I knew my cheeks were probably a bit flushed. Thank the Gods for my skin tone making it at least a little difficult to see the redness that graced my cheeks.
I shifted as the slickness I felt in my panties only served the purpose of making me more uncomfortable.
“Perhaps I should stop reading this.” I muttered to myself under my breath.
“Why? Is it not good?” a voice asked from above me.
My eyes shot up and my head tilted back, bringing me to face level with a jean-clad crotch. The man attached to that crotch smelled of the forest and paint.
Ajax stared down at me, and the moment he realized how close his cock was to my face he stepped back a little, allowing me to get a better look of him.
“No, it's just fine it's just...umm…”
He tilted his head, confused.
“She’s uncomfortable because the book has sex in it and it’s making her horny.” Hip said, as he took off his headphones and looked at the two of us.
I squealed and threw the book in my hand at him. “Crude much!?”
He caught the book easily and smirked. “It’s true. Nothing to be ashamed of.”
“So, the book was making you horny?” Ajax asked, holding out his hand for the book.
Hip handed it to him, and Ajax began to flip through its pages, studying it. He paused, and if I had to guess he came upon a sex scene. I bit my lip, looking nervously between him and Hip, who just stared at me with a hungry expression. His eyes darkened like I’d seen them do before.
Ajax looked up. "This isn’t very realistic. They would have had to be on drugs to cum that fast.”
“Let me see?” Hip replied, sliding out of his chair and walking over to look at the book.
Next to Ajax, Hip looked significantly shorter, but I supposed most people look super short next to a bear.
Hip skimmed the words before looking over at me. "He’s right. During real sex there’s much more foreplay, touching, stroking.”
He moved away from Ajax, coming closer to me in my chair. Leaning in, he whispered into my ear, his voice dropping down into the sexy zone.
“Nipping, licking, biting,” On the last word he nipped the top of my ear before moving away.
A shiver ran down my body. While I didn’t want to admit it, my breathing became heavier as my arousal shot up to a seven. My core clenched just a little, begging for one of them to touch me more. Damn, I knew I shouldn’t have read that book.
I sat up in the chair, hoping like hell my clothes were thick enough to cover my hard nipples.
Both were staring at me like predators who had just found their next meal, and I was torn between giving into them or running like a scared little rabbit.
Much to my disappointment, the sexual tension wasn’t broken when Percy walked in on the stare-down not moments later. If anything, he made it worse. Those sharp eyes observing the situation before instant understanding came across his face and his frown morphed into a sexy millimeter smile.
“It seems that my suspicions were correct in that I wasn’t the only one who was interested in Miss North,” Percy said, readjusting his glasses.
Both Ajax and Hip blinked, as if realizing in that moment that they had basically been double teaming me. They looked at each other in question before looking at Percy.
“You too, Percival? Who else?” Ajax asked.
“Well, if I’m correct it would be the three of us here along with Mr. Monroe…and Theseus.”
Ajax pursed his lips and tilted his head up. Quiet. Contemplating.
Hip, on the other hand, looked from me to Percy, then to Ajax, and then back to me, his eyes showing a mixture of hurt and concern. “But, wait. I knew Jason and Thesis, but there are five of us? How am I supposed to compete against four other men?”
I tensed up and was about to give a rebuttal, a little annoyed that they were talking about me and my feelings like I wasn’t right in front of them. But Percy cut me off before I could.
“I don’t believe you have to, Mr. Clark,” Percy’s eyes met mine. "I’m pretty sure she holds affection for all of us. Equally.”
I could not be any more embarrassed at that moment. The three of them all focused their attention back on me, making me feel like a cornered animal. They weren’t wrong. Cal had said as much the other night. She also had said I needed to talk to them. I just didn’t think I actually would…Or that they would find out.
It was something I was just going to take to my grave, God damn it!
“This isn’t normal though, right?” Hip asked.
A sharp slice went right though my heart at his words. It was true, it wasn’t normal.
Percy nodded. “It’s not normal. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, it’s just uncommon. For humans at least.”
My preverbal scared rabbit ears perked up at that. "What do you mean for humans?”
“I meant animals. Like gorillas, elephant seals, some species of bat, a few types of fish. Lots of species of animals live in non-monograms relationships,” Percy replied, cool as a cucumber as he adjusted his glasses on his face.
I narrowed my eyes at him, not fully believing his reasoning. He only stared right back at me, that cockiness practically radiating off of him. But I wasn’t fooled.
“I’m so sure that’s what you meant.” Having found my bravery, I swung up out of my chair. "Perhaps I do have a crush on all of you.”
I’m pretty sure my voice was not as bold as I hoped it sounded.
Percy met my eyes in an unwavering challenge. "What are you going to do about it?”
Yep, there went my three seconds of bravery as I stared at the three men before me, all watching me with hunger in their eyes.
With a nervous smile, I slowly backed away. “For now…I escape!”
With that, I ran like the frightened little bunny I was, scrambling away from the three men that were making my blood boil. I could have sworn I heard a few chuckles.
A hop, skip, and a jump out of the library doors threw me right into the arms of another one of the guys.
Warm hands wrapped around my arms, trying to stop me before my momentum slammed me into his broad chest. Looking up, I met stormy blue-gray eyes.
“T-Theseus?” I stammered.
Fuck. Of the few people I wanted to avoid, I just happened to run into number one on my list while fleeing numbers three, four, and five.
He looked good, if a little disheveled. His red mop of hair blew wildly around as the wind whipped powerfully. He wore a warm looking gray jacket and dark blue jeans, and this was probably the first time I saw him out of those work overalls.
“Hey, Atalanta,” He said, his beautiful odd bell tone voice washing over me, causing more shivers to run down my body.
I licked my lips. "H-hey.”
He looked down at my lips for a moment, the storm in his eyes churning as he watched me.
He cleared his throat. "Listen, I was just coming over here to try and find you. I wanted to apologize for my behavior.”
I stepped back, out of his arms. “It’s not really okay. But I’m not all that mad at you anymore.”
“It was wrong to pretend you were crazy. You’re not. But the thing is,” He blew a raspberry, clearly a bit stressed. "While you aren’t wrong, I can't really tell you the truth. At least not yet.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and cocked a brow at him. "And why is that? Don’t want to share your big important secret with the outsider?”
“It’s not that at all!” He shouted, his voice awkwardly loud, making me wince. Seeing his mistake, he lowered his voice. "I’m really starting to care about you, okay? There’s just more going on here than you realize. I just want to keep you safe.”