Chapter 38
NOAH
My whole face hurt when I woke up late the next morning. I vaguely remembered slapping my alarm clock across the room when it had the audacity to beep at six in the morning, but I was still groggy when I woke up on my own. I didn’t even remember setting an alarm, let alone for six a.m.
“Good morning, Bubbles,” Skye said from his bed, and I groaned at how cheery and awake he was.
“Go away,” I mumbled, dragging a pillow over my head, then instantly regretting my decision as my face flared with pain. “Ow! Wait! Why are you—-What the fuck?”
“I was hoping for more of an excited greeting,” my best friend muttered with dry sarcasm, “maybe a hug, some tears, demands that I never leave you again…that sort of thing.”
I huffed a laugh, my face pounding. “Hi, Twin, I missed you.”
“Aw, that’s sweet. I bought you bubble tea on my way home, too. Coffee smoothie with brown sugar pearls.” He rattled the cup, and I removed the pillow from my tender face. “But before you get it, you need to tell me something important.”
I reached out a grabby hand for the boba he was holding hostage, pulling the blankets up around my chin with the other hand. “I’ll tell you anything. Gimme.”
Skye’s grin spread wider. “Okay, then. Why, Bubbles, my love, are you sleeping in Xavier’s bed? I thought you guys swapped rooms?”
I was what?
Sitting up abruptly sent pain lancing through my head. “I’m not… Huh? Xavier’s… What the shit?” I glanced around at the familiar room and processed what Skye had just said. “Goddamn it!”
How had I even ended up in here? All I remembered was…
“You missed me,” Skye sang in a teasing voice. “You missed me so much you stole Xavier’s bed just to be near me. I get it, though. I am pretty great.”
“How are you even here? You’re not due home for a couple of days,” I said, rubbing my eyes gingerly before scrambling out of Xavier’s bed and hastily remaking it. Xavier was very much a make--his--bed--neatly kinda guy.
Skye handed me my drink, shrugging. “Yes, but that was before I saw the tabloids with photos of you with your face all fucked--up and got a message from Ace saying it was your slimy ex that hit you. What the hell, Bubbles? Why didn’t you call me?”
I yawned, then took a sip of my drink and sighed happily at how delicious it was. “Um, because I didn’t want you to worry. I had it handled.”
Skye leveled me with a deadpan stare. “And by ‘handled’ you mean ‘punched in the face by your sexually abusive and exploitive ex’?”
I groaned, running my hand through my hair and looking around once again.
How the hell did I end up sleeping here?
I remembered the drive home from Boba--Kitty and the endless scroll of nasty comments about Ace’s hand on my waist. My headache had been awful.
By the time we’d gotten home, I’d taken myself straight to bed.
Except apparently I was more concussed than I’d guessed because it would seem that I’d come to my old room on autopilot. Which was not such an odd thing, right? But why didn’t someone say something?
“Where’s Xavier?” I asked with confusion, grabbing my phone off the floor, where I must have tossed it and double--checking I’d made his bed neatly enough. “I can’t imagine he appreciated this mistake.”
Skye shrugged and got up from his bed. “He was asleep on the sofa when I got home, but his laptop was beside him, so I’m guessing he just crashed out while editing clips or something. Don’t stress it. He probably has no idea you stole his bed.”
I could only hope. The fact that he hadn’t woken me up with a bucket of ice water dumped on my head suggested Xavier was none the wiser. “What time is it?”
“Uh, a little after nine,” Skye answered as we left the bedroom and headed down the hall. “Why?”
“Ah, I was going to go get changed into clean clothes, but Ace is probably asleep already.” I put my nose into my armpit for a sniff and shrugged. “I’ll survive. Thanks for the boba, though. I really am happy to see you.”
I looped my arm around his waist to hug him as we made our way downstairs, and he ruffled my hair affectionately.
“I was going to ask if you wanted to film some content with me today, but I get the feeling you need to just lie on the couch and rest your face. Did…did you end up fixing the Rich situation?”
Memories of my meeting with Rich came rushing back with a toxic swirl of dread, and I stiffened. “No. Apparently it’s not him that reactivated the account.”
“What? Who the fuck else—-?”
“That’s what I’m scared to find out,” I admitted with bitterness on my tongue.
“Someone out there has Rich’s entire fucking database, and as if that’s not enough, they’ve been creating deep fakes too.
It’s a whole fucking mess, and he seems to have no clue who is behind it, which means I’m shit out of luck when it comes to getting it taken down.
I have to let Kelly and the lawyers handle it. ”
A deep shudder ran through me, and I shook my head to try to clear it.
Skye just draped his arm around my shoulders and hugged me, kissing my hair.
That was all I really needed from him. No promises to slay my enemies or protect my honor—-just unconditional love and support when I needed him the most.
“Good morning, Short Stack,” Torin greeted me as we entered the kitchen. “You look ravishing as always.” He abandoned the pancakes he was making to cross the kitchen and drop a sweet kiss on my lips, not even trying to hide it from Skye.
Luckily my bestie wasn’t the judgy type, but he was the cautious type, and he immediately cast a look around to check if anyone witnessed Torin’s early morning affection.
“You guys are getting way too comfortable,” he warned, sucking on his bubble tea straw. “Where’s your other half, Tor?”
“Right here,” he replied with a grin, dropping another kiss on my lips and lingering this time.
Skye made a gagging sound. “Gross. No, I meant Augie. Is he up yet?”
