I woke with a start, my heart pounding and my breath gasping loudly in the silence of my bedroom. A rough hand circled my waist, and the heady scent of pine trees washed over me and calmed me instantly.

“Shhhhh,” a smooth voice whispered in my ear. “It's just me, Kitten. I couldn't wait until the morning to see that you were okay.”

“River.” I sighed, relaxing back into him where he lay on his side behind me. Cole was to my other side, still fast asleep with his face turned towards me on the pillow and his dark eyelashes fanning across his cheeks.

“Are the others here too?” I whispered back, tilting my head slightly so I could see him without having to move from his embrace.

“Not yet,” he murmured back. “We were all split up, chasing down leads on where you might have ended up. This wanker was the first to find out you were back and didn't tell the rest of us so he could get some alone time with you.” He sounded annoyed but at the same time a little impressed at his friend’s sneakiness.

“So how did you know?” I asked, smiling to myself at Cole's act of possessiveness.

“Director Pierre called me as soon as you landed.” Of course that made sense that River, being the team leader, would be the one Jonathan called. But then how did Cole find out first? I made a mental note to ask him in the morning.

“So are you?” he prompted. “Okay, I mean.” For once, the supremely dominant team leader sounded unsure, and it made me feel sick that I had caused them so much worry.

“I am,” I whispered firmly. “We can debrief tomorrow, but for now please believe me when I say nothing truly bad happened to me.”

My open curtains allowed enough light into the room that I could see his unique golden eyes clearly. He stared intently at me with a frown creasing his forehead.

I quirked a cheeky smile at him and stole a quick kiss from his lips while he seemed lost in thought. He recovered faster than I expected and cupped my cheek in his hand, holding my face still. Gently, he pressed his mouth back to mine, his velvet lips stroking softly and slowly as though he were telling me a secret.

My body flushed with an urgent heat once more as I melted under his lips and parted my own, begging him to take it further. True to form though, River was in total control and kept teasing me with his lazy, languid kisses while holding my face immobile in his huge palm. It was driving me wild.

From the position I was in, with him spooning me and just my face tilted back, there wasn’t much I could do to try and break his control. I wiggled a little, intending to roll over, but was stopped by his hand shifting down to my hip to hold me still.

“River…” I sighed with a bit of a whine.

“Shhhhh, love,” he whispered, his warm breath sending goosebumps down my neck and causing my heart to race. “Don’t wriggle around; you’ll wake Sleeping Beauty.”

I bit back a snicker at his words and glanced over at the Sleeping Beauty in question. Cole was still in the same position, fast asleep on his side facing us, and looking like something straight out of a dirty dream, all naked and muscled, wrapped with tattoos and just barely covered by one of my purple bedsheets.

“Aw, he looks so peaceful,” I whispered with a little giggle and felt River’s hand smooth down over my naked hip and back up again while his lips nibbled the back of my neck.

“Mmm, it looks like someone has worn him out. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you, Kitten?”

“Who me?” My breath caught as his roving hand got ever so slightly closer to where I wanted it.

“Yes, love. You. Perhaps it has something to do with why you are completely”—his hand dipped closer still—“and utterly”—his finger dragged a long, slow line down my center—“naked right now?”

Holy fucking yes. I gasped a bit too loudly as his teasing fingers followed through on their promise, and had to clamp my mouth shut when Cole stirred a little in his sleep.

“Quietly, Kitten. What did I say about not waking Aurora over there?” I could hear the edge of laughter in his voice as he murmured in my ear with that sexy-as-fuck accent of his, but he gave me no reprieve from his restless fingers, which made me bite my lip and arch backward into him.

“Fuck, Alpha…” I breathed out as quietly as I possibly could and exacted a little revenge on him by arching my back even further and cozying my rear end up to his hard cock. My free hand reached for his hip, dragging him closer, and was pleasantly surprised to find him already stripped down to just a small pair of boxer briefs.

“Underwear?” I teased, “I thought you were a commando man?”

“We all need to make exceptions in the winter, love. But I can remedy that now for you…” he purred into my neck, withdrawing his hand long enough to divest himself of the offensive garment, then he was right back, this time with his hot length pressed tight against my rear.

“Jesus, fuck…” I hissed as he returned his hand to between my legs, playing me like a violin, and I felt his lips curve to a grin against my neck.

“Kitten, can you be quiet or do I need to leave…?” he teased, his fingers withdrawing once more and this time running slowly down my leg until he reached my knee. He then lifted it to slip his own leg underneath, leaving me wide open and exposed.

“I can be quiet.” I nodded, a little desperately, and my words must have been quiet enough because he shifted his hips, pressing his thick erection inside me from his big spoon position. I clamped my lips tight and shut my eyes to keep from crying out as he started moving slowly, so slowly, and the waves of pleasure rolled over me. From the position we were in, I was completely helpless to change the pace so could do nothing but surrender to his control as he increased and decreased speed seemingly randomly, always keeping me teetering right on the edge of orgasm. The only sounds in the room were the muffled moans and pants coming from both of us as we rocked together.

Right as I was about to break my promise to keep quiet and scream at him to quit messing with me, a cool hand slid down my belly to tease at my clit while two warm ones circled my rib cage to cup my breasts. My delirious brain took a second to do the math on that, then my eyes snapped open and found a heavy-lidded pair of granite gray ones gazing back at me from inches away.

Cole grinned a wicked grin at me as his fingers stroked and tweaked my sensitive flesh while River finally increased his pace until I really did break my silence, screaming my release at the same time as River gasped out his own, his fingers tightening on my nipples and crashing me into a wild aftershock.

“Sorry,” I finally gasped once I had regained enough of my breath to speak. “Did we wake you?” I gave Cole a naughty grin and heard River snort a laugh into my hair where his face had landed. Cole smirked at me, then leaned in for a hot kiss.

“I’m a highly trained secret agent, Vixen. No one sneaks up on me. Least of all this lead-footed dickhead.” He quirked an eyebrow, exactly the same as Vali had been able to do. “I’ve been awake since he came in the room.”

“No pun intended?” River snickered, still with his face buried in my hair. I groaned at the terrible joke while Cole snorted and rolled his eyes.

“Well, there’s a side I hadn’t seen from the two of you…” I murmured dryly.

“What’s that, Kitten?” River asked, lifting his head to look at me. “Our ménage proclivities?”

“No, dirty jokes. That was an appalling one, by the way, and something I would have expected from Caleb,” I teased. Both men gave me indignant looks, and I laughed freely, feeling more relaxed than I had in far too long.

“All right, back to sleep,” I announced with a long yawn. “I don’t think I have slept more than a couple of hours in days. Wake me up when the others get here, please!” I snuggled around a little until I was comfortable between them and closed my eyes.

“Where are the others anyway?” I heard Cole murmur to River as he cuddled into my body.

“Gave them a false lead. They’ll work it out soon, though; I couldn’t be too cruel.” River chuckled as he pressed a light kiss on my shoulder. “They’re still going to be pissed when they arrive, though.”