by James Tate
I groaned because I wasn't totally capable of words and watched with hungry eyes as he stood up and stripped his shirt off one-handed. Fuck, that was hot. Where did guys even learn that skill?
"So?" he prompted, unbuckling his belt. "Are you staying the night?"
A dazed smile played across my lips, and an emotion way too soft and fuzzy to just be lust filled me. Fucking hell, how did we get from hate to... this so damn fast?
"It's cute that you're even asking," I told him, licking my dry lips. Orgasms always seemed to dry my mouth out, like all the moisture got sucked south. "But..."
Archer's brows shot up, and he paused with his pants halfway open. "But?" He sounded so shocked it almost made me laugh. It was such a fine line between confidence and arrogance.
"But," I repeated, biting my lip, "it's Steele's first night out of the hospital."
Archer just stared at me for a moment like he wasn't totally sure if I was serious or not. Then he sighed. "Bastard," he muttered. "Next time I'll have to get shot instead."
My eyes narrowed. "Don't you fucking dare."
He just shrugged, then stripped his jeans off the rest of the way. Then his boxer briefs. "Well, shit. Now what do I do with all of this?" he asked, fisting his hard cock in a way, way too sexy way.
It was on the tip of my tongue to offer up a quickie... but this was Archer, not Kody, and our whole dynamic worked off our never-ending desire to piss each other off. So I just grinned and stood up, tugging Steele's T-shirt back over my bare ass.
"I figure you've got this... handled, big guy." I rose up on my tiptoes, pressing a quick kiss to his lips. "But make sure you think of me."
With a quick, sultry wink, I ducked back out of his bedroom and hurried back into Steele's before I cracked up laughing. But honestly, the dumbstruck look on his face as I'd left his room had been pure gold.
My heart still thundering, I checked the time and grabbed Steele's painkillers from the dresser, placing them on the nightstand instead so he could take them easily when my alarm went off. Then I slipped back under the covers, trying my best not to disturb his sleep.
I should have known better, though. He stirred immediately, rolling over, snaking a tight arm around my waist, and pulling me into his warm embrace.
"Hellcat," he mumbled, his voice thick with sleep as he buried his face in my hair. "You smell like Archer."
I tensed up, a wave of panic sweeping through me. It was one thing for them all to be knowingly sharing me; it was kind of another for me to bed-hop within the same night. Wasn't it?
"He had something to tell me," I replied, then bit my lip at the half-truth. Steele was no idiot, though, and he knew Archer all too well. He just chuckled against my hair, his grip on my stomach shifting lower until he found my still slick cunt.
He let out a small groan as his fingers danced over my heat, and his own hard length nudged at my back. "I fucking bet he did," he muttered, sliding one of those long, talented fingers into me.
I whimpered under his touch, feeling a swirl of guilt and excitement and... fuck knows what else. It seemed so wrong to come straight from Archer tongue-fucking me to Steele—he withdrew his fingers then hitched my leg up, sinking his cock into me with a low groan—actually fucking me.
Fuck it. Wrong never felt so good.
6
In the morning I left Steele to sleep and hurried back to my own room to shower and change. It wasn't until after I'd dried off and found fresh clothes that I checked my messages.
Sure enough, there was a missed call from Demi from the night before, along with a message that she'd try calling Archer. It was the next message—from Archer D'Ath—that made me blush, though.
The time stamp said it'd been sent about fifteen minutes after I'd left Archer’s bedroom. Probably right around the time Steele was coming all over my tits.
There was no text in the message, just a video link.
Biting my lip with anticipation, I clicked on the play button because good god, I'd give Alice a run for her money chasing that white rabbit. Archer's hard cock filled my screen, his fist wrapped around it as he took care of business, and I grinned. Shaking my head, I saved the video into a folder to watch later. Minus pants.
Of fucking course, he had to have the last word on that one. Too bad he didn't know I was busy with Steele when the message came through.
"Babe!" Kody called out from down the hallway. "You up here?"
