All Foxed Up

by Emma Dean

  The landing jarred her nearly enough she lost her grip, but those warm, strong hands didn’t falter. Kenzie held on tight and trusted him to get them through this. All she had to do was hold on.

  She yelled some words of encouragement, but he didn’t really need it. They were far enough ahead there was no risk of getting sabotaged from another couple, which she supposed was part of the point. He had promised to protect her after all.

  Then he swung through the monkey bars dangling over the mud; Kenzie realized she trusted him completely. Despite tightening her grip on him she knew he wouldn’t let her fall.

  Would she really do something this stupid in her best heels if she didn’t?

  Ash was always there for her. Silent, strong, endlessly patient and with just enough weirdness they could have fun together. Kenzie was actually looking forward to doing more challenges with him. That was his thing and he’d offered to share it with her.

  She trusted Finnick in the same way. And even though it had been easier to click with Finnick, Ash was worth the effort. He complemented her in ways that Finnick couldn’t. And she wondered if that was the whole point of mating in triads.

  Because Hunter on his own…Hunter didn’t quite connect with people the same way Finnick or even Ash did. He didn’t like people so he would never make that effort, not even for his mate.

  He would be there for her; to protect her, to fuck her, to spend time with her. Kenzie could see them working on computers together in the future, maybe spending time working out and sparring – teaching each other things.

  But like he’d said – she didn’t think he could love her like Ash and Finnick would. That was the beauty of it though. He didn’t need to when she had all three of them. Together it was more than enough – it was kind of perfect really.

  Ash took the corner at breakneck speed and then hopped from rock to rock so he wouldn’t get mud on either of them. The bouncing took more concentration to work with than she had expected.

  “Almost there!” Ash yelled. “You’re doing great, just a little bit farther!”

  She held on tight. “You got this!” she yelled back. “Second place is at least twenty yards behind us.”

  If things kept going like they were…Kenzie could see herself accepting the bonds that were offered. Because now that she finally had something to compare it too, she never wanted to go back to the lonely life she’d lived before.

  Then they crossed the finish line and Ash whipped her around, yanking her down so Kenzie fell right into his waiting arms. He held her against his chest, grinning down at her. “See, not a drop of mud on your gorgeous face.”

  Kenzie yanked his face down and kissed him hard. This was Ash. And she felt eternally grateful that he’d shared this part of his life with her – that he’d let her in.

  She slid through his arms, and when her feet finally touched the floor again Kenzie released him, grinning like an idiot. “I was told to bite your ass if you weren’t fast enough.”

  Ash laughed and pulled her in for a hug. “Damn, maybe I should have slowed down.”

  “Congrats!” the husband in the dress yelled right into her ear, smacking her ass hard enough it stung like hell and reminded her to yank down her dress. His husband pounded Ash on the back and Kenzie was really glad she’d given in and agreed to do this.

  The announcer brought them the trophy and the voucher for the gift card and Kenzie couldn’t stop grinning as all the competitors came up to give them their congratulations. There was a sense of camaraderie with the challengers she hadn’t ever experienced before. They’d accepted her without question even though she was just Ash’s partner.

  And somehow, this had turned into one of the best nights of her life.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ash

  Ash couldn’t stop staring at Kenzie. It was getting a bit ridiculous, but he still couldn’t believe she’d done the challenge with him. He’d expected her to bail right then and there.

  Taking a page out of Hunter’s book, he had used it as a test. That was part of who he was and what he liked to do in his off time. It was something he wanted to share with his mate and maybe have her become a regular part of it.

  While there were a few books of hers that caught his eye, he knew he wouldn’t be as obsessively into it as Finnick was, or as knowledgeable. Of course he would read them, because conversations about what she’d read last over the breakfast he’d made her was currently his top fantasy.

  “Your hair still looks amazing,” he told her as he parked. “I’m glad it didn’t get too messy.”

  She looked out at the ocean as she unbuckled her seatbelt. “You did a good job. I just had to untangle a few curls. Nothing crazy.”

  He jumped out of the car and tossed the keys to the valet before opening Kenzie’s door. “When would you like to take everyone out to dinner in celebration?”

  She placed the trophy on the floor and then took his hand. Ash carefully helped her out of the car. Those heels always looked so dangerous, but damn. He followed the line up and over those muscled legs that looked miles long. It was easy to see why women wore them.

  The way Kenzie looked made him completely speechless whenever he gave himself permission to look.

  “After we finish Gram-Gram’s contract,” she said, stepping carefully onto the sidewalk. “It would be a great end to this madness.”

  “It would,” he agreed. He loved that cranky old woman too. And Selene was warming up to them which made things a thousand times easier. He couldn’t give a fuck less about the rest of her family. “Are you cold?”

  Kenzie shivered a little, but she shook her head. “Not too cold. Are we going to be inside?”

  Thank god for Finnick. Ash went to the trunk and pulled out one of Kenzie’s coats. The other fox was always better with the small details. “Here, courtesy of Finnick,” he told her, holding out the coat. “Where we’re going has an inside, but I think you’d rather be outside.”

