Free Octavia's War by Tracy Cooper-Posey

agreed on that, too.” Remmy seemed pleased.
    Ángel pulled him close enough to kiss him again. If he could not kiss Octavia, Remmy was a more than adequate substitute.
    * * * * *
    Octavia thought she heard the moan in her dreams. The thick darkness in front of her, broken by a single narrow shaft of sunlight, told her the truth. She was awake. The moan had woken her.
    She blinked. Sleep was still trying to pull her down. Then she heard the whispers and her name.
    She focused, forcing herself to a higher level of alertness.
    “…I will not force her to it.”
    “Nor I.” That was Ángel’s voice.
    “Then we are agreed on that, too.”
    The two of them were darker shadows in the cave, which didn’t seem to be as dark as she had thought. Her eyes had adjusted to the low level of light while she had slept and now she could make out larger details in the dark.
    They were sitting close together. Their mouths were together.
    Octavia drew in a startled breath, her drowsiness vanishing.
    They were kissing .
    She couldn’t pull her gaze away from the pair of them as the kiss went on and on. One of them groaned again. She couldn’t tell which, although it was clear from every taut line of their bodies that they were both enjoying the kiss.
    Octavia swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. Every nerve in her body seemed to be tingling. Her breasts felt heavy and hot inside the lace cups. Her nipples were almost painfully erect and hard. She wanted to move her legs restlessly, only it would tell them she was awake and she didn’t want to disturb them. She didn’t want to intrude.
    She was more than happy just to watch.
    Octavia had seen men kissing before, although the moments had been rare because of her conservative upbringing and the even more conservative culture of average Mexicans. She had found it interesting to watch because it had been novel and different.
    There was nothing novel or different about the way Ángel and Remmy were kissing. The heat they were generating was from raw, undiluted passion. More than that. There was feeling there. Emotion.
    She knew what both of them would be experiencing. She had kissed both of them herself and knew what it was like. Ángel’s full lips and Remmy’s hard mouth…both good in different ways.
    When had she started to think of Ángel in that way? Was it after he had kissed her or before? Remmy had always lingered in the back of her mind as Bear, her coordinator, who would never unbend enough to acknowledge she was a woman, let alone kiss her, as much as she might wish he would.
    While Ángel had never entered her thoughts as anything other than the second son about whom she never seemed to be able to learn anything, except that he didn’t think like anyone else she knew.
    Her education about Ángel and his thoughts had spiked hard in the last twelve hours.
    He was leaning into the kiss, the tendons in his forearm flexing as he held Remmy in place. Then he let the other man go and sat back, breathing hard.
    “You stopped.” Remmy was just as breathless.
    “It’s good, but it isn’t perfect. Not without Octavia being part of it.” Ángel shrugged. “Sorry.”
    Remmy nodded. “I think she might already be awake. Her heartbeat increased.”
    Ángel turned his head sharply to look at her. “Octavia?”
    Octavia considered closing her eyes, only Remmy had heard her pulse leap. It would make her a liar if she pretended she was asleep now.
    “I was watching,” she said quietly. “You’re wrong, Remmy. I do know what I want.”
    Remmy got to his feet. “What either of you want is irrelevant right now. You both need sleep. I do not, so I will watch.”
    Ángel laughed.
    “I mean it,” Remmy said firmly.
    “You think I can sleep now?” Ángel said.
    “I think if you let your body speak for itself you’ll be asleep faster than you ever thought possible. You’re both very tired. Your body temperatures had dropped before…well, before.”
    Watching them kiss had raised her