SIX
Dylan stared up at the ceiling in his bedroom as flashes of nerve-tingling heat worked through him, driving out any ability to calm himself and go to sleep. He was almost painfully aware of the fact that Nadine was in the living room, only yards away from where he lay; he was even more aware of the fact that Matthew was across the house, in his own bedroom, possibly just as sleepless as he was. Dylan gritted his teeth, breathing in through his nose slowly until his lungs were full and then exhaling just as deliberately. You didn’t count on how fucking distracting it would be to have that smell in the house. Just everywhere. Painted on your couch, trailing along the rugs, everywhere but where you want it. Dylan shook his head side to side against his pillow, feeling the heat pooling between his hips.
Maybe an hour before, he, Nadine, and Matthew had had their argument. He and Matthew had wanted Nadine to pick a bedroom to sleep in; for both of them, Dylan knew, it was more than just a matter of courtesy. It was a question of which one of them would have a chance to attempt to seduce her first. Neither man would have thought of taking advantage of Nadine—part of growing up in the culture they’d belonged to until their exile included a strict belief in the right of the woman to decide who she wanted to have sex with—but proximity would make for plenty of opportunities to press a suit.
Dylan caught up his bottom lip between his teeth and worried at it, shuddering as he remembered the sight of Nadine fresh out of the shower. She’d managed to grab a few pairs of pajamas at her apartment, along with her other necessities, when they’d made that stop on their way back home from her job; while there was nothing inherently sexy about the camisole and loose pajama pants Nadine had chosen, something about the sight of her with her hair still damp, tumbled around her face, her nipples showing ever so slightly against the fabric of the camisole, the slice of skin showing just above her hip where the waistband of the pajamas clung, was enough to drive Dylan nearly out of his mind.
Nadine had insisted that she wasn’t going to sleep in either bed; she had told both men in no uncertain terms that she wanted to stay on the couch. Neither Dylan nor Matthew had been able to accept that as an option. Dylan had barely been able to keep the animal part of his consciousness in check as her pheromones shifted, painting the air around her with the tones of anger and—he was certain—arousal. She wanted them; Dylan knew it, and Matthew knew it. She was fighting the temptation to have anything to do with them other than the most basic interactions, but her pheromones couldn’t lie. Dylan smiled to himself wryly, ignoring the feeling like hot lead pooling at his hips, the ache of his already throbbing cock. She wants one of you. Maybe both of you. She just doesn’t want to want you.
Dylan couldn’t exactly blame her; thinking about the way they’d met, he suspected that distrust was a large part of why she was so hesitant to give into the hormones raging in her system—either that, or native caution against doing anything that might make things dangerous for her while she was in the care of the two men. Dylan kicked the blankets off of his legs and groaned, closing his eyes as he thought of the little taste of Nadine’s skin he’d had—the rush of that moment, when he’d cleaned the wound she’d gotten to her neck. Dylan had never thought of blood as particularly erotic—but the taste of Nadine’s essence had somehow managed to work its way into the recesses of his brain, making her pheromones even more potent.
“Fuck,” Dylan murmured, reaching down idly and brushing his fingers against the hot, hard bulge of his cock straining at the cotton pajama pants.
He took in a fast, deep breath, resisting the urge to stroke himself. He was so turned on just by the thought of Nadine, just by the awareness of her presence so close to him, that it was almost unbearable. He sat up in his bed, exhaling sharply, closing his eyes to get some control over the arousal that rushed through his system.
“This is going to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever done,” he muttered to himself, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and standing up.
Dylan padded out of his room and down the short hall, stepping into the living room with his heart pounding in his chest. He listened for Nadine’s breathing and after a moment, smiled to himself, sniffing the air quietly to sample her pheromones. She was definitely not asleep.
“Nadine?” Dylan pitched his voice as quietly as possible, little more than a breath; if Matthew was awake, he might hear it—but Dylan was beyond caring.
“What?” In the darkness, Dylan saw Nadine sit up from her oddly elegant sprawl on the couch, her head turning as she tried to find him. He smiled to himself.