  She laughed and let him help her into the coat. Ash would never get tired of the sound of her laughter. It was why he’d invited her to the challenge. He figured it would be a great icebreaker after all the awkwardness they’d had.

  All that shit with his past getting stirred up hadn’t helped either.

  The sex had been fucking mind blowing, but it was just sex. While it was what they’d both wanted and needed at the time, it didn’t force them to be as open and honest and trusting with each other as the challenge had demanded.

  “Can you tell me where we’re going yet?” she asked, studying all the buildings. “We’re near the ocean so I’m going to assume a seafood restaurant?”

  Ash slid an arm around her waist, giving in to that need he always had to touch her. It was progressively getting worse, but at least now she didn’t move away from him. Instead, Kenzie leaned into his embrace and that made his stupid heart flutter like a teenage girl’s around her crush.

  When Ash had first discovered Kenzie was his mate, it had made him furious.

  Having a mate implied he would have feelings and he’d be required to do things for her he wouldn’t want to do. Like cuddle. So of course Fate had a fucked up sense of humor. She’d made sure he was the one who needed to be constantly around Kenzie, touching her somehow, constantly reassuring himself that she was there and she was safe.

  He’d spent the last few weeks fighting this sensation. It was like…she was the sun and he was an asteroid hurtling towards her and there was nothing he could do because he’d gotten too close—he couldn’t get out of that gravitational pull and now that he was close enough to get burned, he didn’t want to leave her.

  Ash wanted to bask in her warmth for as long as he could, even if it meant it would sear and scald him – incinerate his very soul.

  It didn’t matter if he burned. Because now that she’d made him feel again, he couldn’t go back. He couldn’t go back to living without her.

  Kenzie went to enter the restaurant but he pulled her alo
ng, feeling those nerves flare up made him jittery again. The last time he’d tried to be romantic – to take a girl out and go steady and all that, it had ended horribly.

  But Kenzie had already seen his fox, and she wasn’t afraid.

  “It’s this way,” he murmured, leading her down the path carefully. “Watch your step. There are gaps in the dock.”

  Her heels clicked and then the sound muffled as they made their way down the wooden dock to the boat he’d spent all day decorating as well as preparing the food.

  “No,” she said, looking up at the boat and taking in the twinkling lights he’d wrapped around everything he possibly could.

  A squirrel shifter who owed him a favor held a tray with two glasses of champagne on it in a tux Ash had rented.

  “You did not rent a boat for this date.”

  The shock in her voice made him smile. Ash was pleased he’d managed to give her a happy surprise after the first one. He hopped onboard and then turned, offering her his hand – silently asking her to trust him once more as they bobbed on the water.

  “Technically, I didn’t rent it,” he told her. “I own it.”

  For a moment she hesitated and Ash felt his heart plummet into his stomach. Was she going to say she wanted to go home? Had he somehow misjudged her? Was she terrified of boats…or maybe the ocean?

  Then she placed her hand in his and Ash breathed a sigh of relief. Thank god he didn’t fuck this up.

  “This is what you were doing all day?” she asked, looking from the other shifter to the lights and then finally the table on the deck with flowers and fancy plates and the good tablecloth.

  Ash wasn’t great with this frilly stuff, but he did know when to call in help. Barry and Frank, the couple who they’d raced against in the challenge, had picked out all the fancy table stuff and made sure everything matched while Ash had prepared the meal and strung up the lights.

  Then he’d gotten Finnick and Hunter to agree to let them off for the night and take over their assigned victim. Hunter had hired Chuck’s partner Randall to help pick up the slack. So Ash and Kenzie had nothing else to worry about that night except the date.

  Chuck held out the tray and Ash thanked him, taking the two champagne flutes. The squirrel shifter gave him a nod and then went inside to start the boat.

  “Before we leave the dock, you’re not afraid of open water or boats are you?” he asked, handing her the champagne. “You also don’t need to drink this if you don’t want to. I bought sparkling cider too.”

  That made her smile and she took the glass of champagne from him. “I am not afraid of the ocean, but thank you for asking. And I think one glass won’t do me any harm. I might switch to cider later though.”

  Ash smiled. She trusted him as much as she trusted Finnick then. That was a step in the right direction at least. And he knew she was attracted to him. Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as he’d originally thought.

  “Would you like to sit down?” he asked. “It would probably be easier as we head out into the bay.” Ash was feeling nervous again.

  For the first time since he could remember, he felt the urge to fill the silence. It wasn’t unpleasant exactly, just strange.

  Kenzie studied him for a moment and then nodded.

  He took a deep breath and helped her across the deck to the cushy seats in the prow so they could watch as they left the harbor.

  “This is very romantic,” she said, sipping on her champagne as the boat slowly made its way through the water and out of the docks. “I never would have guessed you’d put something together like this. And honestly, never in a million years would I have thought you were the kind of guy to own a boat. Did you buy it with the money you made stealing the shark, or the beach?”

  The joke eased some of his tension and he smiled. “Neither actually. I bought it after we were hired to take care of a stalker. We’d been in the Six Rivers Pride for a while by then.”

  He watched her glance up at the twinkling lights again and then back to the black ocean as they smoothly cut through the harbor into open water. Her small smile was exactly what he’d been hoping for.

