After that, the wind picked up and my hands started to go numb. By the time we reached the house, even the boys were shivering. Whose stupid idea was it to go swimming fully clothed in October? Oh yeah, mine. Bad idea, Kit. My hands were shaking so badly I fumbled the handle three times before Cole reached past me and opened it. We spilled into the kitchen in a cold, wet puddle, and Wesley looked up in surprise from the stove where he had started dinner.

“What the hell have you three been doing?” he exclaimed in a very un-Wesley-like tone. “Whose idiotic idea was it to go swimming fully clothed in October?”

“Hah!” I snorted. “That’s what I was wondering too!”

Cole and Caleb both gaped at me in disbelief before loudly protesting that I had started the whole thing, which was technically true.

Wesley cut them off, telling them to go and dry off. “As for you”—he gave me a stern look—“you’re bordering on hypothermia. Come with me; I have a bathtub in my bathroom.”

He led the way down the hall to his room, which I’d actually yet to step foot in seeing as he was usually holed up in there working on his computers. It was a big room but pretty much like I expected it to look, with a huge desk covered in monitors and various tech gadgets. He politely ushered me through to his bathroom and the biggest bathtub ever, sitting under a picture window showing a stunning view of the mountains. I perched on the edge of the tub while he ran it for me, dumping a healthy dose of bubble bath in, which filled the room with the scent of jasmine. It was such a sweet, unexpected gesture that it left me lost for words.

“Are you, um, okay to get...” His earlier bluster seemed to have subsided, and he was back to being awkward and shy. I blinked up at him owlishly, his words taking way longer than they should to sink through my brain. “You know, undressed,” he continued, blushing furiously. “I can call Caleb if you need help?”

I smiled with numb lips, suddenly realizing why he seemed so nervous. “I’m fine. Thank you though.” I stood and stripped off my shirt, which made his face flame even brighter red before he spun away.

“It’s important you don’t fall asleep in the, ah, bath so I’ll just, um, sit outside the door and talk to you. If that’s okay?”

“Fine by me,” I told him, and he retreated out of the room, leaving me to finish stripping down and get into the water. My stiff fingers made slow work of my clothes, but eventually I got them off. Stepping into the deep tub, I hissed as the hot water met my freezing skin. Slowly I lowered myself in, inch by inch, letting my skin adjust to the heat at each interval, and by the time I was fully seated, I was already feeling almost normal. Wesley said something from the other side of the bathroom door, but it was so muffled I couldn’t make it out.

“I can’t hear you!” I yelled out to him, “Just come in here if we’re going to talk!”

There was a pause, then the door cracked open an inch. “I can’t come in there!” he replied through the crack. “You’re, um, you know… naked!”

I laughed. How different he was from the rest of his team. I doubted they shared his hang-up about seeing a naked woman in the tub.

“I’m completely submerged in bubbles; I promise you won’t see a thing, except for my arms.”

There was another pause, and then the door opened farther, admitting a very pink Wesley, who shuffled in with his eyes on the ceiling until he sat with his back against the tub near my feet. Once situated, he flicked a quick glance at my face and nodded.

“You’re still a little blue, but your cheeks have more color now.” He sounded relieved.

“I’m feeling loads better. Thank you for letting me use your tub.” I was genuinely grateful; it had been forever since I enjoyed a good soak, and I’d really been insanely cold. He bobbed his head in acknowledgement.

“No worries. I know it’s not super manly, but I love bubble baths,” he admitted.

“So what were you trying to say before?” I prompted, reminding him he had been trying to ask something through the door.

“Oh, yes, I was just asking what you wanted to talk about. It’s so easy to fall asleep in a warm bath after a prolonged cold exposure that I thought it best to keep you talking.” Made sense, and I could very easily drift off in this heavenly tub.

“Why don’t you tell me about how you came to work for Omega Group?” I suggested. It was something that I had wondered about with all of the boys, but no one had volunteered their stories yet. A sad smile crossed his face, so I wasn’t surprised when he shook his head slightly.

“Maybe later,” he said softly. “For now let’s just keep the topics a bit less heavy. Also, I need you to be talking or else it defeats the purpose.”

“Okay, sounds fair. What do you want to know about me?” I sank a little lower into the water, getting my cold shoulders submerged beneath the bubbles.

