk when Noah pulled away with a small groan of regret.
“What?” I asked with feigned innocence, dragging my lower lip through my teeth to savor the taste of Noah’s kiss. Fuck, she was addictive.
Torin glowered, not outing us to the rest of the room who hadn’t seen what I’d just done, but he did extend his middle finger my way, and I returned the gesture with a wide grin. If only he knew what we’d been up to in the middle of the night…
Ace and Xavier entered the cabin, making no attempt at quiet as they let the door slam behind them. Xavier dove on top of Z, making my roommate groan a protest.
“Get up, dickhead,” Xavier demanded. “We’re back on the camp schedule, and breakfast is almost over.”
“What? Already?” Tor asked, scrubbing a hand over his black hair, making it spike up messily. “What time is it?”
“Time to get the fuck up and film some viral content,” Ace replied, yanking Augie’s blanket off him while he groaned and cursed. “You guys all slept like the dead.”
Xavier’s narrowed eyes snapped to me when Ace said that, then shifted to Noah with a frown, so I yawned dramatically to break his focus.
“Okay, let’s do this, then,” I announced, jumping down from my bunk and yanking my shirt off. Sure, yes, I needed to get changed for the day, but I was unquestionably flexing for Noah. The way she watched me would never get old.
Except now I was going to need to pretend nothing had changed between us for the sake of the cameras, because I didn’t need her to tell me how bad it’d be if fans worked it all out—-not just that we were sleeping together but that she was a woman. It’d be a bloodbath.
I suddenly had a whole new appreciation for Torin’s self--control.