Freeze (The Jewel Project #4)

21.1|| Snowballs

Kyle blinked and opened his eyes. The white, carved ceiling was covered in greyish light. His fists clenched as his mind fought to jog itself and pinpoint where he was. It took a fraction of a second for the mystery to clear. A huge grin filled his face.

He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten where he was, why he was there. He couldn’t believe he’d fallen asleep. After three rounds and overtime, he’d been so filled with adrenaline, he was sure he’d never need rest in his life. Then he’d completely blacked out.

God, why hadn’t they done that before? If he’d known it would be like that, he would’ve skipped everything after hello and jumped straight to the point. Kay was beyond amazing in every possible way. Just watching her sleep filled up his life.

Just major afterglow. And hell, he never wanted to come down. But she was so beautiful, sleeping with her face half-tucked in the pillow, her upper body exposed. Yeah, about that… He pulled the cover over her shoulder and just watched her for a few seconds.

Breakfast. He needed to get her breakfast. So he rolled out of bed, pulled his pants on, slipped on his boots and headed for the door that led to the hallway as opposed to the luggage room. He’d unlocked it and was halfway through pushing down the handle when he froze.

The fuck was he doing? He couldn’t cook to save his life. And setting an ancient French castle on fire didn’t seem like the best way to celebrate. Maybe Jerry could help. But since it was seven thirty and given the workout he’d put them through the previous day, he doubted anyone was up yet.

Next best thing. Get back into bed. So he walked back, kicked his boots off and slipped under the cover next to Kay. She groaned a little at the movement of the mattress, but continued her peaceful slumber. So adorable. He could get used to waking up to this for the rest of his life.

“No, it’s not too early,” Jerry suddenly said from somewhere out on the hall. “Since Kyle is up, it’s obviously time for everyone else to be as well. He’s probably enjoying a brisk morning jog around the grounds.”

Kyle sat up, his fingers clenching against the sheets. Kyle was not up and was definitely not enjoying a brisk morning jog. It was not time for everyone to be up as well, and it was not the time for poor unsuspecting Jerry to walk in through the door he’d completely forgotten to lock again.

But, as fate would have it, that was exactly what happened. He didn’t even get to make a move before Jerry charged in, a satisfied smirk on his face. Then his eyes widened, moving from Kyle to Kay who at that moment chose to roll over and let out a moan.

With a dread he’d never felt before, Kyle raised his hands to stop any potential word from escaping his brother’s mouth. Jerry’s attention moved from Kay’s bare back to him. Kyle pulled the cover off himself and hopped out of bed, but Jerry beat him to it. Before he could touch the floor, Jerry crumpled into a lifeless mass.

Kyle froze, overtaken by a sudden desire to start laughing. Hysterically because holy hell he couldn’t believe Jerry just fainted. But safety measures were in order. There was no way he was letting Kay wake up to this. So he locked the door, picked Jerry up and exited through the other door, into the luggage room. At least this room would’ve given Jerry a clue since his clothes were still on the floor.

He deposited Jerry on one of the couches, pulled on his Uncaged t-shirt and started gathering up everything. He was just done when Sam, Jimmy  and Tom came in.

“Huh, he was yelling at us to get up and look at him taking a nap,” Tom said.

“What happened?” Sam asked, his voice somewhere between disbelief and lack of patience towards more dumbass stuff.