“The couch can’t be that comfortable; you weren’t even sleeping,” Dylan told her quietly. “Come sleep in my bed.”
“If it’s not that comfortable, why do you want to sleep on the couch?” Nadine’s voice was a little louder than Dylan’s, but still pitched at a whisper.
“There’s room enough for both of us,” Dylan murmured in response. “I can smell your pheromones, Nadine.” He smiled more broadly to himself as the scent of Nadine’s arousal intensified. “I know you’re not exactly against the idea of getting laid.”
“I just don’t know if it’s smart,” Nadine whispered back sharply. “I don’t even know you or Matthew that well.”
“Why don’t you try kissing me, and see how you feel about it?” Dylan stepped quickly around the couch, dropping down only inches away from her, crouching so that his face was level with Nadine’s. “If you hate kissing me, I’ll sleep on the couch and you can pretend I never suggested anything at all. Hell—if you want to, you can switch between my bed and Matthew’s for as long as you have to stay with us and if you want to fuck Matt, I’ll never say anything against it.”
Dylan heard the sound of Nadine’s breath catching in her throat, saw the slight tremor that ran through her body at his proximity. Her arousal pheromones intensified, washing over him, almost bathing him in her scent.
“Okay,” Nadine said, her voice breathless.
Dylan closed the tiny distance between them, finding her mouth easily in the darkness. He kissed her lightly at first, barely brushing his lips against hers. His hands reached out as if with a mind of their own, closing on her waist, feeling the heat of her body through the thin fabric of her clothes. Dylan deepened the kiss gradually, swiping his tongue against Nadine’s lips once, twice, until she opened her mouth to let him in. He shuddered at the taste of her—an echo of the honey and lemon that made up her pheromones—and gripped her more tightly, lust surging through his veins that he could barely contain. Dylan nipped at Nadine’s bottom lip, catching it between his teeth for just a moment, just long enough to make her heart beat faster before he softened his approach, tasting and probing the corners of her mouth, letting his arms wrap around her trim waist to pull her closer to him, to press her body against his.
Dylan broke away from the kiss when he felt the heat rising in Nadine’s body, leaving her breathless and panting slightly.
“What do you think?” he murmured, his lips brushing against her cheek. “Am I sleeping on the couch tonight?”
“You are such an asshole,” Nadine murmured in his ear. “If you have some kind of animal intuition about my emotional state, you know good and damned well that I’m…”
“Incredibly turned on right now? Soaking wet? About to come the minute I touch you?”
Nadine swatted at his shoulder, and Dylan just made out the flush in her cheeks as she turned her head away.
“If I wasn’t so turned on, I would tell you to go back to your own bed and never talk to me again,” Nadine whispered, her voice sharp and tight with desire.
Dylan chuckled, wrapping his arms around her waist tightly. He picked her up easily, balancing her weight as he rose from his crouch; Dylan smiled to himself, appreciating the solidity of Nadine’s body, the crush of her breasts against his chest, the flex of her muscles as she unconsciously wrapped her legs around his hips to steady herself against him.
“I can feel how wet you are,” Dylan murmured against her ear, almost breathing the words. He shifted her weight against him; his cock throbbed at the sensation of Nadine’s fluids soaking through the cloth that barely separated their bodies. “Fuck, Nadine…can you feel me?”
“How far away is your bed?”
Dylan chuckled softly, pushing the door wider open and carrying Nadine through it. He kicked the door shut as quietly as he could and tightened his hold on Nadine convulsively; he could see his bed, just a few feet away. He wanted nothing more than to throw the woman in his arms onto it, pounce on her, and rip the clothes off of her body. Dylan took a deep breath to suppress the desire and carefully carried her the rest of the way to his bed, reaching over to the wall to switch the light on. He laid Nadine down and covered her body with his own, kissing her hungrily.
