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________
SLOANE
Showers were underrated. Especially long, hot showers you could stand in forever. This shower in particular had my heart. It wasso cool. Big, with a bunch of different shower heads. One of the sexy straight-down rainfall ones, but also normal ones for when you didn’t want to deal with so much water in your face.
There was a bench, too. Which was great for sitting and savoring the hot water, since I was still exhausted. But given my… activities the last few days, I imagined there were also other ways to use it.
I looked around. This wasmyshower. On the same floor as the nest, in the bedroom that would also be mine. There was another empty room on this floor, still filled with some boxes.
The Lys Pack hadn’t been here long. A couple of months while they all transitioned from living in the capital city, Concordia.
Rather, Gabriel and Roman had been here getting everything settled while Ash and Jace stayed behind to finish some obligations. That’s what they told me while guiding me—still wrapped in the soft blanket—through the floor where I would live.
It made me feel better. If Ash had been here in the city for months and not tried to find me, it would have hurt even though I was the one avoiding him. The townhouse looked so good, I would never have thought they hadn’t been here long. When I said as much Gabriel smirked and told me he made sure they’d had help to do it quickly.
I didn’t have any clothes, unless you counted myGisellecostume, and I wasn’t putting that back on. Or any of the dirty dance clothes from the week of rehearsals. Roman promised he’d take care of it, and though every single one of them still looked at me like they wanted to take me back into the nest for a few more days, they let me shower alone.
Bringing them into this amazing shower with me meant I wouldn’t actually get clean. We would all get veryverydirty.
The smile on my face didn’t fade as I washed my hair and body with borrowed products. It didn’t bother me. If I was going to move in here anyway, I would have all my things soon enough.
True to his word, a hoodie waited for me when I got out of the shower in a familiar blue.Lakewood Conservatorywas embroidered across the front of it. Where the three of us had gone to school. Roman’s hoodie was even larger than his t-shirt had been. The neck slid off my shoulder a bit, but I liked being surrounded by his scent.
This was the top floor. Well, there was the roof, but I hadn’t been up there yet. Jace and Roman were on the floor below mine. The nest was empty, and I took a minute to look at it now that I had a clear head. It was beautiful. Like someone had plucked my vision for a nest right out of my head and made it appear.
It could use a few more pillows and blankets, butfuck, they’d done a good job.
I padded down the stairs, quietly taking in the house in a way I hadn’t yet.Ourhouse. My stomach did a littleflipin excitement.
Roman’s door was open. Just like the first time I’d seen him, and just like me, he was fresh from the shower in a hoodie and sweats of his own. His hair pulled back in a knot behind his head, he stood near the table I’d spotted that night, covered in sketches and models.
“Knock, knock.” I tapped my knuckles on the doorframe.
He turned to me and smiled, eyes doing a slow perusal of my bare legs, the rest of me in his sweatshirt, and where my shoulder was exposed.
“Can I come in?”
“You never have to ask.”
A blush rose to my cheeks. Now out of the heat, it still felt strange for it to be so fast. I appreciated the wild nature of Petra’s courting so much more. I slowly came into his room, toes curling into the thick rug.
All I’d noticed last time was the worktable and bed. Now I saw it all, with rich green-black walls and dark furniture that seemed very much like him. A walk-in closet, and a comfortable chair in the corner near the windows.
And, of course, the bed.
“It feels a little silly to want to sleep after all of that. Ididsleep.”
Roman came over to me and lifted me off my feet with ease. My knees rested on his hips, and his hands slipped beneath his hoodie to hold me. He laid me down on his bed gently, stretching out above me without crushing me. Though I wouldn’t have minded being crushed by him. “Passing out because we fucked you into exhaustion isn’t the same as rest.”
I laughed. “I guess that’s true.” Reaching out, I traced the lines of his face. “Can I take a nap in here since I don’t have a bed yet?”
His purr rumbled between us. “Even when you have a bed, I think we’ll all prefer you in one of ours, firefly.”
Sinking my fingers into his damp hair, I pulled it out of the knot it was in and let it fall around his face. Then I smiled. “You know I don’t even know your last name?”
“Hughes.”
Roman turned us, pulling me to his chest, so like that first night. And I was tired, but I wasn’t slipping under right this second. There were things I wanted to know.
