I looked over to Mace and felt like my smile was ridiculously cheesy with how much I cared for him by this point. I felt like every time we were together; he gave another lost piece of me back. Like a crow gifting shiny things to a human that’d helped. Except the shiny bright pieces that he gave me were invaluable, an incalculable gift.
“What are y’all still doing up?” Mace asked.
“Oh, you know, shootin’ the shit,” Vyking declared, and I bit my lips together to keep from giggling.
“Being fucking nosey,” Fenris corrected him, and I did laugh then.
“Can you blame us?” Aspen asked. “It’s always Raven this and Raven that,” she said looking at Mace who, by God, was turning red in the overhead porch light.
“Right, you need to use the restroom?” he asked me, changing the subject.
“Ah, sure,” I said.
“This way.” He led me into the house. “We can use this one down here.” He flipped on the light for me. “Back door is always unlocked so we have access.”
“That’s the door we just came through?” I asked, leaning a shoulder against the doorframe from inside the bathroom.
“Yep.”
“K.” I smiled, and he grinned back.
“Feels weird having you here.”
“Weird bad, or weird good?” I asked softly.
His smile grew as he leaned forward slowly. “Weird good,” he whispered against my lips. “Weird definitely good.” He kissed me and I melted all the way down to my toes.
“I’ll hurry up,” I whispered against his lips and he drew back.
“K.”
I rushed through freshening up and he was waiting for me on the back porch with everyone else. They seemed to be giving him a hard time but lightly.
“Alright, you two. Sleep tight,” Vyking declared with a chuckle.
“Goodnight,” I bid them, and Mace led me across the grass to the stairs on the back side of the barn leading to the second floor.
“It’s cold out here, but look at those stars,” I murmured, and he stopped with me to look up. “So many of them.”
“Yeah, you don’t get as much in the city.”
I breathed out the cold and cleansing air in a plume.
“It’s warmer inside. Not by much, but it is,” he murmured, taking my large macrame tote from me and hoisting it up on his shoulder.
“K,” I said, drifting after him to the stairs, soaking in a last glimpse of those stars in the sky.
He shut the door behind me to the big loft and I blinked letting my eyes adjust to the even darker gloom. There were rows and rows of shelves holding pottery in various stages of completion.
“Stay right there,” he said. “I’ll get the lantern lit.”
I waited as he moved through his familiar space, through the shelves to the front of the barn under what appeared to be a bank of windows. There was a hiss, and then a soft wuff and the glow that permeated the loft was one that resembled a captive star, all fierce white radiance that could only be a camp lantern.
I picked my way carefully around the shelves to find him.
His space was as sparse as mine, just a mattress on the floor and a row of crates on their side to use as shelves, holding his clothes and other miscellaneous things.
I smiled.
“I could get used to this,” I declared. I loved it.
“If I have anything to say about it, you won’t have to, babe. It’s fun for a night or two, but for months? Not so much.”
He stood up and turned, resting his hands on my hips lightly.
“Well, I like it. It appeals to me greatly.”
He smiled and stepped a bit closer. “I can appreciate a woman who likes the simple things,” he said.
“Yeah?” I asked, softly.
“Yeah,” he said with certainty. He kissed me then, and I swooned into him, my arms going around his waist as he gathered me close.
“You up for an orgasm or two?” he asked me, and I hesitated.
“It was a long day,” I murmured, deciding that while I was up for sex, I also needed to see…
“Hey, that’s okay,” he said without missing a beat. He kissed my forehead and caressed my cheek with his thumb, and I felt myself go lax with relief. An end to an anxiety I hadn’t even known was riding me. “Let’s get you undressed and into bed, yeah? I want to hold you,” he murmured.
I smiled and nodded and that’s what we did. Got into what passed for PJs for the both of us and cuddled close in the nest of sleeping bags he used for blankets.
“I ask you something?” he asked softly when we’d been settled for a time after he’d doused the light. I lay, my head on his chest, staring at the deep, dark blue sky out the dusty window and the smattering of stars across its surface.
“You can ask me anything,” I murmured.
“You know I don’t want you to think badly of me,” he said, and I tore my eyes from the sky outside and tipped my head to look up at him.
He rearranged his to look down at me and I blinked and said, “Why would I ever?”
“That’s what I wanted to ask you,” he said solemnly. “This… this Max guy.”
My breath stilled in my chest.
“What about him?” I asked uneasily.
“You want I should take care of him?” he asked.
I swallowed hard and cuddled into his side and said, “He’s too powerful, too connected. I would be afraid for you,” I said.
“Nothing to be afraid of here,” he said, and stroked my hair. I closed my eyes.
“I wish he were dead,” I told him honestly. “I don’t want to be afraid anymore, and I really don’t want him to do this to anyone else.”
I shuddered and Mace held me close, making a soothing, “Shhh” that ruffled my hair.
“He won’t,” he said. “I promise.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, baby,” I said to him. “They’re the worst kind. The kind to break the heart the most.”
He was