Nadine squirmed and writhed underneath him, pushing her hips down against his, and Dylan growled at the heat of her pressed against his already-throbbing, aching cock. He pawed at her camisole, his lips leaving her mouth to trail along the column of her throat—careful to avoid the area where she’d been cut. He tugged the front of her camisole down, exposing her breasts, and Nadine gasped as Dylan first brought one, then the other, to his mouth, claiming each of her nipples in turn. He nuzzled against her hot skin, sucking and licking, each moan from Nadine’s throat sending more heat coursing through his veins. Dylan’s hands dropped down to Nadine’s hips, his fingers curling underneath the waistband of her pajama pants. Her skin felt hot, soft and silken to touch, and as Dylan kissed a path back up to Nadine’s mouth, his mind filled with speculation about what her already-wet pussy would feel like.
He tugged her pajama pants down and breathed in, catching the scent of her fluids, heady and sweet to his nose.
“Christ, Nadine,” Dylan murmured, catching her lips with his own for a quick, hungry kiss. “I could eat you whole.”
Nadine kicked and squirmed underneath him, twisting her body in the impulse to rid herself of the thin fabric, and Dylan pulled and tugged at the pajama pants until he had gotten them down to her ankles. He buried his face against the uninjured side of Nadine’s neck, reaching one hand up slowly between her thighs. Dylan shuddered as his fingers brushed up against the smooth skin of her labia, her hot fluids coating his skin in an instant as he slid his fingers up and down along the folds.
Nadine gasped, her whole body tensing, and her hips pushing down for better contact, and Dylan took a slow, steadying breath to force down the animal impulses dancing through his brain. He worked his fingers slowly up and down, pressing more and more firmly until he found her clitoris by touch. Dylan groaned against Nadine’s shoulder as he teased her pleasure center, stroking and rubbing, swirling his fingertips in tight circles around the cluster of nerves.
“Oh—oh, oh…oh, fuck…” Nadine’s breaths came sharp and shallow, her breasts moving against Dylan’s chest, her hips bucking and twisting.
Dylan growled low in his throat, rubbing himself against Nadine, nipping and nibbling at her neck, her shoulder, and her lips as he felt her becoming more and more turned on.
“I have to taste you,” Dylan murmured, shaking his head to try and clear it. “You smell so delicious—so fucking good, Nadine.”
“Okay,” she said breathlessly, nodding her consent.
Dylan kissed her quickly on the lips and then slowly worked his way down her body, trailing his lips along the curve of her breasts, the bumps of her ribcage, the line of her abdomen. He nuzzled her hip, breathing in the scent of her arousal, almost shaking from the self-control it took to go slowly. He nipped sharply at the curve of Nadine’s hip, smiling to himself at her startled gasp of pleasure, and then slid down between her legs, spreading them wider, holding her thighs where he wanted them.
Dylan buried his face against Nadine’s slick folds, moaning against her soaking wet skin as his tongue darted out to taste her. Just as he’d thought, Nadine’s fluids tasted of honey and lemon, a sharper undercurrent flowing over his tongue as he nuzzled against her, sucking her silken skin between his lips. He teased her relentlessly, lapping at her inner labia, bringing the tip of his tongue up to just miss the bead of nerves above it and then delving deeper once more. Dylan held Nadine’s bucking, twisting hips down as he worshiped her with his mouth, listening to her moans, smiling against her skin as he tasted and felt her fluids flowing more freely onto his tongue. Dylan had forgotten all about his friend; all he cared about was hearing more of Nadine’s moans, more of the sharp gasps, feeling her body getting hotter, her muscles tightening in little convulsive spasms as she came closer and closer to orgasm.
Dylan brought the tip of his tongue up to Nadine’s pleasure center, giving the bead of nerves a quick swipe before focusing his efforts on it more steadily. He felt the tension growing stronger in his lower body, the heat building up between his hips as Nadine’s moans and cries of pleasure became louder and sharper. Her hips bucked under his arms so much that Dylan struggled to keep her pinned down where he wanted her, and he could feel her slickness coating his chin, his lips, as he sucked and licked the tiny cluster of nerves that brought her so much pleasure.
He focused all of his attention on Nadine, worshiping her with lips and tongue as he felt her body moving underneath him, as he read the growing signs of her climax approaching. He knew the moment when she’d tumbled into orgasm—he felt the flex of muscles across her hips, the spasm that jolted through her, and heard the sharp gasp followed by the long, low moan leaving her lips. Dylan kept up his attentions as he rode through Nadine’s orgasm, flicking his tongue against her pleasure center and dipping down to lap up her sweet-sharp fluids hungrily as she shook and writhed underneath him and around him.
