tabby

clothes, pulled on a pair of shorts, and slid into the bed beside her. I pulled the covers over us, and she curled into me, resting her head on my chest as I wrapped my arms around her. With her pressed up against me, I assumed sleep would be hard to come by and not only because parts of me were indeed hard. I didn’t require much sleep, and while on a mission, I required less. And with her, that need to watch over and protect what was mine was on high alert. But between her warmth and the feel of her body pressed up against mine, my muscles relaxed like jelly. I yawned and slowly blinked. Each time I did, the amount of time my eyes stayed closed lengthened until I didn’t see the need to open them anymore.
“Where’s Tabitha?” Bae’s bellow woke me with a start, stirring the person in question. I rubbed my hand down her back, soothing her while whispering for her to go back to sleep. The moment her breathing rate calmed down and returned to that of her slumber, I slipped out of bed. Muscles protested with creaks and groans after the limited sleep. I stretched, rotating my lower back. It had been days since my last shift, and I needed to go for a run, but that would have to wait. And from the sounds of frantic searching, so would everything else.
A glance back over my shoulder to watch the rise and fall of Tabitha’s chest as she hugged the pillow I’d slept on, nuzzling her nose in deeper to my scent, was all I allowed myself before closing the door. I waited until I reached the living room before I called out, “Relax, guys. She’s asleep in my bed.”
“Your bed? What the hell is she doing there?” Arin spun to face me, hands on hips, and a death stare in his eye.
The air filled with tension. The situation sat on a powder keg ready to explode at the slightest provocation, and I didn’t care. Arin had no right to be angry. He didn’t own her. If I didn’t get upset when he kissed her, then he could deal with her in my bed... especially since other than cuddling and my lips brushing across her hair, I still hadn’t tasted her luscious lips.
But at the same time, I wouldn’t do anything to provoke him further. Now that she’d been introduced to Ed, the risk to her increased. To protect her, I’d need both of my teammates working off the same page.
So instead of retaliating in kind, I strolled over to the couch and sat, pulling the blanket that contained her scent over my lap. “When I came home a few hours ago, she was curled up on the couch and woke up, wanting to talk. But I could see she was still tired and uncomfortable from sleeping on this. So I took her into my room with me.”
“You had no right,” Arin continued.
I took a deep breath, filling my nose with her scent, praying it would calm me down. And to my surprise, it did. All my fight left me. The knowledge she was safe in my bed, in my house, allowed me to think beyond myself and her. I understood where Arin was coming from, just like I did with Bae. Despite their initial attitudes toward her, which I now realized came from the attraction that they fought, they both had a thing for her. Something stronger than they’d ever felt for another woman. It triggered that protective instinct in all of us and, left unchecked, would destroy us.
“Actually, Arin, he has every if she let him. Or are you trying to say that you think Kasim would do something to her against her will? Are you saying you don’t trust him?”
The fight went out of Arin as Bae stared at him. His body shrank from its puffed-up state. “No. Of course I don’t think that Kasim would do that. I trust him”—his gaze slid to me—“you, with my life and the ones I love. It’s just...”
“Yeah, I know.” I patted the empty seat on the couch next to me, and relief flooded through me when he sat down, shoulder to shoulder with me. “She’s special.”
“Yes.” Arin twisted his hands in his lap. “I’m sorry, guys. I know we said that we would wait to get serious about women so that we wouldn’t split up the team, but I couldn’t help it.”
“You love her.”
He turned his head to face me. “I do. I’m sorry. I know you have a crush on her, and I didn’t mean to overstep, but when she chose me, when she kissed me, I couldn’t keep to the sidelines.”
The air whooshed from my chest. Shit. Had I already lost her before I even had a chance? But then the heat turned on, blowing the air around the room, bringing a fresh dose of her scent to my nose. No. I hadn’t already lost. She couldn’t have chosen Arin. If she had, she wouldn’t have spent the night curled up in my arms, nestled into my chest. And it wasn’t like they could say she thought I was Arin since she called me her dark knight. She’d known it was me.
But before I could say anything, Bae jumped on Arin’s words. “Did she choose you? Are the two of you an item? Or do you just think you are because you’ve kissed her? What about Kasim and me? She might have done the same to both of us.”
The colour drained from Arin’s face, turning his brown skin a shade of cream. “Did she? Have you?” His gaze jumped from Bae to me and back again as if the rug had just been pulled from under his feet or that his best friend had just betrayed him.
I placed my hand on his thigh. “No. We haven’t kissed yet, but what Bae is trying to say is that we don’t think