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We talked a lot, me and Ben, about his mom, and Oreo, and the future, and where Ethan fit in our lives.
Ethan, me, and Ben, plus Oreo, were the start of something very real, and we were a family who loved each other.
As to Ethan, he and his new Shadow Team were in a separate building, a mini fortress a quarter mile from Kingscliff, built into the rocks near the horseshoe bay. Once an indoor swimming pool complex that had been a Gilded Age marvel, the space had been repurposed at speed, although the fact Ethan’s office was in the former deep end of the main pool intrigued me. Two of his office walls were tile, and the other two smoky glass, and the entire set up was wired for anything, with banks of monitors, a gym, accommodation… it was an action hero’s lair and I never let Ethan forget that he was turning into Batman.
Sanctuary’s priority was to get it up and running for the new team, but Jake and his foundation had also pushed an enormous amount of cash at getting Kingscliff habitable and ready to go. Dormitories and classrooms filled the second floor, a huge kitchen covered a quarter of the first, there were breakout rooms, extensive security, and my favorite place, the classrooms. Two of them. I never imagined for one minute that teaching would be a thing for me, but it was the part I was most excited about.
I’d even been taking lessons from a Spanish app.
Ultimately, Ethan and I were going to share a room on the top floor of Kingscliff, Ben right next door, but the work needed to make those two rooms habitable was extensive, and standing in the middle of what would be Ben’s room, I was overwhelmed with the work we had to do. All the contractors had gone home now, Ben was down in the kitchen with a couple of the kids who we hadn’t managed to connect with families yet, and I was alone, and for the briefest moment it all felt too much. Ben and I were living in one side of the empty dormitories, and Ethan was staying over in the swimming pool complex trying to finish the place, but that meant alone time with a busy Ethan was rare and we’d been here two weeks.
I was alone, and lonely in the worst kind of way, and then felt stupid because I was letting everything get to me. Particularly as Ben had started at a local school this week, so my days were me on my own as well.
I missed Ben, but he loved his school.
I missed Ethan, but he had work to do. Hurried kisses, promises of more, and exchanging I-love-yous was one thing, but actual time together with Ethan—alone—wasn’t happening.
Yep. Lonely.
“Twenty-three,” Ethan said from behind me.
I whirled to face him, smiling already and my heart swelling. “Twenty-three what?” I asked, as he came toward me and kissed me, my toes curling. I wished to hell I didn’t have a roller in my hand and wasn’t covered in paint so I could get closer.
“Twenty-three rooms. In this place,” he said as he pressed his lips to the end of my nose.
“You counted?”
He kissed me again. “I got turned around on the middle floor so I may have missed some.”
I bent to place the roller in the stand and yanked off my paint-splattered T-shirt. Ethan’s eyes widened before I stepped back into his arms. “I thought you were an expert in navigation.”
“Nope,” he said with a grin, and pulled me closer, running his hands down my bare back, and then resting them on my hips. “That would be Luca. I’m the tough guy.”
“Yep, you are.”
“But you know what?” He paused, and kissed me, and I carded my hands through his thick hair, tugging him close so we deepened the kiss. The question he’d asked was lost for a while in connecting with the man I loved.
“What?” I asked when we paused to catch our breath, both hard, both needing more.
“Huh?” Ethan seemed dazed.
I did that.I made strong silent sexy Ethan go like that, by kissing him.
Clearly I had superpowers.
“You said, guess what, which implies you have a question you want me to answer,” I reminded him.
He smiled then, walking me back to the door and shutting it then leaning there, with me trapped between one hard wood and another. “It wasn’t a question, more like a jokey thing.”
“Go on then.”
He waggled his eyebrows. “Well, you see, I don’t need to be an expert in navigation to know my way around your body,” he finished with a grin.
I liked that sentiment.
No, Ilovedit andcravedit.
He unzipped my paint-splattered jeans, as I yanked at his belt, and then we tore off clothes in a flurry of motion in this vast room that smelled of paint. With a short ladder wedged under the door, he grabbed painting cloths and pushed them together before tumbling us both down onto them. Even piled up they weren’t exactly a mattress, but if we didn’t mind paint in interesting places we’d be good—and who cared about paint when I had Ethan in my arms? We spent so long kissing and loving each other I thought I might come from that alone, but Ethan rolled me onto my back, his breathing heavy.
