She sighed. "Normal would be nice. For a little while, at least. I'm not saying I want to retire or anything-"
"If you do, I'll bring home the bacon," I offered.
A smile fluttered to life on her face. "And the bread? Some milk? You gonna take your ass to the supermarket after a long day of hero work?"
"Only if I get to set the uniform for you at home," I said. "A little frilly apron, says "kiss the cook" on it. Maybe some kitten heels and stockings?"
"And what else am I wearing?"
I blinked. "Not a damn thing."
The smile grew but she ignored me. "I think it's only fair that we have a vote, Emb. And you need to come forward with this to the rest of the group. It's important. If we can't trust each other, we're already screwed. And we're pretty close to that, anyhow. I want you on our side, but maybe the others don't feel like we can have you. I don't want it to come out in the middle of a fight and distract everyone."
"That's fine," I said. "Throw some clothes on and go get the rest of them. I'll make pancakes and they can decide whether I'm in or out over breakfast."
Chapter 10
Bacon sizzled, pancakes bubbled, and eggs wept for their fleeting lives as Nishelle made an entire army's worth of food and served it up like it was no big deal. She'd come from an enormous family, the eldest of many siblings, and she'd developed some crazy skills with a stovetop because of it. I watched as she worked, mystified. It took me half an hour to put out what she could in five minutes.
If she survived her mini-tribunal, I really needed to get around to asking her how she did it. But I wasn't entirely certain that she was going to survive.
Nate, Isabella, and Lexi woke up easily enough. Edwin groaned when I shook his shoulder, but grabbing his ass made him jump. My still-wet hair slapped against my neck as I hunted Adam. Logan hadn't been lying when he said the damn place slept 20; and most of the beds were single-occupant. I'd grabbed a quick shower before throwing on yesterday's clothes, Nishelle's scent still all over them. Wrapping myself in her again felt right and it soothed the part of me that was so very tired of a fight that we just couldn't seem to win.
I slipped into the last bedroom on the left and found him there. Adam was curled up in a ball, his knees drawn to his chest as he snored on his side. The thing was, Adam never snored as loudly as he was. I crept up on him, which was a stupid thing to do in retrospect, and touched his side. "Hey?"
The floor flew up to greet me. The bed squeaked and snapped in two. Every single plant snapped through its fancy pot and dropped to the ground, their leaves clinging to the floor as if they needed to hold on for their tiny lives.
"Whosoever wakes me from my slumber will face insurmountable odds!" bellowed Adam, all thunder and Creed-like fury.
There was no way I could get up. Hell, I couldn't even answer him. He looked left, then right, and it took him a solid minute to realize that someone was on the ground in front of him. I groaned as he released the gravity back to normal within the room. "What the fuck was that about?"
"Paranoia. Still kind of twitchy after everything that's gone down in the past little while. You okay?" he asked, offering me a hand.
I took it and dragged myself back to my feet, joints I didn't know I had screaming at me for the abuse they'd just endured. "No. That hurt."
"Better than you getting in my head, if you weren't really you," he said. "Sorry, though. I didn't mean to crank it up that high."
"You just going to be weird and reactive for the rest of time now?"
He shrugged and reached for his shirt. "Probably for a while. But I'll try to make sure you don't end up in the crosshairs of it in the future. Who's cooking breakfast?"
"Nishelle. And we're going to have a little talk about her in a minute, too."
"Did something happen?" He paused, then he beamed. "Is she joining the team?"
I frowned. "The team?"
"Yeah. Our little super squad. For honor, glory, and you moaning all our names at the top of your lungs."
I shoved him, not so hard that he staggered or anything, but enough to make a point. "Come on. But yes, maybe. She did a dumb thing, but I'm not really mad about it. Some of you might be, and that's why we're having a little talk in a minute, Adam."
"What'd she do?"
"I'll talk about it with everyone at once. It's easier that way."
And I left him to getting dressed. Besides, the mystery would just spur him along. Adam loved to figure things out. He acted like a simple idiotic goofball, but I was steadily finding that he was so much more. Kind, gentle, sometimes scared out of his mind, how was it that the biggest, strongest, and possibly the most feared of my men, was the most vulnerable?
You talk to so many guys who put up a giant show of bravado. Adam was no different, but he dropped it entirely around me. It made me feel all warm and snuggly inside, like someone had crammed me into a toaster oven for a little too long. And, to be honest, his touch did the same thing to me.