“Ummmm,” he said as he dropped his head back onto the ledge of the bath and stared at the ceiling. “What’s your favorite color?”

I let out a giggle which was very unlike me. I blamed the cold. It was affecting my brain. “Really, Wesley? You know next to nothing about me, and you ask what my favorite color is?”

He tilted his head slightly to look at me and shrugged. “Have to start somewhere.”

“I suppose you do. Okay, uhh, blue I suppose? Like, dark blue. Sapphire. You?”

“Green,” he replied decisively. “Favorite food?”

“Cheese.” I grinned. “Melted cheese. Doesn’t even need to be on anything, I’d just eat it off a plate if necessary.”

“Weirdo. Mine is curry.”

“As if that’s not weird!” I laughed. “Okay, how about your favorite animal?”

“Crows. They’re one of the smartest animals on Earth, you know. What about yours?”

Was that really a question? “Fox, duh.”

He blushed again. We continued back and forth with our meaningless questions until one struck a chord with me.

“Favorite childhood memory,” Wesley asked, and my body tensed. All pretense at relaxing fled.

“Getting adopted,” I whispered, and he turned sharply toward me.

“Shit. Sorry. I didn’t mean to...” He looked horrified at his blunder, so I forced a small smile to show I wasn’t mad.

“It’s okay. I assume the twins didn’t tell you. Lucy and I grew up in foster care until we were adopted when we were thirteen. It wasn’t... the kind of place for good memories.”

He looked thoughtful for a minute then blurted out, “My brother got shot.”

I cocked my head to the side, searching for the right response, but thankfully he continued.

“I was fifteen, and he was eight. We went down to our local grocery store to get some food for dinner, and while we were there, some asshole tried to rob the place at gunpoint. He was pointing a pistol at the cashier, demanding he open the tills, when a customer tried to be a hero and disarm him. As the guy got knocked to the ground, he started shooting. Just randomly pulling the trigger and firing. Everyone was screaming and yelling, so it took me a minute to realize my little brother wasn’t. One of the bullets had caught him in the back, and he was lying beside me on the floor, slowly bleeding out. It seemed like it took forever for the police to arrive and arrest the guy, and even longer for an ambulance to get there.”

He fell silent, and my curiosity burned. “What happened to your brother?”

“He lived, but the bullet was lodged in his spine, and they couldn’t get it out. He’s now paralyzed from the waist down.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. That poor kid.

“We were already living in a trailer park as it was, with Mom working two jobs to just keep on top of things, so when we found out how much the hospital bill was, not to mention the cost of ongoing care for Grant...” He smiled sadly. “I started doing some dodgy shit online, hacking bank databases and moving money around. I had no idea how to cover my tracks; I just wanted to take care of my mom and Grant. Eventually it all caught up with me though, and I was offered a choice of juvie or community service within Omega Group. No prizes for guessing which option I chose. After I worked off my required hours, they offered me a spot in their training program with the opportunity to join a team. It turns out they had been keeping an eye on me since I had started hacking and arranged it that theirs was the only ‘community service’ option offered instead of the normal way it’s done. Anyway, the money I earn all goes back to supporting my brother. This year I managed to get all of his medical bills cleared and moved him and my mom into a new house with ramp access and everything.” The pride on his face when he spoke about all he had done for his family transformed him.

“So that explains your argument with Lucy?” I guessed, and he grinned.

“Uh huh. So.” He cleared his throat, shaking off the intense moment. “What about tattoos? Do you have any?”

I leaned back in the tub once more, accepting the change in subject.

“Nope, none. But I’ve always wanted one. Maybe I’ll have to ask Caleb and Cole where they get theirs done because they’re stunning. Like, unbelievably beautiful.”

Wesley snickered like he knew something I didn’t. “You should ask them some time. Their artist is very passionate about his work.”

“I’ll do that,” I murmured. “How about you? Any ink under that circus tent of a T-shirt?”

He looked mildly offended at my description of his clothes. “Actually I do. All of us use the same tattoo artist, so I assure you it is equally as ‘beautiful’ as theirs.”

“Can I see it?” I grinned, knowing he would probably say no, and he didn’t disappoint.

“Maybe another day.”

The bath had begun to cool, and I was more than warm enough to be done, so Wesley excused himself to rescue our dinner.