Chapter 36 #2
“I had a feeling.” Serenity sounded pleased. My mind flooded with ideas, I wanted her to dance for just me, but maybe… she’d give a private show for all of us.
She turned to Dagger. “Your turn. How many women have you dated?”
“Define ‘dated.’”
Serenity scrunched her lips up, thinking. “You went out three or more times.”
“Okay. Then seven.”
“Really? I thought it would be higher,” Serenity mused.
“He’s not counting hookups,” Hunter said knowingly. “You said dating.”
Serenity’s brows reached for her hairline. “Oooh.” A mischievous grin pulled her mouth. “A question to save for later.”
“I’ll consider it another step closer to you, Cowgirl.” Dagger then proceeded to take the most cartoonishly huge step possible, practically doing the splits. If the move twinged his injuries, he didn’t let it show. I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. So did Serenity.
“Oh, so that’s how we’re playing, huh,” Seb said through a snicker of his own. “Noted.”
“That’s so not allowed!” Hunter’s growl was back.
“It is in red light, green light,” Dagger countered. The sneaky bastard had to look over his shoulder to address us, he’d gone so far.
“Technically, he’s right,” I said. My parents hadn’t let me play with many children growing up, but they’d trusted the twins, and that game had been a regular for a while.
Serenity’s smile pulled sideways, as she looked at Hunter. “If you all start doing it, that’ll mean more games and more dares,”
“Oh, all right,” he said in a soft tone, putty in her hands.
Serenity circled back to Seb. “You didn’t sleep with the girl in college. Have you ever slept with anyone?”
Seb shoved his hands in his pockets. “Uh, yes.”
“Nope, flag on the play,” Dagger said, making the time-out gesture. Even I had heard the uncertain uptick in Seb’s voice. “You’re not lying, but something’s off.”
Seb went squirrely, shrugging his shoulders up to his reddening ears. “I mean, technically, yes, I have.”
Dagger’s brows slanted. “Nuh-uh, shifty eyes. That’s not good enough if you want to move forward.” He looked at Serenity. “Permission to rephrase the question?”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“You a virgin, gamer boy?”
Seb raked fingers through his hair. “It depends on your definition,” he said, echoing Dagger earlier.
Dagger rolled his eyes. “Did Mr. Willy ever get a home run?”
“No,” he said, short and sharp. Then he looked to Serenity, relaxing a fraction now that Dagger had quit staring him down. “I’ve done oral. That’s it.”
“Both ways?” asked Serenity, her voice low. “Giving and receiving?”
Seb nodded.
“How’d you like it?” she said, almost a throaty whisper.
“Since it’s a bonus question, can I tell you in my head?” he asked, tone shy.
She nodded, biting her lip, and my body temperature and my cock started to rise because damned if she didn’t sound like she was thinking about asking someone to let her try it right now.
I couldn’t even imagine what those lips would feel like wrapped around my cock.
As Seb’s secret answer passed between them, she pressed her back against the wall, fingers curling against the paint like she was gripping sheets.
Would she grab sheets like that if I were the one licking between her legs? I’d rather her hands be on me.
We all stared spellbound at Serenity as she and Seb shared their thoughts.
“Whatever Professor X is telling you, it’s true,” Dagger rasped.
“All right, take your step already,” Hunter coughed out, then corrected, “A baby step, since you fudged your answer.” His voice dropped to a grumble. “And you kept us out of the loop by talking in your head.”
Seb was quick to obey.
“Tried to pull one over me, huh?” Dagger shook his head at Seb. “Don’t know what all the secrecy was for, first timer. I think we all could’ve guessed on our own.”
“Hey, lay off him,” I said on reflex. “There’s a lot of virgins in this room. You mess with one of us, you’re messing with all of us.”
“Yeah, big shot,” Serenity said. “I’m putting you under the gun next this time.”
“Hell, you can put me under your boot if you want to,” Dagger said with a wink. He spread his arms wide. “But go ahead. Take your shot, Cowgirl.”
She crossed her arms, but her mouth still quirked upward. “What’s the naughtiest thing you’ve ever done in the bedroom?”
“Easy. A threesome with two wolf shifter biker chicks. Man, that was a wild night.”
Serenity’s brows jumped a hurdle… and so did Dagger. His next giant leap vaulted him over the coffee table and rattled the pans in the kitchen. Good grief.
Seb belly laughed while Hunter grumbled, “You break anything, you’re buying it.”
Grinning, Serenity turned to Hunter. “Your turn, handsome.” She studied his face and said softly, “How do you picture your future, in say… ten years?”
