Dash

We spent the day together, getting to know each other, and getting a little more comfortable touching. Explaining to Faith that we were a packaged deal took a little convincing, but in the end she relented. She still thought we just meant for the remainder of our vacations, but we would straighten that out before we left for good just after New Years'. Humans didn't feel the mating pull the same way that shifters did, but we could all tell that Faith was feeling something.

Gods, just getting to touch my mate's skin was heaven. But not getting any further was its own special hell. At dinner, somehow we got the same cranky waitress, who gave us all disdainful looks. One particularly scathing one at Faith as she sat across my lap, letting me feed her bites of the surf and turf we ordered. Faith gave her a squinty look as soon as our waitress turned her back.

"She's mean." Faith glared daggers at her, then opened wide for me to place a bite of perfectly cooked steak on her tongue.

"She's just jealous," Cupid said with his mouth full of his own grilled veggie dinner. It smelled amazing, but I needed meat. His argument for being a vegetarian was that our animals weren't predators. My argument was that meat was delicious.

"Whatever her problem is, I'd rather she not be our waitress again." Faith re-situated herself in my lap and had to feel my dick grinding against her cheeks as she did so. "I'm done." She patted her stomach as her head lulled against my shoulder, her cheeks flushed from the alcohol in the mojitos she had been downing like water. For all that, we were at a resort, and they were probably more club soda than rum, our beautiful mate had probably drunk about half a dozen. Which meant that our little Faith was completely schnockered.

"I'm gonna see you home then, love." I helped her to her feet and watched as she pressed her lips to both Cupid and Vix's in turn. Both of which were careful not to let the kiss go too far. After all, she was so drunk that I was half convinced that my arm was the only thing keeping her from slowly tipping to one side. Also, we all held to the same code. Faith turned back to me and stumbled against my chest.

"Let's go, big boy." She gave me a crooked grin and patted my chest. "I guess you're the lucky one tonight, eh?" She wiggled her eyebrows at me, then managed to trip over nothing. The only thing keeping her off the floor was my grip on her waist.

"I'm going to get you to bed."

"Yeah, you are." She wiggled her brows at me again and nearly collided with our server, who had a tray loaded down with glasses. I swear the woman growled as I swept Faith past her.

"I'm going to make sure you drink water and then I'll see you tomorrow." I steered her around tables and people as she gaped up at me. "You're drunk."

"I'm not that drunk." She snuggled into my chest. "Will you at least stay with me?" Faith asked so quietly I would have missed it if I were human. "Please?" She looked up at me under hooded eyes, and I could feel the vulnerability flowing off her in waves. "I don't want to be alone."

"Yeah." I nodded down to her, a sick feeling growing in my stomach. That husband of hers must have really done a number on her. "Of course I'll stay." That unworthy look in her eyes needed to be addressed quickly. I pressed a kiss to her cheek and hugged her tightly.

"I've just been so lonely." Her arms banded around my waist as she let me guide her back to her cabin. "Not just since Gavin left. I mean, I should have seen the signs long before he left." Faith halted in the middle of the path and looked off into nothing. "I mean, how many meetings can someone have that go til after ten? How often do you go to the gym at midnight, and then not come home before work?" She turned and looked at me, her eyes distant. "I'm a complete idiot."

"You're not an idiot." I cupped her cheeks and looked down into her glistening eyes. Tears threatened to overflow. Then she blinked. In the moonlight they glimmered on her lashes like diamonds. I carefully rubbed them off her cheeks with my thumbs and looked down into her eyes. "He is, for letting you go."

"You're just being nice 'cause you want to get into my pants." Faith pulled away from me and stumbled a few steps down the path. "You don't have to walk me home, Dash." She waved over her shoulder, clearly meant to dismiss me. "I can take it from here."

"Faith." I called after her as she kept walking. "I'm not trying to get into your pants."

"Liar," she practically spat at me. Oh, I could feel the venom in her voice. The alcohol had taken a turn from vulnerable to angry and hurt.

"Okay, fair point." I sighed and ran my hands through my hair before jogging to catch up to her. "I can't think of anything more pleasurable than making love to you. But that's not happening tonight. I've already told you that."

"Men say that so it seems like it was the woman's idea to seduce them." Faith stumbled, huffed, and then kicked her sandals off. They disappeared into the foliage that lined the path. I made note of where we were so I could find them in the morning. Fuck, she was cute drunk. Frustrating and a little emotional, but cute. "I'm not falling for that again."