He slowed only when he felt the change in Nadine’s body; Dylan focused on her inner labia as her cries began to soften, as the tremors in her body became more and more erratic. As he felt the tension ebb out of her body, Dylan slowly pulled back, licking his lips clean of the last traces of her fluids, smiling to himself as he looked down at her body. Nadine’s head lie against his pillows, her dark hair scattered against the pale green and white, her cheeks still flushed with desire. Her eyes were closed, her face utterly relaxed, her expression showing the contented satisfaction that Dylan had wanted to see on her. She was still breathing heavily, her breasts rising and falling, muscles along her abdomen, hips, and thighs occasionally twitching in the aftermath of her climax.
“Thank you,” Dylan murmured, pressing his lips in a sloppy kiss against the curve of her left hip.
“Hm?” Nadine opened her eyes, looking down at him with hazy, dreamy confusion. “You’re thanking me?”
Dylan chuckled, slithering up along her body to kiss her briefly on the lips.
“I told you—bears love honey,” he murmured against her lips.
He reached down and found her hand blindly, guiding it towards the hot, rock-hard bulge that had formed in his pajama pants.
“See how much we love it?”
Nadine nodded, the flush in her cheeks deepening. Dylan kissed her again and smiled against her mouth as he felt Nadine dart her tongue out to his lips, tasting herself on him. He let his hands wander all over her body slowly, stroking and caressing; he knew better than to expect her to be perfectly ready for more so soon after a climax—but he also knew, from her pheromones, her arousal was growing once more.
Nadine tugged and fumbled with his clothes, and Dylan helped her with slightly shaking hands, squirming to get out of his tee shirt, slithering as Nadine pulled down the waistband of his pajama pants. He groaned with relief as his cock sprung free of the suddenly constricting confines of his clothes, and heard Nadine’s startled gasp. He saw that she was looking down at his erection and chuckled.
“Not scared of that, are you?” He kissed her temple lightly.
“Not scared,” she said, sounding both proud and uncertain, “just kind of…wow.”
Dylan chuckled again, taking her hand and guiding it back to his throbbing, aching cock.
“That’s flattering,” he murmured against her lips. He groaned as Nadine gave him a slow, experimental stroke, her hand sliding along the full length almost as if she was attempting to measure him. Dylan’s hips bucked as Nadine continued to stroke him slowly, her thumb rubbing against the tip of his cock. “Fuck—Nadine, if you keep doing that, I’m going to come on your stomach in a few minutes.”
Nadine chuckled breathlessly, looking up to meet Dylan’s gaze. He licked his lips and kissed her again, gently pushing her hand away from his throbbing, aching cock. He shifted down between her legs and rocked his hips against hers, rubbing himself along her slick, hot labia. Fuck, she’s just as wet as ever, he thought absently, gritting his teeth as he broke away from Nadine’s lips, struggling with his self-control. He took a deep breath and guided himself against her inner labia, and as Dylan thrust into Nadine’s body slowly, he exhaled in a long, low, growling moan.
Her wet heat wrapped around him, her inner muscles flexing first as if her body was trying to resist him and then as if she was trying to draw him in deeper. Dylan paused as his hips finally pressed flush against Nadine’s, opening his eyes and looking down into her face.
“I need to just…be very still…for a minute,” he murmured, his breath catching in his throat as Nadine’s body tightened around him in a little spasm.
In a few moments, he was just enough in control of himself to begin to move inside of her, pulling almost completely out before thrusting deeper inside of Nadine’s tight, hot, soaking wet pussy. She fell into his rhythm almost immediately, without any sign of hesitation, her hips twisting and bucking underneath him as she met his thrusts. Dylan kissed Nadine everywhere his lips could reach, picking up his pace gradually as the tension mounted in his body. She wrapped her legs around his waist, pushing her hips down to meet his thrusts, her hands wandering all over his body as she moaned and cried out underneath him.
