Chapter 1
The room is dark when I wake up. I can hear the slow steady breathing of someone behind me. Immediately, I know it’s Ares. He has this way of wrapping me up in his arms while we sleep that I’m becoming familiar with. I let my eyes fall shut, enjoying how safe and warm I am with him beside me.
A creaking sound has my heart rate jumping, Ares doesn’t like anyone in his room. He barely tolerates his brothers—the other three of our Infinity—in here, but with Mia still making excuses to stay here, we’ve been holing up in his room together.
I hold my breath, waiting for the noise to come again. Ares shifts behind me, his nose nuzzling my shoulder.
A shuffle, maybe a footstep, comes next. Reaching my arm back, my hand lands on Ares’s upper thigh, and I push against him, trying to wake him up without speaking. He barely stirs, so I dig my short fingernails into him. Ares wiggles a bit, causing the fabric of the down comforter covering us to shift.
The room is too dark for me to see anything. Ares prefers it this way, he can see clearly even in the dark, so he keeps his room pitch black to help him sleep.
I think there’s someone moving around in the room. It could be one of the guys using the bathroom, or getting a drink. But I don’t get the sense it’s one of them. Over the last week I’ve grown closer to all four of my guys, and I’m sure I would immediately realize if it were one of them. There’s only one other person it could be.
Giving up on waking Ares, I lean forward and reach out for the other side of the bed. I remember Dante being next to me when I went to sleep. Keeping my movements slow so I don’t make too much noise, my hand lands on an arm. I walk my fingers up to Dante’s shoulder and give him a small shake. He grunts and scoots over a bit, giving me more room. Now I can barely reach him. Damn it.
I haven’t heard anything, but I still feel like there’s someone else here with us. Slowly I turn, first on my back, then I roll into Ares, tucking myself as close to him as possible. With my hands between us I reach up and tap my finger over his heart. My head is tucked up under his chin, so when Ares pulls me closer, my face is almost buried against his chest. I have the urge to bite him—why the hell isn’t he waking up?
With more insistence I tap and rub over his chest. “Hmm,” he groans rolling onto his back.
Angling my neck, I put my lips to his ear and breathe the words, “Someone in the room.” Ares stops breathing, his head turns toward the door and then scans the room. His body goes rigid seconds later.
He flips the covers back, covering my head in the process. I don’t move, I understand that he did it on purpose. “Mia, what are you doing?” Ares’s voice shows no sign that he was deeply asleep just moments ago.
I knew it had to be her—there’s no one else in the house—but I didn’t want to believe she would come in here uninvited. And I know she wasn’t invited.
In a whisper she replies, “I thought I heard a noise, and I got scared to be upstairs by myself.” We’ve crossed paths a few more times in the last few days. I think she’s getting suspicious of me being around so much. I’ve seen the way she watches the guys and their reactions to me. They’ve been careful to make it seem like I’m just a new friend from school, but I don’t know if she believes them.
Ares lets out a huff, “It’s an old house. I’ll walk you back—”
“Can’t I stay with you tonight?” Mia interrupts, her voice insistent, but she still manages to sound timid. I’ve never seen her flirt with Ares, but when she looks at him, especially when he doesn’t realize she is, her eyes go all soft, and she gets a little smile on her lips. And she’s always finding reasons to be close to him, to touch him.
“The guys are all in here.”
“I don’t mind,” she tells him quickly. “I know you guys are a package deal.” Her words come out like she’s trying to make a joke, and maybe she is. But it feels like she’s trying to imply much more, but that might just be my jealousy talking.
“How about we go get a drink, you’ll see there’s nothing to be worried about,” Ares mutters, trying to sound consoling, and I feel the slightest bit of persuasion in his tone.
“Shut up already,” Dante grumbles, reaching over to me so his hand lands on my lower stomach. I flinch at the contact then relax as he continues around to my hip. He makes a big deal of flopping around a bit to cover the noise he’s making as he pulls me close to him.
“Scoot over,” Milo fusses.
“See? There isn’t even enough room,” Ares adds. I know the others are making a bigger deal than it is, so she won’t ask to stay. With the two king-size beds next to each other, there’s plenty of room. Half the time we all end up on one bed cuddled together like a pile of puppies. Inevitably someone gets hot or uncomfortable at some point, and we spread out throughout the night.
A sliver of light penetrates the darkness of the room. I barely peek out of the covers enough to see Ares guiding Mia, his hand on her back, out into the hall. “Will you stay with me then?” Her question sends a spike of anger through me. My territorial feelings for the guys have only amplified.
“Come on, let’s let them sleep,” Ares replies without answering her question.
“He’ll be back,” Dante offers, rocking his head against the pillow.
“I don’t understand why we can’t tell her who I am, she’s not even an Infinity.” My tone is whiny even to my own ears.
The bed shifts, I hear a thud as someone bumps into the edge of bed. “Shit,” Ollie curses. His hands slap the wall until he finds the panel for the bathroom door. He flips on the light, not even bothering to close the door as he pees.
“She’s not one of us, but she’s been working with Ares for years,” Dante mutters, his voice even deeper than usual from sleep. I still don’t get why that matters, but I’m going to ask Ares as soon as I get a chance.
The water runs for a second before Ollie stumbles back to bed, dropping down on Ares’s side, leaving the light from the bathroom casting a dim glow into the room.
Ares has claimed dibs on that side of the bed and insists I sleep next to him. He says his room, his rules. The other guys haven’t put up much of a fight, instead they shift around taking turns sleeping on the opposite side.
Ollie cuddles in close to me, spooning my back. His hand lands on my hip, if Milo were on the other side, he’d reach past me to him. There’s a closeness between the two of them that exceeds the bond the four of them share.
I lie awake, waiting for Ares to return. Though I’m surround by the others, my thoughts are consumed with what he might be doing and wondering when he’ll be back.
Eventually I fall asleep before he returns. When I wake up again, it’s to the alarm from Ollie’s phone. The room is dark again, and it seems Ares must have returned at some point. Ollie shifts. “Milo,” he croaks, “snooze.” Milo doesn’t even acknowledge him as the light keeps flashing and the alarm keeps blaring. I climb over Ollie, knowing it will be easier to get past him for the phone than it would be to get past Dante and Milo. My feet hit the carpet, and I become chilled immediately. I’ve taken to sleeping in shorts and a t-shirt, otherwise I get way too warm. Shivering, I find my way to the phone, letting the flashing light be my guide.