I showed my teeth.“Oh, that would be silly.”
Ell snorted.“Linc, let me move.”
I left the two of them to get breakfast ready and went to find our mate’s bag, then took it to my room.Marcus hadn’t really gotten a tour of the floor yet, which was a shame.I’d done some of my most fiddly work on this floor.
I poked my head out of my door when I heard him come out of the bathroom.He stood there, fingers going to the back of his head while he looked at the stairs.
“Psst, Little Red.The stitches can’t come out yet.”
He dropped his hand.“Yeah, I know.But they’re itchy.”
“We’ll ask Ell what to do about that.Come here for a sec.I want to show you something.”
He crossed his arms and didn’t move an inch.“Sounds suspicious.”
“Pfft.”I flapped my hand in a dismissive gesture.“I’m not suspicious.Besides, I have your bag.”
“You kidnapped my bag?”
Downstairs, Linc chuckled while Ell sighed.
I kept my face straight.“Yup.You have to come closer to hear my demands.”
“Getting more and more suspicious.”
I moved to stand right in the doorway where he could see all of me.“Do I look suspicious to you?”
His gaze dropped to my briefs.Yup, Marcus liked how I looked in nothing but my underwear.
“I think you want to look suspicious, but unlike you, I need my pants.”
I sighed.“That’s such a shame.Come on.”
He pulled up the overlong legs of the pants he was wearing while giving me a pointed look.I stepped aside to let him into my room, and like most people when they first came in here, he looked straight at the mirrors that made up the entire left wall.
Marcus lifted his arms and turned to the mirrors, flapping them until only the tips of his fingers were visible.“I don’t look good in these.Ell’s such a liar.”
Downstairs, Linc cackled.
“He’s not, and you look delightful in my clothes.That’s a wardrobe.”I stepped past him to show him the sliding doors.Yeah, maybe I wanted to show him how organized all my stuff was inside the wardrobe too, so sue me.Marcus took a step closer though, and I pointed at the single window.“I don’t get too much light in here.I thought about putting in a bigger window, but there are pipes in that wall.I went with the mirrors instead.”
Marcus turned and looked at the bed, where I’d put his bag.“Why do you all have your own beds anyway?Don’t you all sleep together?”
I shrugged.“Yeah.But you want your own space sometimes, you know?Also, Ell works really wonky shifts sometimes, so he has his own room—not that I mind him collapsing on me.Early on, Linc thought he might have to leave town for work on short notice a lot, so him having his own space also made sense in case he came back late.I liked the idea because of my special place.”
Marcus frowned.“Getting more suspicious again.”
I winked at him.“Nah.Look there.”
I pointed at the staircase I’d hidden behind the wall opposite the wardrobe.It wasn’t really a wall, just some wooden panels I’d fitted to the head of the bed and wallpapered over.You could walk around it to a small alcove.
“I thought that was an extra bathroom,” Marcus said as he rounded the faux wall.“Huh.Not an extra bathroom.”
I followed.The room really wasn’t that big, and I didn’t want to crowd him, so I made sure to keep my back to the wall so that he could still get past me if he wanted.
“I built those stairs.It leads up to the attic.”
Marcus’s eyes went wide, and I basked in that attention.He tested the wooden steps with both hands—the thing was steep and built to make a ninety-degree turn.There was some storage underneath too, but really only because I’d have wasted too much space if I hadn’t built it like that.
