inappropriate, especially given the circumstances, but my brain conjured the images before I could stop them. Mal, spread out on his big bed, muffling his moans into his forearm as his other hand worked the huge toy into his tight hole. Did he have a certain way he liked it? Did he know how to make the toy hit is prostate just right? Or was it only for special occasions?
God, I bet he looked amazing, head tilted back, heels digging into the mattress, toes curling, a sheen of sweat across his gorgeous skin—
I blinked hard and pushed those thoughts away. I did not need to be getting hard—or even thinking this way—when we were dealing with a stalker who had broken in.
Except… toys hadn’t really been a part of my sex life with Ankh. I didn’t have any experience with them, really. But Mal clearly did. Was he into using them with partners? Would he let me work the toy into him until he screamed?
Fuck. Fuck. I needed to focus.
A little curl of guilt flared in my gut alongside the arousal. Not only because I was getting horny for Mal while we were searching his room, but because of the way my thoughts had immediately gone to Ankh, too. And it hadn’t hurt. Should it have?
Would I think about Ankh every time I thought about a relationship with Mal? Was that wrong? Was it unfair to Mal?
Was it unfair to Ankh?
I wanted to do right by them both—but I was confused, lost in the mess of my own desire and guilt. I’d have to work it out later. There were more important things at hand now. Mal needed me—I couldn’t be stuck in my own head.
“Don’t look so shocked,” Mal said, gently teasing, then knocked his elbow into my ribs. From the slight flush in his cheeks, he had some idea of where my mind went. “I’m more concerned about if he used it.”
I wrinkled my nose at the implication. “That’s disgusting,” I said. “You’ll have to replace it. I’ll approve the request to use club funds.”
Mal laughed and swatted at me, and my mood lifted to see him smiling again, despite what he was dealing with.
Then, in the hallway, footsteps pounded up the stairs—a lot of footsteps. Mal cringed, pulling the sheets over the dildo, and we stepped apart. There was a knock at the door, and then Raven stuck his head inside. “Pop? Mal? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, son, we’re fine,” I said. “Why are you here? Coop was supposed to call the enforcers.”
“I was with Gunnar,” Raven said. “Cavalry’s here. Blade’s still with the prospects.”
He stepped inside, with Gunnar, Rebel, and Tru behind him, and then Siren and Coop walked back in, as well. Mal tensed again, and I placed a hand on his shoulder. Surely having all these people in his room wasn’t helping him feel more in control—but we had to work together to get to the bottom of this.
“He take anything else that you noticed?” Siren asked.
I glanced at Mal questioningly, silently asking with my eyebrows raised if he wanted me to do the talking. He just shook his head, then sighed. “No, it looks like he only took my dirty laundry.”
Cringes from the enforcers.
“And it looks like he snooped around a lot of things, in my nightstand and my dresser, but I didn’t notice anything else missing.”
“I want to call this in, Mal,” Rebel said. “To the station. He broke the restraining order.”
“We don’t have any definitive proof that it was him, though,” Mal said through gritted teeth. “Even though I know in my gut it was.”
“That’s why we gotta get the cops involved,” Rebel said. “I’ll have the guys look for any fingerprints or other traces that could tie it back to Xavier. He’s in the system, so if he’s left something behind, we’ll find it. And since you already have the restraining order in place, they’ll do a thorough search.”
Mal nodded, and Rebel stepped outside to put the call in.
“Did you find any evidence of how he got in?” I asked Siren.
“No,” she said with a sigh. “Everything looks to be normal.”
“That’s what I was discussing with Tru on the way here,” Raven said. “We need to get the motel security up to the same standards as the clubhouse. Cameras, for one thing. A better alarm system.”
“Right,” Tru said. “I know the Junee chapter doesn’t have as much history of trouble as the Elkin Lake guys, but now that we’re part of