Tucking my phone into my pocket—along with my butterfly knife—I exited my bedroom and found Kody coming down the hall toward me. "Sure am, what's up?"
He grimaced. "Is Steele awake? The gate guards just called. There was a package delivered overnight."
Sick anxiety rolled through me, and I swallowed heavily. "Um, no, not yet." I shook my head, my brain already rolling with ideas of what could be in today's package. "No, he's still asleep. We should leave him to rest, anyway."
Kody gave me a smirk. "Yeah, you guys rested real hard last night." He winked, heading for Steele's bedroom door. "Besides, he'll wanna see this one." He turned to shoot me a worried look as he pushed Steele's door open. "It's addressed to him."
Shock held me immobile as Kody barged into Steele's room and yanked his blankets off in one harsh tug. "Wake up, you half-dead bastard," he ordered in a loving manner. "MK's stalker sent you a present."
Steele groaned in protest as he rolled onto his back, making no attempt to cover his half-hard morning dick. "What the fuck, Kody?" he mumbled. "Fuck off."
"Jesus Christ, man," Kody hissed, standing at the foot of the bed with his nose wrinkled in horror. "Put that away! Just looking at all that metal hurts my own dick. Fucking hell, you seriously did want to punish yourself."
A smug smile crossed Steele's lips, and he cracked his eyes open to look up at Kody. His hand drifted down to his cock, as if to highlight the piercings. "Don't be jealous, bro. Hellcat loves them."
"Okay!" I snapped, parking my hands on my hips where I stood in the doorway. "That's enough of that."
Steele shot his gaze to me, clearly seeing me there for the first time as his sleep haze faded. "Oops, sorry gorgeous. He started it."
I rolled my eyes, marched across to his pills on the dresser, and measured two out into my hand while Kody threw clothes at his friend.
"Here." I handed the pain meds to Steele as he sat up with a small groan. "Don't even try and tell me you don't need them." I arched a brow at him, silently reminding him of the less-than-gentle exercise from the night before.
He smirked back but took the pills. "Thanks, gorgeous. I could get used to this Florence Nightingale routine, you know?"
Kody groaned. "Stop it, dickhead. Now I'm picturing MK in a slutty nurse costume when we have a stalker package to open downstairs." He looped his arm around my waist, then dipped and flipped me over his shoulder.
I let out a surprised shriek and smacked his ass, but Kody just laughed.
"Babe, come on, let's leave the Tin Man to get dressed in private. Otherwise we will never get this package open, and it already kinda smells bad." He spun around, gave Steele a mocking salute, then carried me out of the room.
He didn't put me down when we reached the stairs, just bounced down them like he was carrying a load of laundry, not a whole, grown person.
"Kody," I huffed, "I can walk."
He smacked my ass, conveniently located beside his head. "I'm aware." When we reached the kitchen, he finally put me down on the countertop beside my espresso machine, and I gave him an unamused glare.
"Happy now?" I asked, sarcastic as fuck.
He clasped my face between his hands, bringing my lips to his for a kiss that completely took my breath away and turned me to putty under his touch.
"Now I am," he replied, his voice husky and dark as he released me. His hands trailed down my arms, then he looped his arms around my waist. "Good morning, babe."
I grinned. I couldn't fucking help myself, everything Kody did made me grin. He was impossible to
stay mad at, even when he'd just caveman-carried me out of Steele's room.
"Did Archer tell you we have a date with Demi Timber tonight?" I asked, snaking my own arms around his neck because, damn, I just loved being near him.
Kody nodded, then dipped his face to kiss my neck. "He did. I'm guessing this isn't about your divorce if he knows about it."
A small sigh escaped my chest. "No, I don't imagine so, although she didn't give any details. But I told her not to bother with that... for now."
Kody stiffened with tension, his lips pausing against my neck. "You're staying married to him?" He pulled away a short distance, a frown creasing his brow and his eyes searching mine.
"No," I was quick to reply. "Not... I don't know. No, I'm not. I'm too young to even think about marriage, right? No, I just meant that we have way bigger problems to deal with. The whole divorce thing can be put on hold until after people stop trying to kill us all. Besides, it wouldn't really do much for the fake wedding if anyone found out I was already applying for a divorce."