She certainly was not. She was mine. Mine. . . and Vix and Cupid's. And we would never manipulate her like that. "Please, just let me get you home and get some water in you. You drank kind of a lot today. And with all the sun."

"No sex." She pointed at me, scrunching up her face, trying desperately to look serious. But she just looked drunk... and a little green around the edges. I just held my hands out in surrender. "I mean it mister, you are not getting into my swimsuit bottoms."

"I just want to get you home safe."

"Dash?" Faith's face crumpled. "I don't feel so good." Her face paled, and she grabbed for my arm before bending over and emptying the contents of her stomach all over the front of my swim trunks.

Faith

The sun felt like it was inside my bedroom. I was hot and achy and it was far too bright. I rubbed my face and turned away from the light, firmly pressing my face into something hard and warm. "What the hell?" I grumbled, pushing against the body in my bed. Something was wrong.

"I was wondering if you were ever going to wake up." I blinked up at the man sitting up against the headboard of my bed, my Kindle in his hand. "So, shifter romance, huh?"

"What are you doing here?" I rubbed the drool off my face, and considered wiping it off Cupid's thigh, too. But he was a big boy and could do that himself.

"Dash called last night after you puked on him." Cupid shrugged and went back to reading. "Bear shifters, really? Kinda played out, don't you think? I mean, half the paranormal romance authors out there have a bear book. It's all about the predator shifters, too." I could almost hear him rolling his eyes as he clicked his tongue in exaggerated annoyance. But he hadn't answered my question. Not really.

"I like bears," I said, sitting up and looking down at myself. I was in a tiny pair of sleep shorts and a white tank top that did not hide my nipples from the entire room. And boy, were they perky. I might have felt like shit steaming in the tropical sun after being run over by an eighteen wheeler, but my nipples were oh so very ready to play. "Did you dress me?"

"Nope." Cupid just grinned, and my stomach plummeted.

"We didn't have sex, did we?" I whispered, not meeting his eyes. "Oh God."

"Would it have been so bad?" he actually sounded a little offended. "I mean, I'm a pretty decent looking guy, and you seemed to like me just fine yesterday."

"No." I shook my head, and then instantly regretted it when white hot pain swam around my brain and my stomach rolled dangerously. "I mean. I don't remember last night."

"No, we didn't have sex." Cupid turned off the tablet and put it down on the nightstand. "You threw up on Dash, he called us from your cabin and asked for a change of clothes. When we got here, you were stripping and trying to climb him, after he had put you both fully clothed into the shower." Oh, God. I dropped my face into my hands and waited for the ground to open up and eat me. "He disentangled himself and left you with me and went to change. When I convinced you to get out of the shower, you danced your way into the bedroom and fell asleep naked and wet on the bed. It took all three of us to wrestle you into your sleep wear while you kicked and sang Christmas songs at the top of your lungs."

"Oh, my God." I wanted to die right then. "Why are you still here?" I muttered into my hands. "I mean, you could have just left me."

"Well, you're like an octopus when you sleep, and you managed—in your sleep, mind you—to entangle Vix into your surprisingly powerful embrace. So we stayed." Cupid shrugged like it was no big deal, but I was beyond mortified.

Vix chose that moment to appear out of the kitchen, two mugs of coffee in his hands. "Oh, wonderful, you have finally awakened." He put the coffee mugs on the bedside table and disappeared again. "I have a bottle of water and some acetaminophen for your head." He came back through the door and dropped two white tablets into my hand before cracking open the top of a water bottle and handing it to me. "Down you go." He made a hurry up gesture. "You have to admit that you'll feel a great deal better once you've taken your pills." I looked at the pills in my hand. Definitely Tylenol, not that I think he would roofie me or anything. They all had ample opportunity while I was drunk and throwing myself at them. I tossed the medicine back and chased it with a healthy gulp of water. I went to hand the bottle back to Vix, but he shook his head. "Drink the entire bottle, please. Then you can have coffee."

"I'm back." The front door to my cabin banged closed, and I could hear the jingle of keys hitting the table. "Is our mate up yet? I got her a couple of breakfast burritos." The rustling of paper bags followed. "Britany? The waitress who hates us? Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's just Faith she doesn't like. She slipped me her number. I tried to tell her I was taken, but she just winked and said for after Christmas, whatever that means."

"Faith's up," I called out and then growled and held my head while it splintered into pieces. "What do you mean 'mate?' And what about after Christmas?"

"Oh hey, you're up." Dash handed me the bag of greasy breakfast. He looked over at the other two men. They both just shook their heads. "I guess we have some explaining to do."