“In an ideal world, I’d like to expand my club business just enough to save a good nest egg to invest, then live off that while I settle down. Do the whole wife and kids, two car garage dream. Just a quiet life with a big family. I can’t think of anything more fulfilling than that.”
Dagger tsked. “King of the street fighters, trading his gloves for a picket fence.”
“Wait… king of the…” Sebastian’s eyes flew wide. “Holy shit, I thought your name was familiar! My cousin was obsessed with you, dude! Are you really undefeated?”
Hunter nodded all nonchalant, but I saw his spine straighten. “Yep.”
“True on all counts.” Dagger waved Hunter onward. “Come on up, brother. If you can make it.”
Hunter abandoned his empty gin glass and made a low “oh-ho” sound, rubbing his hands together as he sank into a lunge. He popped both feet off the ground in a cat-like spring and landed just a few feet back from Dagger.
“Missed it by that much.” Dagger held two fingers an inch apart.
“You had a head start.”
“Hey, don’t make me come up there and separate you two,” I teased, wagging a scolding finger between them.
“You want a lot of kids?” The timid question trembled on the air, sobering our smiles.
We swiveled our heads toward Serenity, all attuned to the shift in her mood. She rubbed her arm like she was cold, her eyes sad.
“I…” Hunter glanced between her and Dagger. “I’d like kids, yeah, but not a crazy number. Three, maybe?”
She smiled, but a sheen of tears glossed her eyes. “That sounds great.”
“So… you want kids, too?” Hunter’s brow creased.
“I always wanted them, yes.” She swallowed hard, and her palm stilled on her upper arm, squeezing now.
“But when I got out of the feeding den, I… I was worried about STDs or anything else nasty they could have passed to me, with all the biting.” She paused for a breath, eyes dipping to the floor.
“I did a physical and had all kinds of tests run. I hadn’t contracted anything, but the doctor said because of the confinement and the malnutrition and everything from such a young age…
my chances of ever getting pregnant are pretty low. Maybe nonexistent.”
Rage and sorrow clashed with eruptive force in my head. My chest rose with angry, bullish breaths, and my neck flaming hot. That den had taken so much from her. It had scarred her past, and now it wanted to dig its fangs into her future?
I opened my mouth to tell her if she wanted kids, I’d find all the best doctors, make sure she got all the best treatments.
But Hunter just opened his arms. A simple, beautiful gesture that came naturally to him but which, up until very recently, had been out of the question for me.
For so long, I’d been unable to receive or offer affection. I’d learned to throw money at things. Useful sometimes, but not the same comfort as a shoulder to lean on.
Serenity crossed the room in a flash and melted into Hunter, hiding her silent tears against his shirt while he pressed his cheek to her hair.
No one said anything. No one needed to. We just flocked to Hunter’s side and reached for her in quiet solidarity. I kept a safe distance from the others’ skin by cupping the hand she’d rested on Hunter’s back, and she intertwined our fingers.
Soon, she sniffed and raised her head, wiping her cheek dry. “Thank you,” she murmured. “All of you.” Her gaze drifted over us four, standing close, and a smile broke across her face. “Sorry for being a party pooper.”
We all rushed to make sounds of assurance to the contrary, but she waved us off and headed back toward her spot by the wall. “No, no, come on. Back to your places. I want to play.”
Once we’d posted back up, and Serenity had chidingly told Dagger to get his butt back in line with the arm of the couch, the air had lightened, but Serenity still had shiny lines on her face.
She took a big breath. “I’m low on ideas. Hunter, can you ask Bryce his question?”
“Okay.” Hunter looked back at me, contemplative. “You mind something a little more serious?”
“No. Shoot.”
“What’s your biggest fear?”
The answer surfaced instantly, but I clamped down on my tongue, gaze flicking to Serenity. I’d already touched her way more than I had that other poor girl. What if…
Fuck it. She had a right to know, so she could weigh the risk for herself.
“That my condition is contractible. Like an STD.”
“True,” Dagger said with a note of disbelief.
Hunter’s head reeled back. “To other elementals, you mean?”
“No,” I said, trying to gauge Serenity’s reaction, but her face betrayed little. “To anyone.”
“What?” Hunter asked. “How would that even work?”
“I’m not sure, but there was an incident, several years ago, that made me wonder.
” I downed the last of my drink. “I was walking to lunch with a colleague. Her high heel caught in a grate—snapped it off—and she fell into me. On me, really. Knocked me to the ground. We were so tangled and so incapacitated by the pain that it took longer than usual for my bodyguard to separate us. I didn’t have a full-blown security detail back then. ”
Lines of concern branched across Serenity’s face, head tilting in empathy.