  “Do we have to be back by a certain time?” she asked.

  Ash shook his head. “No, Hunter and Finnick got some help so we could spend some time alone.”

  Kenzie smiled at him and it warmed him from the inside out.

  This setting had done exactly what he’d wanted. It felt intimate and private – nothing and no one could bother them while they talked and ate. Ash had known they’d needed this. They needed time to get to know each other without interruption.

  Convincing women and the occasional man to hide in a safehouse wasn’t really the same thing.

  “So Kenzie,” he said, drinking some of the champagne to hide the shaking in his hands. “Tell me a secret.”

  Creating this bubble of privacy could backfire on him though. If things went awry they’d be too far from shore to immediately go home. Ash crossed his fingers behind his back that it wouldn’t be an issue.

  “A secret?” she asked, arching a fiery red brow at him. “I’m pretty sure I don’t have any secrets.”

  “Oh come on, we all have secrets.”

  Kenzie gave him that playful smile and took another sip. “You tell me one first and then I’ll tell you mine.”

  He watched as the Golden Gate Bridge came into view. It really was one of the best views in San Francisco. “I’ve got a lot of secrets, but nothing all that interesting. Hm…I tore all the ligaments in my knee doing a challenge once. It was so dumb I didn’t tell Hunter or Finnick. So I had to reset everything and bind it myself for it to heal correctly.”

  Those blue eyes widened and she looked like a fairy with all the lights around her. Ash couldn’t help himself, he reached out and tapped that full bottom lip. Remembering the way she’d tasted, how she’d held onto him in the shower, and all those wonderful noises she’d made…

  “What challenge was it?” she asked, pulling him out of the thoughts of how he’d take her next.

  Bending her over that dining room table and taking her from behind was definitely next on the list.

  Ash cleared his throat. “Um, I was doing a dance on the treadmills, like in that music video? Well, when stepping from one to the other I managed to fuck it up and my knee just gave. It was gross,” he told her. The whole thing had been so dumb, he couldn’t help but laugh. “I’ll never forget Frank’s face when it happened. That’s how we became friends actually.”

  “What, he was helping you?”

  “Yeah, well teaming up with other channels is great for cross promo, so we thought it would be fun until I fell.” Ash chuckled and downed the champagne. He loved those dudes.

  Kenzie actually laughed, wrapping her coat tighter as the wind kicked up. “Did he have a lot of questions when you healed?”

  Wrapping his arm around her, Ash pulled her in close to share his body heat. “He had a lot of questions, but I told him it wasn’t that bad. But it was on video, so…I asked if he really wanted to know and he decided he didn’t. Now we team up a lot though. I’m glad he likes you.”

  “Frank was the one in the dress right?”

  Ash grinned. “Yeah, he uses every opportunity to wear heels.”

  Kenzie’s eyes widened. “Oh my god, were you guys wearing heels on the treadmill? Is that why you fell?”

  He squeezed her tight and grinned. “Maybe.”

  “I have to see this video right now.”

  Rubbing his nose in her hair and breathing deep, he watched her get out her phone and pull up the video. Who he was on his channel was maybe who he would have been if he was a normal human. Hell, even a normal fox.

  Pretending every week that he was a totally regular guy, doing something fun and stupid to break up the monotony of his life…it was what had kept him sane. And he’d really enjoyed it. No feelings required. Just pure fun with no obligations.

  Kenzie grinned and tucked the phone away. “You’re a ve
ry good dancer. We’ll have to go to a club or something sometime.”

  “Finnick is also an excellent dancer,” he told her.

  Maybe the three of them could go out together. A date with all of them would be fun. Ash glanced down at Kenzie who’d finished her own champagne. Maybe she’d like that.

  “It’s your turn,” he reminded, taking the glass away from her and placing them both in one of the cubbies.

  She snuggled into his side even farther and wrapped her arms around his middle. Ash froze. She really wanted to be this close to him without sex? Yeah he touched her all the time, but she had never been the one to initiate something as simple as this.

  And it may be simple, but it meant the world.

  Carefully Ash put his arm around her, almost afraid to disturb her, which could make her move away.

  “Hm…a secret you don’t already know…really the only people I kept secrets from was my family. Not Selene, but still.”

  “There’s nothing?”

  “Let me think!”

  He chuckled and rubbed his chin across her hair, enjoying the silky feel as it got caught in his stubble. Maybe this would work between them after all. Finnick had been right, the bastard.

  Kenzie turned and looked up at him and he felt his heart stutter under that serious gaze. “I’m afraid of stuffed animals.”

  It took a moment for the words to process. “What?”

  “You know, cute little animals made out of fabric and filling? Yeah, I can’t stand them. It’s all in their beady little eyes. Or worse, the ones that have huge eyes that are supposed to be cute? Those give me nightmares.”

  Ash couldn’t hold in the laugh. She was totally serious and it made it that much worse. “Seriously? Stuffed animals?”

  “Yes! They’re so gross.”

  Ash squeezed her tight. “I’ll never try to win you a giant stuffed animal. I promise.”