Crap on a cracker, even I thought I was protesting too hard on that subject, but it was like verbal diarrhea.
He still looked uneasy, but he made a visible effort to clear the frown from his brow as he shrugged. "Yeah, good point. Anyway, I told Dave to keep the package outside this time. He's got it in the security office with Arch right now."
I cringed. I didn’t even remotely want to see what had been delivered, yet I knew we needed to.
"Alright, let's go check it out," I said, hearing Steele coming down the stairs to join us.
Kody reached around my espresso machine and produced my huge travel mug, already full of coffee just the way I liked it. I beamed and took the mug with a happy hum.
Taking a sip, I groaned. Kody's barista skills had definitely improved. "Aww, you do like me," I teased, then licked the edge of my mug as I met his eyes.
He just smirked back. "Babe, I love you." Kody playfully slapped my thigh. "Let's go."
He stepped back to give me some space to slide down off the counter, just in time for Steele to scuff into the kitchen with a sleepy scowl on his face.
"Where's the creepy gift?" he asked, glaring at Kody, then spotting my coffee in my hands. "Hellcat..." He held his hand out, his eyes pleading.
"Shit no," I replied with a laugh, holding my coffee closer to my chest. "Get your own."
Steele started to pout—damn it, he was going to win me over with that—but Kody saved the damn day by producing an extra travel mug.
"Here, cyborg," he said, handing Steele the coffee, "don't say I never do anything nice."
Steele took the coffee, sipped it, then glared. "Cyborg's are part machine, not just metal. Keep thinking, bro."
Heading out of the kitchen with my coffee safely in hand, I rolled my eyes at the two of them. At the front door I stuffed my feet into a pair of Ugg boots, then headed outside. The new security office—new, since we never used to need security like this—was around the corner of the house in what used to be a storeroom.
The door was open, but before I got there, our cook—Anna, not Karen like I’d thought her name was for way too damn long—came rushing out with her hands pressed to her mouth.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," she exclaimed when we almost collided. Tears streaked her face, and her hands were shaking as she reached out to steady me. "I'm so sorry; I wasn't looking."
I shook my head, dismissing her apology. "It's fine, Anna. What's going on? Why are you upset?" Worry and anger rippled through me. If one of the guards had been harassing her—
"It's so silly," she told me with a self-deprecating laugh. "I don't even know why I'm so upset. I didn't even know the poor thing. It's just..." She trailed off, shaking her head. "I think I must be getting soft in my old age."
Confused as hell, I made no move to stop her when she reached out to hug me. It was just a quick squeeze, but still left me a bit shell-shocked. Aside from the guys and Bree, I couldn’t remember anyone hugging me since my mom died.
"I need to get back to work," she told me with a soft smile, then extended it to Kody and Steele behind me. "I'm cooking a proper roast for your dinner tonight, and if I find pizza boxes in the morning, someone will feel my wrath, understood?" She seemed to already be pulling herself together, sniffing away the last of her tears. "You four need to eat some good food. Especially you, Max Steele."
Kody and I shared a grin. Steele was usually the first to suggest pizzas. Now he was catching Anna's ire for all the beautiful meals we'd never ended up eating.
"Yes ma'am," he mumbled, sounding sufficiently scolded.
Anna nodded, parking her hands on her hips. "Good. I've gone ahead and changed my hours to be sure you're all eating better. Not only is it important for your health, it seems to me that you just keep tempting fate with all these take-out dinners. Don't you realize how easily someone could poison your food? Good lord, for some smart people, you're very stupid sometimes."
She walked away without waiting for our response, and I couldn't escape the rush of embarrassment that swept over me. Goddamn it, she was right. No pizza or Chinese was good enough to risk my guys being poisoned.
"Shit," Kody cursed, "she has a point on that one."
"Dammit," Steele muttered. "I like pizza."
