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“If you want to, we can work on it at breakfast.”
“Okay! Can you get me up early enough to do it?”
“Sure,” Kier promised. “I’ll do that, if Onyx doesn’t wake you both up first.”
Misty had an uncanny ability to fall asleep pretty much on the spot. Even as Taylee sat there, she watched Misty’s eyes close and then her breathing became more rhythmic, and it was clear that she was fast asleep. She had long, full days. A lot of time for school was spent outdoors, as they trained for their eventual shifts, or went through the process again and again with new shifters, and spent more time in their other forms as more experienced youth who’d been shifting for years.
They tiptoed out of the room together and Kier shut the door, but not tightly. The house was small, but their hearing was keen. One tiny whimper from Onyx and one of them would be right there with her. She still woke up several times a night, and maybe it was the mother-daughter bond, but Taylee usually woke up before she even heard the first cry. She usually didn’t even have time to cry before Taylee was there, lifting her up and holding her.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t make up the couch yet,” Kier said as they moved back into the living room. “We’d planned on doing a movie before Misty suggested that puzzle she borrowed from the school and I—”
“I thought that maybe we could…maybe we could try and sleep in your room tonight?” Taylee picked up their plate. It was scattered with crumbs from their snack.
After the longest pause on earth, she got brave enough to look at Kier. Her cheeks were so hot. Kier’s cheeks were flushed a little pink too. The lights shone in his eyes. He looked so gentle and hopeful that she nearly dropped the plate and flew at him. What would he do if she leaped on him now and started tearing at his clothes?
Probably catch her and the plate because he was athletic like that, wheel her straight to the bedroom, and fuck her senseless in the quietest manner possible because there were children in the house.
She nearly did it, but she exercised control. She put the plate in the sink instead and then turned and gave him the lifted brow look. Did he have protection here? Would it be just sleep? They’d share a bed until morning. That in itself would be so intimate. She hadn’t stopped thinking about Kier in that way since they’d had sex out in the woods. How could she not think about him like that? She pretty much craved him constantly, but she’d wanted to put a little bit of space between them. First of all, because they couldn’t just attack each other all day and night. They had responsibilities. They had children to care for. There was still an ongoing threat out there. Secondly, because… well, see the first point.
She’d restrained herself and acted like she didn’t want to jump him every single time she saw him. She’d managed to content herself with a few touches, a special look here or there, and nothing more, but now sheneededhim.
“I’m sorry,” Kier said, letting out a long exhale that seemed like he was emptying his lungs for the next lifetime it went on so long. Her heart sank for a second. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that was a question, but you’re still waiting for an answer. We can sleep in my room tonight and every night that you want to. It would be a pleasure and an honor to have you there.”
When she raced at him, he caught her and lifted her up as easily and effortlessly as she’d just imagined he would.
Chapter 16
Kier
With what little brainpower he had left, he figured it was a good idea to direct them down the hall to his room. There was a line with the PDA, and he drew the line at anything more than a gentle kiss or a hug.
He felt like he was a little bit drunk and he probably walked like that too, careening all over the place instead of walking a straight line. It was hard to walk when he was busy licking and kissing, warring it out with Taylee, who didn’t kiss him gently. He had to support her too. That didn’t throw him off balance, but the kisses did. They were the same kind of wild kisses she’d given him in the woods. Like they were going to war, but this was probably the only good kind of battle there was.
She scraped her teeth over his lower lip as he burst into the bedroom. He shut the door and twisted the lock. They both paused for just a second, but the house was silent. Misty and Onyx were still fast asleep.
Taylee’s teeth found his bottom lip again. She bit harder this time, then captured his mouth before he could hiss out at the pain. The kiss was half madness, but the other half was sweet, like ice cream on a hot summer day.
He propelled them towards the bed. The room was just about black, so there were some awkward steps to find it. He had a small touch lamp on the nightstand, one of those ones with the fancy glass shades that looked like a mushroom with a brass stem. Very nineties. He didn’t for the life of him remember where it came from originally, but he did remember that his dad had it in his house, and when he’d passed, he’d brought it here. It wasn’t that he liked it all that much, but it was sentimental.
One tap at the base and a soft light, barely there at all, sent a soft golden glow through the room. His tallboy dresser cast a long shadow that danced in the mirror of the shorter one across the room from it. His bed was right in the center. It was fairly unimaginative as far as the layout went and uninspired in that the furniture was all just basic. He hadn’t had a wooden set made, like some of the people in Greenacre had. These ones were the ones he’d picked out with his dad when he’d moved out of the house he grew up in. They weren’t pretty, but they were solid. They screamed eighties,but that was okay. He remembered the morning he and his dad took the pickup into Seattle and got it at a garage sale. That was before anyone in Greenacre had the internet, but weekend sales were always a sure bet.
They’d stopped for coffee. Got the apple fritter doughnut his dad had a weakness for. Even though neither of them were overly comfortable in the city, it had been a good morning.
“Kier?”
“Sorry.”
“No. You don’t have to be sorry. You just looked a little lost. In a good way. Like you were thinking about something wonderful.”
“Actually, I was thinking about the morning my dad and I went to buy this bedroom set. We got it at a garage sale. I was thinking about the lamp too, at his house, before he passed and I got it. I don’t know why, I just…sorry. Totally zoned out.”
“I wish I could remember all the cool things I did with my family. And everything else.” She sat on the edge of the bed, her hands clasped between her knees. “But at the same time, it’s so nice when they tell me, and I get to relive it all over again. They look like you just looked now. They infuse all the telling with love, and that’s such a sweet and wonderful thing. If I can’t have the memories, what they’re giving me is definitely a close second.”
She patted the bed beside her, and he sat down and took her hand. The heat from a few seconds ago was gone, but he’d never felt so much tenderness towards her.
She reached for him, and he reached for her. They came together at the same time. He threaded one hand through her hair, and she pressed her palms flat against his chest.
He kissed her softly, until she whimpered against his lips.
