“Very well,” he agrees after a long silence. “Is that all?”
“For now.” I grin again, then stand up, offering my hand to the demon. “Pleasure to meet you, Auri. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have a honeymoon to get back to.”
He shakes my hand and I can feel the reluctant respect rolling off of him.
I grab Atlas’s hand on our way out of the office and thread my fingers between his, resting my head on his broad shoulder.
My stomach growls as we head back down the hallway, and instead of going left when we reach the fork, Atlas tugs me to the right.
“Where are we going?”
“To have breakfast.” He nuzzles my ear. “I need to make sure you can keep your energy up for what I have planned for the rest of the day.”
I moan and lean against him. He leads me into a large dining room where Mac, Drax, Cassius, and Roman are all seated around the table, already eating. Roman lifts his nose into the air and sniffs, then he grins at us.
“Nice,” he says with a wink.
Atlas bristles. “Dude, we either need to either find you a mate or get you neutered.”
“I vote for neutered,” Cas says helpfully, lifting a wineglass full of what appears to be blood to his lips.
Roman growls in his direction, baring his teeth, and the vampire chuckles.
“Glad to see you’re still here. Pull up a chair. The food here fuckingrocks.” Mac nudges a chair towards me.
“Thanks.” My stomach growls again. “And, um, thanks to all of you for coming yesterday.”
I’m fairly sure I already said it yesterday, but it bears repeating. I’ve proudly spent my adult life as an island, sure that any emotional ties were nothing but liabilities. But when it came down to it, I couldn’t have gotten out of there alone.
I serve myself up a plate of various foods from the platters on the table and listen to the easy, teasing banter between the five of them. They remind me of siblings, and I can’t help but wonder if Rhiannon and I will manage to find our way to some kind of relationship. I’m surprised to find that there’s a little spark of hope inside me in favor of the idea.
“By the way, if any of you have a bone to pick with Auri about your contracts, take Rune with you. He had him shaking in his?—”
“Shaking in my what, Atlas?” Auri appears in the doorway and Atlas snaps his mouth shut.
He doesn’t wait for an answer though, just smirks and disappears in a dramatic puff of smoke. I roll my eyes.
“Is he always so theatrical?”
Drax shrugs. “It’s kind of a demon thing.” He picks up a silver carafe and holds it out towards me. “Coffee?”
“Thanks.”
Atlas puts a hand on my thigh under the table, and we dig into our food. Mac was right, it’s delicious, and it turns out the company around here isn’t so bad either. Maybe we can split our time between here and my various apartments. Who knows, New, Sappy Rune might even make a few friends. Anything feels possible.
TWENTY-FOUR
ATLAS
Six weeks later
“Soooo,” Rune purrs, cuddling next to me on the couch in my apartment. “I reached out to Rhiannon. We’re meeting for coffee later.”
Smiling, I take his hand and gently squeeze it. “I’m proud of you.”
He waves the compliment away, but I see him blushing. “It’s time. I’ve spent long enough navigating the world alone.”
“You’ll never have to again.”
