"Fuck me," Kody groaned when I walked into the kitchen. "It should be illegal to look that good in another guy’s clothes." He slid out of his seat at the table and grabbed me around the waist.
Faster than I could even utter a "good morning" he had me pinned against the fridge while he showed me exactly how hot he thought I looked in Steele's shirt.
He only stopped kissing me when Archer whacked him in the back of the head with a rolled-up magazine.
"Ow, what the shit, bro?" Kody protested, scowling at his friend while I caught my breath and slipped away to make my coffee.
"Hands off my girl," Archer snapped back like a bear with a sore head. "It's too early for that shit."
I snickered a laugh, shaking my head. "Don't be salty just because you're on ice for a week, Sunshine."
The glare he shot me when I met his eyes was equal parts annoyance and sex. He wanted to strangle me, but he also wanted to fuck me raw. Nothing wrong with both, in my opinion.
"Whoa, what?" Steele asked, coming into the kitchen on the tail end of my comment. "Arch is on ice?"
Archer glowered, saying nothing.
"Until he wins this charity fight, yep." I efficiently went about making my coffee, grinding fresh beans and steaming the milk. I hesitated only a moment before using the larger milk jug to make coffee for everyone.
Kody let out a low whistle at my announcement, clapping Archer on the shoulder. "Guess I better put my money on you to win, then. With incentive like that, it's a sure thing."
Archer looked offended. "You wanna tell me you were betting on the other guy? Fuck you, dickhead."
Steele's arms snaked around my waist as I worked my machine to extract beautiful, dark espresso with perfect, golden crema. "You look gorgeous this morning, Hellcat." His lips pressed to my neck, and I leaned back into his embrace. I could definitely get used to this newfound peace between the four of us.
"I love this T-shirt," I replied, craning my neck to kiss him on the lips. "Thanks for tucking me in last night."
"It was purely selfish," he told me with a smirk. "I totally felt you up while I was changing your clothes. Then I needed to force myself not to wake you up."
I chuckled, turning back to finish our coffee off with silky steamed milk. "Well, I doubt I would have complained if you had." I handed him one of the mugs, and our fingers interlinked on the cup.
"Thanks," he said softly, pressing another gentle kiss to my lips. "As for the T-shirt, maybe we could go see them in concert sometime. I've met Blaise Morrison a couple of times; he's a cool guy."
My internal fangirl squealed, but I kept it calm on the outside. "Cool." I nodded, mentally high-fiving myself for that composure. "It's a date."
"Damn right, it is," Steele murmured, letting me slip out of his embrace to deliver coffee to Kody and Archer.
Kody thanked me with a way too intense kiss, which ended in Archer elbowing him in the ribs. Archer just eyed the coffee like I'd handed him a cup of spit.
"Don't be such a snob, Sunshine," I teased him. "Drink the damn coffee. It might improve that surly temperament this morning."
Kody scoffed. "Unlikely."
Archer grabbed my wrist before I could walk away, though, hauling me into his lap and kissing me like I was all the stimulant he needed to start the day right.
"There's only one thing that's going to improve my temperament, Princess," he muttered in my ear, nipping my lobe with his teeth and making me moan. His hips pressed up, showing me exactly what he meant, as if there could be any misunderstanding there.
I clasped his face with both my hands, kissing him back just as hard as he'd claimed my lips. When I released him, we were both breathing heavily and his cock was rock hard beneath me.
"Well then, I guess you’d better win that fight this weekend, huh?" With a grin, I hopped off his lap and circled around the island counter away from his reach. "Until then, I recommend lots of cold showers, okay?"
Kody and Steele snickered and tossed teasing insults at Archer, but the man himself just locked eyes with me across the kitchen, silently promising retribution.
Good. That was what I was banking on.
"Actually, babe," Kody said after a moment, "there is something we need to discuss with you, on the subject of your many admirers."
A chill of dread ran through me. That couldn't be a good subject... could it? Then again, the three of them seemed okay with the new reality this morning.
"Okay..." I kept my expression carefully neutral, letting them take the lead. "What's up?"
Kody shot a pointed look at Steele, who sighed and scrubbed a hand over his buzzed hair.
"Scott," Steele said, grimacing.
I sighed. "Look, I know he's been a bit clingy and shit, but he met me when I was in a really negative headspace. I'd just had my heart broken"—all three of them winced at that—"and I was pretty upset. So, can you really blame him for being an asshole around you guys?"
Steele nodded, always the peacemaker. "That's all understandable, and I'm glad you had someone to support you aside from Bree. But this can't be ignored." He paused, his brow furrowed. "Obviously, you know I swept your apartment on Friday while you guys were in class."
I nodded because I’d assumed that when he’d given me new keys and a new alarm system.
"Well, I found a partial fingerprint. It looked like someone had done a pretty hasty wipe down and just missed one. A friend of ours ran it through some databases and found it matched Scott’s." He kept his tone calm and even, but his eyes watched me intently. He was trying to read my reactions.
I frowned. "Well... that doesn't mean anything. Scott's been to my apartment a bunch of times. Of course his fingerprints would be there."
Kody made a sound of disagreement. "On your underwear drawer?"
My brows shot up, my mouth parting with surprise. I shifted my gaze to Steele, who nodded confirmation.
I wracked my brain for any reason why Scott's prints would be on my underwear drawer... or anywhere in my bedroom, for that matter. I came up blank. Or rather, not blank but certainly envisioning the same conclusion they'd already drawn.
"How?" I asked in a small voice. "When would he have even had time? He was in the basement with us. Then you guys made him help clean up the bodies, right?" I directed this question to Archer, who nodded.
"We assumed your stalker entered the apartment while we were in the basement," Steele explained, "but what if that really was us who left the door open? Scott came back up when Zane arrived. He used the bathroom to wash his hands and could have done the mirror message then."
"And you were fast asleep," Kody added. "How easy would it have been for him to duck from the bathroom into your bedroom without anyone noticing? He could have raided your drawer then."
I came back over to the island with the bowl of bircher muesli and greek yogurt that Anna had left in the fridge for me. Sitting down on one of the vacant seats, I turned over this scenario in my mind.
They were right. My bathroom at the apartment had been right outside my bedroom and out of sight from the living room. If no one had been specifically watching Scott come and go from the bathroom, he could had slipped into my room unnoticed.