Dylan took his time—able to feel how tight she was—but after what seemed like hours of tortuously slow movements, he gave into the animal impulse working away at his mind and began to thrust harder and faster, catching Nadine’s mouth with a kiss every few movements, trailing his lips down to her breasts to lick and kiss and suck. Nadine’s hands tightened on him, and Dylan felt her fingernails dig into his shoulders as he rubbed up against some secretive spot deep inside her body.
“You okay?”
“God—yes. Yes, I am so okay right now,” Nadine replied, her quick breaths hitching in her throat as her hips twisted down to take him deeper. “If you stop, I swear to god, I’m going to scream.”
Dylan chuckled and continued moving inside of her, reaching one hand down between their bodies. He found her clitoris by touch and began to rub her in counterpoint to his thrusts, the sounds of her cries filling his ears with the sure knowledge that the woman underneath him was on the verge of another orgasm. He held himself back as he teased her and moved inside of her, knowing that it would be so much better if he waited until she’d hit her climax—instinct ruling him as his human consciousness retreated in the heat of his lust.
All at once, he felt the ripple of tension in Nadine’s body, and heard her sharp, sudden cry of pleasure. Dylan rode through her second orgasm, thrusting into her hard and fast, working her pleasure center with his fingertips as his own pleasure reached its peak. He gave into every last animal impulse, his hips slapping against Nadine’s as he fell into his own orgasm with abandon. Dylan growled long and low as wave after wave of pleasure washed through him, driving out even animal thoughts, driving away everything but the sensation of Nadine’s body wrapped around his, the smell of her sweat and arousal, the sensation of the orgasm tingling through every nerve in his body. He held onto the climax for as long as he could, groaning as he felt the spasms beginning to abate.
Dylan collapsed to the bed next to Nadine, sliding out of her body but not quite breaking free of the lax grip her legs had around his waist as his strength left him in a rush. He panted, struggling to catch his breath, and grabbed at Nadine’s face, pulling her around to kiss her on the lips as the pleasure continued to burn through him.
“God, woman—you’re amazing,” he murmured breathlessly, letting her go and draping his arm around her waist. He took a deep breath and exhaled as slowly as he could, opening his eyes and turning his head to look over at the dark-haired woman next to him. Nadine had the same flushed, contented, satisfied look on her face, her eyes hazy with pleasure, her lips curved in an almost-smile that grew when she felt his gaze on her.
“That was intense,” Nadine said in between panting gasps for breath. Dylan nodded.
“It was,” he agreed. He cupped one of her breasts in his hand, giving it a careful, playful squeeze.
“Is this going to be okay with Matthew?” Dylan glanced at Nadine sharply. “The last thing I want is for the two guys who are supposed to be protecting me getting all…macho or something.”
“If Matthew wants you,” Dylan started, licking his lips, “would you go with him?”
Nadine bit her bottom lip and shrugged.
“Not if it was going to lead to a fight, obviously,” she said, shaking her head.
“But you like him,” Dylan said, making it almost a question.
Nadine shrugged again. “On second thought, let’s just not even talk about this,” she said, meeting his gaze.
Dylan saw that the hazy pleasure had evaporated, replaced by doubt in her eyes, and he leaned in closer, kissing her lightly on the lips.
“Give me about five minutes,” he told her in a low murmur, “and neither of us will be in any shape to talk about anything.”
*
Matthew tugged the blankets over his head, trying to deny the light streaming in through his windows for just a little while longer. He buried his face against the pillows, groaning at the thought of getting up. It was entirely too early; it was always too early when he woke up. Matthew sighed. And of course, it doesn’t help that people fucking kept you up half the night when you could have been sleeping.
The fact of Dylan coaxing Nadine into his bed didn’t—exactly—bother Matthew. The fact that his longtime friend had been having loud, and obviously incredibly satisfying, sex, wasn’t an issue. Matthew had run into were-bears mating in the woods in their animal forms as well as in their human forms more than once when he’d still been a teenager; he was the last person to be offended at the fact of two people having sex. But if he was honest with himself, Matthew was a little envious; and in addition to that envy, the lack of sleep caused by the moaning, the cries of pleasure, the panting that had filled his ears for most of the night was more than a little frustrating.
