She nodded and kissed his cheek. “Just set that down when you’re done,” she murmured. “I’ll come in tomorrow and clear it up. You made a portal, Lucky. You shouldn’t have even been close to being able to do that. You get some sleep. You’re gonna need your rest.” She stood, yawning. “I’m gonna go to bed in my own room. Larissa and Piers are there again. It’s not even weird anymore.”
“Like family?” Lucky hazarded.
“They could be,” she agreed. “Night, Lucky. Take care of my brother. We’ll talk again tomorrow night, okay?”
“Deal,” he said, taking another bite of the savory, hearty meat-and-potato concoction in the bowl. “Thanks, Kayleigh.”
“Any time.”
Lucky finished his dinner in another couple of bites and then did as Kayleigh bid him and set the bowl down on the bedstand. Then he curled against Scout’s body again, reassured by his steady breaths that when he woke up in the morning, he wouldn’t be alone.
He knew he’d be warm and loved, and his lover would be in his arms.
SCOUT COULDhear Lucky’s faint snoring before he realized that Lucky’s strong arm was wrapped around Scout’s middle, holding him almost breathlessly tight.
Scout struggled against Lucky’s heavy arm for a moment before whispering, “Baby, I’ve got to pee.”
That seemed to be the magic password, because Lucky uncurled enough for Scout to pour himself out of the bed and make his way to the bathroom, pausing to splash his face and brush his teeth.
He was getting back into bed before he realized Lucky was awake and looking at him, his eyes wide and fathomless.
“Hey,” Scout murmured, sliding close enough to tangle their legs.
“Hey yourself.” Lucky reached out to skate his fingertips along Scout’s cheekbone, and Scout closed his eyes and smiled.
“Thanks,” Scout said, getting close enough to rub his lips along Lucky’s chin.
“For what?”
“Bailing me out. Getting reinforcements.” He frowned, and it occurred to him for the first time that he and Lucky had been an hour away from home when Alistair had come to get him. “How did you do that, by the way? How did you get to the beach so fast?”
He pulled back to see Lucky’s expression and was surprised to see him grin.
“What?” Lucky asked, and his voice was all swagger. “Did you think all I had was the coin in my pocket?”
Scout stared, delighted. “Are you saying that you used the coin somehow?”
Lucky shrugged, terrifically full of himself. “It started burning against my leg, right? So I pulled it out and flipped it, and all I could think of, man, was how to get to you. And… and it’s like you were talking about getting Kayleigh. Suddenly, I could see the beach through the portal the coin was making, and….” He shrugged. “I couldn’t do it by myself, though. I knew that as soon as I saw you guys squaring off. So I had it drop me in my apartment so I could get to the coffee shop.” He chuckled. “I got no idea what the customers thought because I sprinted through there screaming that you needed help, and, you know. Our guys. Fuckin’ cavalry. It was great.”
Scout swallowed. “Wow. We’ve got a cavalry. And you can fly. Imagine what we’ll do tomorrow.”
To his dismay, Lucky’s eyes went overbright, and he made an obvious effort to control his breathing. “Not that,” he rasped. “Scout, you may not know what that darkness over the clearing is, but I do.”
Scout put two fingers over his mouth. “I know now,” he said, his own eyes burning. “I felt it. Alistair had hold of me, had power wrapped around me so tight I couldn’t breathe, but that was okay, right? That was, well, my entire childhood, I guess. Familiar. But I went flying through the air after him, and I….” His turn to controlhisbreathing. “I heard you call my name. And I thought ‘I might never see Lucky again,’ and….” Dammit. His voice wouldnotbreak. “And it overwhelmed me. The grief, the absolute, soul-crushing knowledge that I might not see you again. And then I was in the darkness, and I went, ‘Aha. Now I know.’”
“Is that why you didn’t fight back?” Lucky asked, his voice worried. “Until I grabbed you?”
“It just hit me,” Scout murmured, wanting to hug him like this forever and ever and ever, “that if I went through the portal Alistair was opening, I might be able to breathe, but I’d feel like that, suffocated and cold, forever. But if I followed you, I could have….” A tear broke free, and his voice with it. “I could have mornings like this.”
Lucky gathered him in, comforting him when Scout had wanted to do the comforting, whispering into his ear, his hair, that it was okay, they were having their morning, and it was glorious.
Oh, it was. It was everything Scout had ever dreamed about real life, about a family, a lover, except it was better, now that Scout had imagined life without it.
He needed Lucky so badly.
He pushed up, capturing Lucky’s mouth in a hot, briny kiss that Lucky returned, and suddenly holding each other wasn’t enough. Their fingers grew frantic as they pushed at clothes and kicked at covers, and for a moment life was sheer frustration as Scout wrestled with his sweat bottoms whenall he wanted was to touch Lucky’s skin!
And then they were naked, mouths voracious as they took turns kissing, licking, stroking every bit of tender skin available.
