Body shaking with silent laughter, he turns to kiss the top of my head before scooting closer so I’m pinned more firmly between them. “Hate that I have to be, love.”
Kinsley throws an arm over my side and buries his face against my shoulder, groaning. “Go to sleeeeeeeep,” he begs, dragging the word out. “Only a couple hours until the alarm goes off.”
Smiling, I let my eyes close, loving my new normal as much as I hate it at times.
Chapter 17
Kinsley
––––––––
“Hand me the tweezers?” Saige asks, completely enraptured in her work.
These last few weeks since the paintball event have been peaceful as we fall into a new routine, and she’s steadily relaxed the more days that passed without any of the men in town giving her issues.
We set up another table in the main workroom of our forge, and hell, I’m not the only one struggling to get any actual work done. I thought it was hard to concentrate on the days I drew the short straw to work knowing she was back at home with one of my brothers, leaving me agitated and restless to get back. But being able to see her face light up when she doesn’t know I’m watching is positively addicting.
She doesn’t even look up as Kaiden passes them over on his way to sharpen a short sword, thanking him while still engrossed in her latest project. The silicone molds we managed to get our hands on from the old bakery that went out of business ended up being the perfect thing. Originally made for some sort of chocolates or candies, they are close enough to the size of small stones, and the resin pops right out.
Kahl pauses in hammering the piece on his table without being asked, attuned to our mate’s actions as much as I am. Carefully, she holds a dried flower petal in position as she uses two different syringes to swirl colored resin into the form.
Hair tied back away from her face, she has a streak of green on her jaw from the dye powder, matching the myriad of colors covering her clothes. Empty containers fill the bin behind her from all of her experimenting, getting the hang of the stuff and figuring out exactly what she wanted to do.
And now she’s obsessed, waking up before any of us on work days with an idea of something new to forage for on the way, trying not to ask us for anything more than she has to if she can avoid it by substituting with something she can find despite the impending winter making it a struggle.
“You know, if you want, you could move to bigger projects,” I throw out there, pulling the thought together aloud while musing.
Finished now, she dusts off her hands and comes to join me where I’m sketching out various design ideas based off of the customer’s request. I’ll need to run them over after work today and if one of them fits the bill, we can get started on it tomorrow. Custom work is always pricier than the generic orders we get from neighboring towns and honestly, is the main thing keeping us afloat, so I want to make sure it’s flawless.
Some people think you only need so many weapons on hand, and we’ve served enough of Hadeon over the years that it was branch out, or go belly up. And staring at my gorgeous mate that loves to shake things up, an idea starts forming that I think might be exactly what we all need.
Coming to stand behind me, she rests her chin on my shoulder to peer at my sketches. “Like what?”
Flipping the page of my sketchbook to a blank one, I start roughly outlining my idea while talking. “A collaboration project.”
Her tongue flicks across the side of my neck playfully. “I could get behind a group project.”