Matthew turned onto his back, opening his eyes to look up at the blanket that covered his face. You might as well get over it, and fast, he told himself firmly. No matter that Dylan had suggested that they could easily share Nadine between them. Matthew had very little optimism for the notion that Nadine—a normal human, not even another shifter—would be okay with being shared by two men. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, fluttering the sheet over his face. Should have moved quicker. Should have gotten to know her better and sooner. That’s it.
Matthew threw his legs over the edge of the bed and shoved the blanket away from his body, rolling out from between the sheets and rising to his feet in one quick, fluid movement. He scrubbed at his face and rubbed the heels of his palms against his eyes, stretching against the tightness he could feel in his shoulders and back. He yawned and padded to the door of his bedroom, reaching for the knob by memory. It had only been a little over two weeks since they’d rented the house, but he was already starting to get used to it.
He opened the door and stepped into the short hallway separating his bedroom from the living room, and Matthew heard low voices—Dylan and Nadine’s—murmuring.
“We made coffee,” Dylan called out from somewhere in the vicinity of the kitchen.
He’s been listening for me to get up, Matthew realized. He smiled slightly to himself and walked through the living room and into the kitchen. A full pot of coffee waited, and Matthew took his time pouring, adding the sugar he liked and a dollop of half and half before stirring it all up and taking a sip.
“You two had a good night,” Matthew called over his shoulder in the direction of the sun room—he thought that was almost certainly where they were. “At least it sounded like that from where I was lying in bed not sleeping.”
“Sorry about that,” Nadine said.
Matthew steeled himself against the envy he knew he would feel and carried his coffee mug into the sun room. The sight of Nadine and Dylan, dressed in their pajamas and seated at the small, round table greeted him. Matthew could smell the difference in their pheromones, and there was a subtle shift in their body language that would have told him that they’d had sex the night before if he hadn’t already known, but there was no obvious display of affection; no holding hands, nothing that a normal human would necessarily register as proof of their attachment.
“It happens,” Matthew said. He pulled one of the remaining chairs free of the table and sat down, taking another sip of his coffee. “I’m just glad someone is getting laid.”
“Are you though?” Dylan raised an eyebrow, and Matthew met his friend’s intent gaze blandly.
“What difference does it make?” Matthew shrugged. He felt envious of Dylan—his friend not only was getting laid, but it was obvious to him that Nadine was well worth any amount of effort it took to convince her to get into bed—but he had never let his envy rule him before. He told himself that he wasn’t going to start letting it rule him when it came to a beautiful woman.
“I was thinking,” Dylan said, pressing his lips together and pausing as he watched for Matthew’s reaction, “that if Nadine is up for it, we could both have her. Share her.” Matthew saw Dylan’s gaze shift onto the woman’s face. “Not in a possessive sense, in the sense of she would be with both of us.”
Matthew snorted. “Does she have you kowtowing already?” He grinned.
“Personally I like to continue getting laid once I find out that someone’s great in bed,” Dylan said shamelessly, shrugging off the insult.
“I don’t want Nadine to have sex with me because you two feel bad for pairing off,” Matthew said.
“I’m not saying she would do that,” Dylan told him firmly. “I’m saying that if she’s into you, and she’s into me, and we both have needs…” He spread his hands wide. “We’ve never fought each other over anything. We’ve always shared everything—right?”
Matthew considered the question carefully. It was true that he and Dylan had always shared anything that they had; even as kids, if one of them had some form of treat from their parents, they shared it together. But they had always carefully avoided going after the same women. There were rules in their particular clan—one of those rules included the fact that if two men fought over a woman, or two women over a man, they were punished by the sleuth. Matthew knew there were a few bears of the older generation that occasionally slept around. While bears typically mated for life, that didn’t mean they didn’t occasionally fool around with other bears, or even other shifters, within certain bounds.
“I don’t want it to be a set-up thing,” Matthew said finally, and turned his attention to Nadine. “If you want to get to know me, and you want me…then that’s one thing. But I don’t want you to come onto me just because Dylan wants to keep the peace or you feel bad for me.” He scowled at the two of them. “Don’t make this weird, either of you two. We have more than enough problems facing us as it is.”