I scrubbed a hand over my face and glared at them both. "Guys, how many freaking times have we basically opened the damn door for someone to poison us? I'm feeling next-level stupid right now. But more to the point, why was Anna crying just now?"
"She found the package," Archer said from behind me. I spun around and found him leaning on the door frame with his arms folded and a grim look on his face. "It was in the driveway when she got back from the grocery store this morning."
"Well shit," Steele muttered, "don't keep us in suspense. What's he sent this time?"
Archer just stepped back, indicating we enter the little security office.
Inside, Sampson—our head of security—and Dave the gate-guard were standing around one of the desks, looking somewhat repulsed. The gift box sat there seeming innocent enough—or it would if we hadn't already received countless similar packages. There was a stomach-churning odor in the small office, and I immediately blocked my nose.
Whatever was in the box, it wasn't flowers and chocolates.
"Addressed to me this time?" Steele murmured, coming closer to the box to read the label scrawled across the top. "I take it you've already looked inside?"
Dave grimaced. "I wish we hadn't."
Sampson huffed an annoyed sound. "Be glad you weren't here to deal with the human heart before Christmas, then. You can head back to the gate now."
The gate-guard didn't protest as he hurried out of the office, leaving us alone with Sampson and the box.
"Weak-stomached fuck," Sampson grumbled. "Gonna have to fix that if he wants to keep working here."
Steele just raised a brow, then reached out to flip the lid off the box and reveal its contents. I was still breathing through my mouth, but I could tell by the way Steele blanched the smell had gotten worse.
"Sick fuck," he muttered, peering into the box with a scowl. "Is there a note?"
"Underneath," Archer replied. "We didn't want to disturb things until you'd seen it as is."
I took a step forward, needing to see what my stalker had decided to send to Steele directly. If it was a Ken doll, I might die laughing.
"Oh, come on," I groaned, seeing what was causing the smell. Inside the gift box was a very dead cat. A gray one, wearing a name tag and collar. This was someone's pet. Fucking hell.
Sampson held out a pair of latex gloves to Steele, who placed his coffee down, then pulled them onto his hands. Gingerly, he reached into the box and moved the dead cat until we could read the name tag. Max.
Somehow, my stalker had managed to find someone's pet cat called Max with fur in a soft shade of gray all too similar to Steele's eyes. Or his name.
Carefully, Steele extracted the note from und
er the cat and laid it on the desk, then he pulled a bullet casing from the box to lay beside the note.
Welcome home, Max Steele. You must be almost out of lives by now.
Then, on the bullet casing: LUCKY CAT.
"Well, someone's pissed that he's a lousy shot," Kody murmured.
Archer and Steele were all but vibrating with anger, though, and I got the distinct impression I was missing something important.
"You guys know something more," I accused. "Spill it."
The two of them exchanged a long look, then Steele snapped his latex gloves off with a heavy sigh and an angry headshake.
"Cat," Archer replied, his voice a furious rumble, "is what Steele used to call you."
I frowned, confused. "What? No, I've always been Hellcat to him."
Archer gave a grim laugh, shaking his head. "Not now. Back when we first met, when you were eleven. He changed it to Hellcat when he started thinking about your nails dragging down his back during sex."
"Shut up," Steele snapped, glaring. "Sex had nothing to do with it."
Kody snorted a laugh. "Sure it didn't."
I held my hands up, my brain whirling. "Wait. Hold up. You're saying my stalker knew what you called me almost eight years ago when we hung out for three weeks?"
Steele just shrugged. "It could be a coincidence."
"Nothing about this sick fuck is a coincidence," Sampson commented, folding his thick arms over his chest and scowling down at the dead cat. "He was stalking your mom back then, Madison Kate. He would have known, and this is a deliberate message to Steele."
"So what does the message say?" Kody looked to Steele and Archer. It was pointless to ask me; I remembered nothing of meeting them prior to Riot Night.
Archer looked to Steele, who just gave a shrug.
"No idea," he muttered. "Sampson, can you document this and dispose of it?"
Our head of security assured us he would, then Steele exited the office without making eye contact with me. When he was gone, no one else made any move to follow him.