Torin nodded, his fingers threading into the back of my hair like he was thinking about kissing me again. Valid—-that’s what I was thinking about too. “Yeah, he was in the shower when I came downstairs so should be down here soon.”
“I’m going to see if he wants company today when he heads out to Yorba Linda,” Skye told us. “Are you making enough pancakes for the whole family, Tor?”
“I suppose I can,” he replied with a sigh.
“You’re the best!” my bestie announced, then left the kitchen while loudly sucking the remaining drops from his cup.
Torin shook his head after him with a smile, then returned his gaze to me. “How are you feeling this morning, Short Stack?”
“Less than ravishing,” I joked, leaning into his touch. “Yesterday was rough.”
Torin hummed thoughtfully. “Because you got punched or because you had to spend the day with Xavier?”
I chuckled. “Both? Actually, to be fair, Xavier was uncharacteristically less dickish during the shoot, so that wasn’t as painful as anticipated.”
“Uh--huh, and what did happen to your face? Internet rumors say you slipped while wearing socks on hardwood floors, but I’m pretty sure that never happened. This is almost certainly someone’s fist, babe. Who hit you?” He asked it softly, but the anger behind his eyes was sobering.
I shook my head slightly. “Ace dealt with it.”
Torin studied my gaze for a moment, then exhaled heavily.
“Good.” Then he took my bubble tea out of my hand and placed it carefully on the countertop.
I protested, but only for a moment before he grabbed me around the waist and lifted me up as he kissed me deeply.
My face ached a little, but given the circumstances, I was willing to ignore the pain.
It was so easy to forget where we were and why we were supposed to be discreet that I simply wound my arms around his neck and kissed him back, parting my lips to allow him more access. He backed me up against the pantry door, shifting his grip to my ass so my legs could wrap around his waist and—-
“…sleeping on the couch for?” Minho’s voice echoed through the house, close enough that he’d be in the kitchen any moment and catch me and Torin making out like horny teenagers. Which wasn’t the worst idea, because maybe he’d wanna join in, and we could explore both guys’ willingness to share…
“Because the fucking little dude was asleep in my bed, and I didn’t have the heart to wake him up,” Xavier replied, and panic jolted me right out of whatever sexy fantasy had just taken root in my mind.
Torin clearly drew the same conclusion at the same time because he quickly opened the pantry door and stepped us both smoothly inside, closing it again just before we got caught by the big, angry lizard himself.
“I thought Skye said Tor was making pancakes,” Minnie commented with confusion as Torin pinned me to the inside of the pantry door and started kissing my throat.
Apparently he wasn’t that worried about being caught because I’d say the hardness grinding against my core had just increased dramatically.
“What the fuck? This is burning,” Xavier exclaimed, followed by the clatter of a frying pan and the running of water. Now that he mentioned it, there was a distinctive smoky smell in the air. “Did Torin just walk away and leave the stove on? That’s unlike him.”
Minnie coughed, and it sounded a little like he was hiding a laugh. “Maybe he got distracted.”
“Okay, well, distracted could have burned the whole fucking house down,” Xavier replied grumpily. Torin slipped his hand into my pants, and a startled cry escaped me before I clapped a hand over my mouth.
“What was that?” Xavier asked. “Did you hear that?”
Fuck. We were so screwed. And yet I found it hard to give a shit when Torin had just pushed two fingers into my cunt, making my hips lift off the door in desperate need for more.
“Shhh,” he breathed with a laugh, biting my earlobe playfully. “You’ll get us caught.”
“Hear what?” Minnie asked from really close. Almost like he was right on the other side of the pantry door. “I didn’t hear anything.”
Torin pushed aside my hand and claimed my lips with his kisses again, his fingers pumping into me in a way that was making my whole damn body shake.
The nervousness of how close Minnie and Xavier were right now was coiled up inside me, and my skin broke out in hypersensitive goose bumps while Torin kissed me.
“Huh, I thought I heard, like, a girl moan?” Xavier wasn’t letting this go. Fucking tenacious Godzilla with a big old bone.
“Maybe you just need to get laid,” Minho laughed. “Anyway, why don’t you go see if you can find our missing chef, and I’ll get some fresh pancakes cooking?”
Xavier grunted, then muttered something about Torin trying to kill us all as his footsteps faded away. Meanwhile, Torin’s thumb had found my clit and I was rapidly losing all grip on sanity, reality, decency… You name it, I’d lost it.
As my breathing quickened, Tor kissed me harder to muffle the dead--giveaway sounds of what we were doing, but then eventually clapped his own hand over my mouth to silence me when I came on his fingers. It hurt—-my face was bruised as shit—-but I was okay with it.
All of a sudden, the pantry door whipped opened, and we tumbled out straight into Minho’s waiting arms.
“Gotcha,” he said with a smirk, his hands secure on my waist as my feet found the floor. Then faster than I could fully comprehend, he reached out and snatched Torin’s wrist in midair and licked his fingers.
Minnie. Licked. Torin’s. Fingers.
No—-he sucked them.
“Holy fuck,” I gasped in shock and absolute lust.
“Bro…” Torin breathed in what seemed like stunned fascination.
“Xavier’s looking for you, and your pancakes are burned,” Minnie announced, releasing Torin’s wrist and interlacing his fingers with mine. “I need a minute alone with my Chicken.”
He started striding out of the kitchen with me hauling ass to keep up, but it wasn’t fast enough to escape Torin’s teasing comment about Min needing “only a minute” after us.