I dropped into a tatty office chair and rolled it closer to him. “You like wolves?”
“Not me.” Folk traced the lines of the sketch. “Rocco. I don’t know how she knew that, though.”
“Locke, maybe?”
“I guess so.”
“You should eat.” I grabbed a plate from the table and offered it to him. “We can talk about Rocco later, if you want?”
Folk blinked at me. Then his distant expression cleared and he was back in the room, bringing that gentle grin with him. The one I’d seen in my dreams while he’d been gone. “Later sounds good to me.”
He stood and set the sketch on the windowsill. Then he came back, took the plate I held out, and fell on the dinner Rubi had cooked like he hadn’t eaten for a week.
Maybe he hadn’t. I had no idea where he’d been, or why. All I knew for sure was that it was the first time in a while he’d come home without the telltale signs of a fight littering his skin.
You can’t see all of his skin.
The runaway thought killed my appetite, nerves churning my belly.
“Later sounds good to me.”Until he’d said those words, I hadn’t had the balls to assume he’d come home with me tonight. That I’d be sleeping anywhere except alone on the lumpy bar couch, like I had every other night he and Ivy had both been gone. For weeks now, we’d fallen into the habit of grabbing whatever stolen moments we could, but this was the first time we’d have the whole night.
If he doesn’t have other plans.
But he didn’t, right? I already knew Alexei was in for the night. I’d felt Cam’s relief when he’d told Saint their lover was finally coming home. Pretended it was totally justified for me to feel it too. But what if it wasn’t? Folk had spent so many nights in my bed because it was hisjob.Not because getting naked with me on his lunch break meant anything.
“Who do you think is going to want you now? You’re boring, Seth. You always have been. Even divorcing you is dull.”
I pushed my plate away, fighting a physical flinch at the sheer volume of Lauren’s voice in my head.
Folk noticed, but he was caught in conversation with Liliana. Swimming, of course. He’d created another mermaid.
I got up, gathering dishes, and took them to the kitchen. Someone followed me, but I wasn’t psychic enough to know who.
It’s not Folk.
Okay. Maybe I was a little bit psychic. Or obsessed. Either way, it wasn’t Nash I wanted squeezing past me to get to the sink. For starters, his eyes were the wrong shade of blue.
His smile was as warm, though. Just not as lethal to my cognitive function.
Nash dumped dishes on the side and turned the taps on in the sink. “How’s tricks, mate?”
I answered on autopilot. “All good.”
Nash eyed me over his broad shoulder, used to better bullshitters than me. “How’s things with Lauren? I asked Folk, but he said he hasn’t seen her.”
“He hasn’t.” I crouched to dig washing-up liquid from the cupboard under the sink. “I thought she might turn up at the house when he was there, just to fuck things up, but she’s pretty quiet.”
“Is that a relative statement? Orla said she’s still blowing up your phone.”
“She is, but I’m getting better at ignoring it.”
“Bet that’s easier now you have some company, eh? Less time to be your own worst enemy?”
“Speaking from experience?”
Nash snorted. “Hell no. I never get a goddamn minute to myself, and I still manage to fuck everything up.”
Couldn’t be sure what he was talking about. Cam had left him big shoes to fill, but Nash was larger than life in his own right. A different leader to Cam, for sure, but as capable. As steadfast and strong.
