CHAPTER16
Sig
Sighing, I shook my head in exasperation. Every time it seemed like we made headway with her she set us back a few paces. Rafe told me I was too impatient and he was right. I didn’t have the ability to wait for her to come to me the way he did.
“I’m just learning about you,” I admitted. “Are you always so suspicious?”
“You’re the ones who speak in another language to avoid me hearing your conversations,” she said with a haughty attitude.
She had me there. Granted we only did that when we were talking about her or Roj. If she heard some of the things we said about her she’d run screaming into the desert and never look back. My cock thickened as I pictured her sprawled out on the log, Arsen between her thighs and her squirming as he ate her pussy.
Fuck, I was jealous of him for that. After making her come, we’d all agreed to not touch her for a few days. This was a lot to take for anyone, but she’d been dragged into this life with us, kicking and screaming, less than a week ago. We planned to give her time to adjust. It was just so damn hard to keep our hands to ourselves because she was so sexy.
Even now, her dark hair was spread across the sand, face illuminated by the rising moon. I wanted to roll on top of her and kiss her until she was moaning my name. I wanted to fuck her until she screamed.
“Draco.”
Her voice was soft and had a husky quality to it that seemed to affect me each time she spoke. I watched her outline the stars as I’d done.
“Dragon’s head,” I said, giving the Arabic translation.
“I always wanted a dragon,” she admitted with a laugh. “Chas teased that if I had one it’d end up-” she broke off and looked away.
A frown pulled at my brows and I wondered who Chas was. Hearing her speak so fondly of another man brought about an anger inside me. Or at least it would have had sadness not filled her face when she spoke of him. Instead, it brought out something I almost never feel. Empathy. She sat up. “We should go back.”
I followed her back into the camp. We’d taken to keeping the fire going a little longer and staying up a bit later now that we were on a break. It gave us a chance to spend more time with her. For the guy who’d been against keeping her in the beginning, I was definitely all in now. At this point, I wasn’t sure I could let her go if someone tried to make me.
I knew the others felt the same. She was like an addiction. Each moment spent with her pulled us further and further in. None of us were struggling to escape her trap. We’d happily succumbed to it. She was the only one who was holding out. We could all feel it, though last night she’d seemed to turn a corner.
As we walked up Rafe called out. “Want to play a game, Pet?”
I saw the muscles in Colby’s shoulders tighten at the name. We all knew she didn’t like it, but that was part of the reason Rafe continued to use it. He really could be a dick sometimes. He couldn’t give her an inch. He had to stay under her skin at all times. It was his way of tying her to him as irrevocably as I hoped to do with fun and laughter, the way Arsen would with kindness and protection.
“What kind?” she asked hesitantly, eyes sliding over to Arsen.
I think we were all remembering back to the ending of the card game she and Arsen had played.
Rafe tossed something at her and to my surprise she caught it. It shouldn’t have, she was a capable woman—Arabic aside. Seeing the way she’d stabbed that bastard at the market was all the proof I needed of her hand-eye coordination. On top of that, she was smart, her brains were as sexy as the rest of her.
Looking over her shoulder, I saw he’d tossed her the Queen from our chessboard. Arsen had carved the pieces himself. It would have been quicker and easier for Rafe to procure us a board, but it’d given Arsen something to do when we’d first gotten out here.
In the beginning we’d gone as stir crazy as Colby was, but we’d gotten used to it. In fact, there was something to be said about living off the land, surviving on your wits and connections, and we were all kind of enjoying it.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t going to splurge when we got back to civilization and buy every creature comfort I could think of, but for now, this was working for us.
She sat down on the log across from Rafe, staring down at the table with the chess board on it. I’d never liked the game. I was a checkers man. Rafe and Arsen enjoyed it, though, and now Colby too. This game was played with clothes on, much to my disappointment.
By the time they finished the game it was time for bed and my body was buzzing. It was my turn to sleep with her in my cot and I was ready to have her pressed up against me.
She was pouting a little because Rafe had won the game. “Don’t worry, Gorgeous,” I told her. “No one ever beats him at chess.”
Challenge sparked in her eyes and I chuckled. She’d be doing her best to beat him from now on. I liked watching her battle with him. I hoped she won.
Holding my hand out to her as I crawled onto my cot in just my underwear, I helped her in. She had pulled off her own pants, but slept in her t-shirt, bra, and panties.
As soon as she was tucked up against me, I ran my hand up her thigh. She didn’t say anything, or move, so I kept up the steady rhythm. After a few strokes I noticed her skin was pebbled. Dipping my head, I spoke into her ear. “Do you like that, Colby?”
A shiver made her tremble against me and I couldn’t help but smile. I arched my hips forward, grinding my dick against her ass, showing her that touching her affected me too.