“He’s not wrong,” Dylan said, glancing at Nadine. “We should probably do a perimeter check,” he added, turning his attention back onto Matthew. “Together.”
“What about Nadine?” Matthew gestured with his mug in the one-natured human’s direction. “Is she coming with us on the perimeter check?”
“She’s going to stay here.” Dylan touched Nadine’s shoulder when she started to protest, and for the first time, Matthew felt the first real, true spurt of envy gush through him at the sight of the familiar touch. It had been one thing to hear them having sex, another to see them sitting next to each other, but something about that casual, dominant touch gave Matthew a jolt of desire to have that same connection with the woman who’d received it. “We’ll work on getting you ready to hold your own against a bunch of fucking lions,” Dylan told her, “but you’re still injured and you’re not ready for it.”
“I hate to gang up on you,” Matthew said, smiling wryly at Nadine, “but he’s got a point. Even without the stitches and the busted ankle, you’d find it hard to take on—say—three or four lions. And we still don’t know how many of them there are.”
Nadine pressed her lips together, but after a moment she subsided, taking a sip of her coffee and looking away.
“I’m going to go get dressed in some real clothes,” Dylan said, standing quickly and putting his coffee mug down.
Matthew watched his best friend leave and then glanced at Nadine, wondering what thoughts were going through her mind. Emotions flickered across her face quickly; her cheeks lit with dusky pink and then paled, her eyes moved without focusing, and her lips twitched in a way that told him that whatever she was thinking, it left her in a confused welter of feelings. That makes two of us, Matthew thought wryly.
“All that fuss over whether you’d borrow one of our beds and you ended up having sex with him at the end of it,” Matthew said, smiling to take any sting out of the words.
“I…” Nadine sighed and shrugged, her cheeks taking on a deeper pink tone as she tried to meet his level gaze.
“I’m not trying to make you feel bad about it,” Matthew told her. “From what I’ve heard, Dylan is worth screwing around with. Maybe, if we’d ever swung that way, our problems would all be solved.”
Nadine looked at him in shock, and then laughed.
“Okay,” she said, smiling slowly. “That makes it a little less awkward, I have to admit.”
Matthew grinned, finishing off his coffee in a few fast gulps.
“I should probably get dressed too,” he told her, rising reluctantly. “Dylan gets impatient if he’s ready to go and has to wait for anyone else.”
“I heard that!”
Matthew snorted and caught the amusement flickering through Nadine’s eyes at the sound of Dylan’s voice.
“Is it a lie?” Matthew walked away from the table, crossing into the living room. Dylan appeared at the entrance of the hall that led to his bedroom, half-dressed but smiling.
“No, it’s not,” he admitted, his grin broadening. “Get dressed, asshole, and stop putting me down so you can get your innings in with the pretty woman.”
Matthew rolled his eyes and turned into the hall that led to his room and the bathroom. He exhaled as he walked through his door, shaking off the fleeting and difficult-to-define envy that came and went through his mind, twisting his thoughts around. Part of his brain thought Dylan’s solution was a brilliant one; if Dylan and Matthew could share Nadine—if she would consent to it, if she could enjoy being paired with two different bears—neither of them would have to even think about finding anyone else. They could focus on work, and on assimilating into the neutral territory, once they got rid of the threat from the lions. But another part of his mind insisted that it was a total pipe dream. No matter how much he and Dylan had shared in the past, Matthew wasn’t confident of their ability to share a woman.
Matthew stripped off his pajamas, striding to his dresser and opening up the lower drawers to pull out something to wear. He pushed thoughts of Nadine—and whatever possible future he could have with her, sharing her with Dylan—out of his mind, instead focusing on what he and Dylan needed to do next. We need to figure out just how big a threat this group of lions is. We need to find out if they know where we are. And we need to just get the fuck rid of them, one way or another. Matthew glanced at his reflection in the mirror and decided that as soon as he and Dylan came back from their perimeter check, he was going to get a shower and shave.