Page 22 of Lay It Bare

He blushed.

Ellisandre pushed the second mug of coffee towards him. “Drink. Food’s coming. I ordered.”

“Thank you.” Sevastyan wrapped both of his beautiful hands around the mug, dwarfing it with his strong, long fingers. Ellisandre indulged in watching the flex of the skin sliding over his knuckles, showcasing blue veins and defined tendons.

“Show me the cuts,” Ellisandre murmured. Sevastyan’s back was to the door. It was an honor he was trusting them to watch the entrance on his behalf. He couldn’t seem to utter his secret, but he readily placed his life in their keeping. It spoke to something deep and primal. And it was enough—for now.

Sevastyan opened his coat and his jacket. He glanced right and left but no one was at the nearby tables this early in the morning. The crowd was almost all in the front grabbing coffee and baked goods to go. He pulled up his shirt, the sides of his great winter coat creating a veneer of privacy. “They’re almost healed.”

If only the situation were less public, they would reach out and stroke the lines they’d left in his skin. “Tell me how you feel now. Bruises, cuts, sleep.”

Sevastyan lowered his shirt. “Nothing to report. I’m fully operational. Sleep has been broken but not because of . . . us.”

Ellisandre tilted their head. Whoever had needed the saline had probably been in Sevastyan’s direct care, then.

“Next time, tell me if you’re going to be caretaking directly after we do more than a date.”

Sevastyan dropped his eyes, aware that part of his mystery had been sussed out. “I will.” An honorific was on his lips, but he wisely did not use it.

Ellisandre lounged back in their seat, just drinking in their boy. Sevastyan looked up, catching them at it, and blushed deeper. “I’m going to be gone for a few days. All my phones will be off for periods. I’ll be back on the seventeenth.”

“Noted.” Ellisandre grinned. This was domestic. Even if their boy was probably referring to a trip to go commit crimes, possibly international crimes, this meeting for food, discussion of schedules, all of it, was better than a declaration. It was attention, thoughtfulness, time.

“You’ll have to come back. I hear your informant will become unreliable if left unattended.”

Sevastyan’s eyes crinkled up in a grin. “I’ll make sure that’s taken under advisement.”

The cook slapped two plates down in the window and yelled out their order number.

Ellisandre stood. “Food. Be right back.” Hopefully Sevastyan still liked pancakes.

Rei

Rei slid down the wall to the cold floor and hugged his knees to his chest. It always hurt. Every time Sevastyan left, it was like this. The fear. The emptiness. The knowing that it could be days, or even weeks before the one steady rock in his world would return. He hadn’t even managed to leave the entry way. He was still exactly where Sevastyan had left him.

Until Sevastyan returned, he always had only himself. And the inside of his head. Being alone was a minefield layered on the edge of a cliff.

It was a burden he would never reveal to Sevastyan. Their lives depended on his master risking himself over and over again. All the safety that they could cling to depended on Sevastyan’s life that was lived largely on the road. Every trip Sevastyan chose to bring him with was a risk and a gift—sometimes a special kind of hell. But one he preferred over being left behind. Even the Yadro was better than the silence.

He breathed through his nose, bracing himself for the days ahead. There was work. And he would practice his skills as long as he could, until the depression would take the last of the strength from his body and leave him moving only the bare minimum that his assigned tasks and life required.

“It’s fucking cold down there.”

Rei lifted his head. Lisa stood at the end of the tile entryway, Sevastyan’s sweatpants falling off his hips, one of his cashmere sweaters clinging to his torso like he was a fashion model.

Lisa held out his hand. “Come back to bed.”

Rei pushed up and stood, a little unsteady.

Lisa frowned. “You really don’t like it when he goes.”

Rei waved his hand around his head. “Gets . . . too loud.”

“I can be louder. Come on. I’m cold. And your master might beat me if he catches me standing here.”

“No, he wouldn’t, not till you’re healthier.” Rei stepped closer and Lisa caught his wrist, tugging him towards the bedroom.

“What do you normally do when he’s gone?”