My eyes blinked slowly, sounds and the smell of popcorn flooding in, before I realized where we were and what we were supposed to be doing. Clearing my throat, I said, “Me too.”
He kissed the corner of my mouth. “Did you have a good day today?” He kissed the other corner, distracting me from his words. When I didn’t respond, he pulled back and arched a brow.
I had to think about what he’d asked. “Yeah, today was good. Isiah took me to lunch, which was fun, and then we hung out here together for a while.”
He smiled and kissed my cheek.
Trying not to act like a jerk, I asked, “What about you?”
He kissed my other cheek and my temple. “It was nice hanging out with my brother.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “I missed you, though.”
“You just saw me last night.”
“Yeah, a whole day ago.” He groaned and rested our foreheads together. “How am I going to manage when I have to go back to New York tomorrow night?”
I sucked in a quick breath. I’d been pointedly ignoring the fact that he didn’t live here—although hopefully, he would soon. It wasn’t something I wanted to think about, but this week had gone by so fast, which meant he was leaving tomorrow.
Hands cupped my cheeks, forcing my attention to him as he said, “I’ll be back soon. If nothing else, Iz and I will have paperwork and stuff for the new house, and then we’ll be moving. We want to make this our new home base.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “We’ve been talking about it already since we want to be close to my brother, and now there’s you on top of it, so yeah… we want to make this our new primary home.”
I sent him a small smile. “That would be really awesome. Alaric and Grady will be happy to hear that.”
“And you?” He lifted a brow.
“Yeah, Raph, it’ll make me more than happy.”
He kissed my lips. “It better.”
I snorted and shook his hands off my wrists so I could wrap my arms around his neck and bury my fingers in his hair. “We’ve only been dating for less than a week. Don’t you think this is a little… fast?”
He shook his head. “We’ve known each other a lot longer than that, Laz. But if you need me to stop being so serious, we can slow down.” He rubbed his cheek along mine. “I only want to be sure you know my intentions.”
That made my lips quirk up. “You’ve made them pretty clear.”
“Good, baby. That’s good.”
We hugged for another minute before I said, “We should probably check on Izzy.”
He grunted, then sighed and squeezed me tight for a moment longer before releasing me. Instead of letting me go entirely, though, he grabbed my hand, laced our fingers together, and pulled me into the living room where he plopped me down beside Isiah. I was surprised Raph didn’t choose to sit beside him. He did put his arm along the back of the couch and put his hand on Iz’s shoulder, but he also pulled me into his side until I rested my head on his shoulder.
When I realized what was on the TV, I shook my head and sighed. “Seriously, Iz? A Christmas movie? Grades isn’t even here!” Grady was super obsessed with Christmas movies.
Izzy snorted. “I only turned it on until you guys came in here. You get to pick the movie.”
I took the remote he passed me. “Thank god. I’ve seen every Christmas movie in existence at least twenty times. I do not need to watch them when Grady isn’t forcing me to.”
Raph pressed his smile into my hair, and Izzy snorted.
When Iz placed his hand on top of Raph’s on his shoulder, I found that I didn’t mind. I was a little unsure about what my role would be in Raph’s life when he already had Isiah, and yeah, maybe I was a little jealous of how long they’d been together and how well they knew each other, but I couldn’t deny the connection I could see between them. It was still a little strange, and definitely something I’d have to look further into if Raph and I got serious. But for now, seeing them like that sort of made me smile. It was like they were two magnets floating around, searching for their match, unable to stop from coming together.
I pursed my lips.
If they were meant to be together, why weren’t they together? I still didn’t understand that, especially after watching Grady and Alaric together for the past year.
My mind wandered in circles during the movie until I suddenly jolted and started blinking at my surroundings. My head was on Raph’s chest, and there was a big puddle of drool on his shirt. I must’ve fallen asleep.
I wiped my mouth, then tried to wipe the drool off his shirt, but his hand stopped mine, and he whispered, “Don’t worry about it. You were cute, snoring away on me.”
I groaned, and he laughed and kissed my forehead.
With a stretch and a yawn, I asked, “What time is it?”
“After six. Grady and Alaric picked up some pizza on their way home, if you’re hungry.”
I glanced at the kitchen and saw the two of them sitting at the breakfast nook, eating and talking quietly. Then I glanced over and found Izzy still sitting beside me, watching TV. Both his and Raph’s familiars were snuggled on his lap, obviously having come in from outside at some point. I must’ve been really out. When he felt my eyes on him, he sent me a small smile that I returned.
The three of us stood, and I stretched before making my way to the pizza.
With all five of us hanging out together, the night flew by, and since Raph had to leave tomorrow, everyone convinced me to stay the night, so I slept on the couch. Izzy quietly asked me if I wanted him to switch so I could sleep in bed with Raph, but I declined because I didn’t want to have sex with Grady and Alaric within hearing range, and there was no way I’d be able to resist Raphael in the bed with me.
As I lay on the couch alone, though, I sorta wished I could crawl into bed with the two of them.
To sleep.
Because Izzy would be a good buffer.
Yeah, let’s go with that.
I stretched my arms over my head as I walked through my house, then I pulled my phone from my pocket and dialed Raph’s cell.
He answered on the second ring. “Hey, sexy.”
“Hey.” I couldn’t keep the smile from my voice. Every time I heard that rough, gravelly rumble of his, I couldn’t help but smile. And my dick couldn’t help but take notice.
“Did you just get home?”
“Yep. Another busy day of helping customers. What about you? Are you home yet?” Over the past few weeks, I’d discovered that Raph didn’t keep a very consistent schedule, although it wasn’t for a lack of trying. When he was able, he and Izzy worked a normal schedule, but when he was chasing down a bad guy, his work hours were all over the place.
“Yep. Been home maybe thirty minutes. Izzy’s making stir fry.”
I groaned. “Ask him if he can magic some to me.”
Raph repeated that, and I heard Izzy say in the background, “I would if I could. I’ll make you some the next time we’re there.”
“Tell him I said thank you.”
He did, then said, “Guess what, baby?”
“What?”
“We got our move-in date.”