‘I do have that effect on women.’ His voice was deeper when he was amused. She found it charming.
There was silence between them as they relaxed. She bent down to place her cheek against his uninjured shoulder. He heaved a sigh beneath her and began to reacquaint himself with the shape of her body.
After a time, he murmured, ‘I thought you were so impossible.’
A sharp edge of glass pierced her heart, she lifted her head. ‘Seeing all this, living through it. I can understand why.’
‘I never wanted this for you, for Nick.’
She petted his arm, fiddled with a seam. ‘I know.’
His smile faded then. His eye burned. She held her breath. ‘I love you. Always, Kira.’
She leaned back into his body, wrapped her leg around his hips and buried her face into the crook of his shoulder and neck. She breathed in. His scent filled her lungs, settled her, calmed her. He tunnelled one hand into the waistband of her pants to cup her bottom over her panties. His other hand massaged her nape. He crushed her close. She found it difficult to breathe but didn’t care. She needed this, he did too.
Long moments, a hundred heartbeats. Finally, Kira reluctantly pulled her face from the warmth of Euan’s skin. ‘I’ll start breakfast. Is it safe to light a fire?’
Nick’s bare feet slapped the concrete as he entered the stall.
‘Looks it,’ he answered instead of Euan as he set down his rifle. His voice was rough, the gold in his eyes was laced with fatigue.
Kira glared at Nick. ‘You didn’t wake me for my watch.’
Nick shrugged. The nonchalant action looked petty on a grown man. ‘I couldn’t sleep, no point in all three of us being awake.’
The muscles around Kira’s eyes tightened until she closed them. The surge of anger was vivid, violent. How could she convince them? How could she, little tiny Kira, make them see that they would fail if they didn’t include her on this? Euan spoke of union as if she was just the back wall that supported them. He didn’t see what she saw. A man broken by torture and flame, another one tormented by anger and grief. Neither of them were in a position to fully drive this mission, their limitations diverse yet related. If they didn’t get their heads out of their backsides, one of them was going to make a mistake.
She would be a part of this. An active part. For the men she loved, she would protect them as they did her.
She would no longer let a small thing like their permission get in the way.
Not anymore.
Euan felt her shift against him and gripped her bottom more firmly in response. ‘It makes sense, Kira.’
She tried not to grind her teeth. ‘So, I’m taking the first watch tonight?’
The two men shared a silent, communicative glance and the lid on her temper blew away. ‘You are both chauvinist bastards. If you don’t let me be a contributing member of this trio, I am going to get up and leave in the middle of the night just to teach you both a lesson.’
They both responded to that in their own unique way. Kira should have thought her statement through before she said something as argumentative to Euan while his hands were so close to her sensitive bits. While Nick flashed a smile at her brazenness, Euan’s growl vibrated beneath her, but she had no time to relish the wonders of what that did to her insides when she was flipped until she was on her back, his larger body over her. ‘Don’t make threats like that. We are not back at home, covered by layers of steel, surrounded by an arsenal. You will be treated like a contributing member of this trio when it’s appropriate. Your safety is paramount in this.’
‘And what about your safety, Nick’s?’ she fired back.
‘We can look after ourselves,’ he growled in response.
She showed her teeth, the need to hiss and spit rolled within her. ‘Seriously? That is still your argument? Are you crazy? Nick is one single human who cannot stay awake forever. Neither can you. When will you understand that we are stronger together than we are apart?’
He was trying, he was. Behind eyes of brown velvet, Euan debated her argument. Disputed the merits and the negatives. He was sexist, but he was honest about it. He was also measured in his approach to all things, considered, thoughtful. She knew that points were being added to her corner when he said, ‘If you promise me you’ll do as you’re told, follow orders, defer to me if required, I’ll consider it.’
Nick snorted. ‘Such a pushover.’
Euan’s grip remained tight, his body heavy, but his gaze left her to cut to Nick. She couldn’t see the look he gave him, but the blond man’s shoulders fell, his humour dissipated. He nodded.
He turned back to her. One hand left her hair so the pads of his thumbs could caress her cheeks. Instinctively, her eyes closed and she sighed. She was upset, but not so much so that she couldn’t see the love they had for her, the reasoning behind their overbearing protection. She was no fool, she understood the environment they now lived in, as best as they would allow, but like they had when they lived sheltered in the bunker, it wasn’t sustainable, and it could not be how they moved forward.
The new world, and the men in it, deserved better than broken, frightened women that hid underground.
It deserved warriors, counterparts in all things, equals that stood by their sides and growled at the oncoming rise of dystopia with them.
She said, ‘I’m not backing down in this, Euan. But I promise you, if you truly let me be your equal, I’ll do as you command, just as any other man under you
