I started to turn the sign on, but paused and grabbed Raph, stepping into him and tucking my face into the crook of his neck. He automatically hugged me, one hand going in my hair, the other rubbing my back, and I spoke against his skin. “Thank you for coming here with me today.”
“No need to thank me, but you’re welcome, baby.” He kissed my hair, then cupped my cheek and tilted my face up. His eyes scanned my features as the other hand came up to cup my other cheek, and a soft smile played on his lips. “You’re beautiful.”
My eyebrows lifted. Before Raph, no one had called me beautiful before, but he’d said it more than once, and I could tell he meant it. This coming from a man that had spent every day of the last century and a half with Isiah—the most beautiful man on Earth, aside from Raph himself. How could he possibly think I was beautiful when he was surrounded by Izzy’s beauty every day. With emotions clogging me up, I had to clear my throat. “Thank you.”
His thumbs rubbed my cheeks as he stared into my eyes with a soft smile on his handsome face. “You know I care about you, right?” The statement seemed to come out of nowhere, and he obviously had something else to say, but when he didn’t continue after a minute, I nodded.
“I care about you, too.” More than simply caring, but I didn’t want to put a word to it yet. My cheeks burned, but I didn’t want to hold back, not after everything he’d done for me, so I went with being as honest as I could in this moment. “I care about you more than I thought possible, Raph.”
His smile grew wider. “Me too, baby. Me too.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead, and we held there for a few minutes before he finally released me, saying, “You better open up. I already made you late.”
I glanced at the clock I had hanging in the back of the store and grimaced. “Shit.”
He chuckled. “I’m sorry, but holding you was worth it.”
I snorted. “You should be sick of holding me by now. I’ve practically lived in your lap for weeks.”
“I’ll never be sick of holding you.”
He sounded so sure, so absolute, that I found it hard not to believe he meant it. Wasn’t sure how he could mean it, but I wasn’t about to question it, that was for sure.
Without saying anything—because what the hell do you say to that?—I finally flipped on the sign, made sure the door was unlocked, and made my way back behind the counter.
Raph settled behind the counter, off to the side so he wasn’t in my way, but he asked, “Do you have any cuckoo clocks?”
“Yeah, there’s a whole section on the wall over there.” I pointed it out. “Why?”
“Since you got us that table clock we have in the dining room, I can’t stop staring at it. I thought it might be cool to put a cuckoo clock in the kitchen.”
“You really like the clock I got you?”
He nodded. “I love it. It, uh, while you were gone, it brought… comfort.”
My heart melted a little, but I didn’t want to think about the reason I’d been away, so I concentrated on the cuckoo clock thing instead. “You’re welcome to any of them.” I waved my hand toward the clock wall.
Raph scoffed. “As if I’m not going to pay you for it.”
“Like hell am I taking your money. Especially after you’ve been letting me stay—”
Completely ignoring me—which made me roll my eyes—he said, “Ohh, actually, if you come across another table clock, let me know, and I’ll have one shipped to each of our houses. I can’t wait to show you all of our homes. I know it’ll be a while before we can really travel, but I’m taking you to each of our houses. Maybe we can visit each one and make a long vacation out of it.”
“So I get no say in the matter at all?” The thought of him whisking me around the world was appealing as hell, so I wasn’t actually offended, but I felt like I probably should be.
“None at all.” He shot me a grin over his shoulder. “The three of us deserve a little fun together.”
My eyebrows rose. Of course, he meant all three of us. In fact, as soon as he’d mentioned it, I’d assumed and pictured Isiah flying around with us. But for some reason, a little fun together didn’t sound as innocent as simply flying around the world. Had Raph picked up on the fact that I found Izzy highly attractive, and that I really liked him as a person? Or was I only being paranoid and reading more into it?
No, this was Raph. He tried making everything sound sexy. Emphasis on try.
Before I could respond, an older woman walked into the store, so we had to cut off our private conversation. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t still thinking about and obsessing over it the entire time the customer was here.
As soon as she left, I turned to Raph and said, “The three of us, huh?”
He blinked at me, and I expected him to play it off as a joke, but instead, he got a very serious look on his face as he replied, “Yes, the three of us. Izzy is a part of—”
“I know,” I said softly. “He is. Of course, I want him with us, I always do. I was only teasing.”
Raph smiled and moved over to stand before me, placing his hands on my hips. “You like Isiah.”
The way he said like clearly meant more than simply liking him as a person, and I blurted, “Yes,” before I could stop myself, and my eyes went wide. Why did I say that?
His smile somehow made his brown eyes light up further. “Good. So do I.”
This conversation had more meaning than what he was actually saying, but I didn’t know how to ask him to clarify, because what if it didn’t mean anything more, and I was only reading into things? What if I hurt Raph’s feelings or something? Plus… it was odd that I was even harboring these thoughts for another man, wasn’t it? The last thing I’d want to do was hurt Raph in any way or make Izzy uncomfortable. So I didn’t say anything; I moved forward, went up on my toes, and pressed my forehead to his, making him sigh in contentment.
After a few moments of breathing each other in, I quietly asked, “Since you’re here, does that mean I get to put you to work?”
He waggled his eyebrows. “You can put me to work anytime, baby.”
I snorted out a laugh and pushed his chest. “You do know you look ridiculous when you wiggle your eyebrows like that, right?”
His bottom lip popped out, so I leaned in to pull it between my teeth, causing him to suck in a breath, and making me smile.
Smacking his ass, I said, “Come on. There’s a ton of shit in the back from an auction I went to right before Christmas. I need to go through everything, organize it, decide what I’m selling online, what I’m putting out, and how much to charge.”
He wrinkled his nose. “That sounds horrific. Maybe I can call Isiah to come switch with me until later.”
With a chuckle, I waved him into the back room. “Fat chance. You’re stuck with me now.”
He grinned, looking like a young guy instead of the old warlock he was, and leaned in to kiss my cheek. “You know I’ll stay wherever you are, no problem.” He kissed my other cheek. “Always, my sweet little human. Always.”
Butterflies swirled in my stomach as my chest filled with happiness, and I was able to take a deep breath and relax for the first time since we got here. Raph was with me, for however long I wanted him—so forever—and he wasn’t going to leave me. Sometimes the thoughts Dallan had implanted in my head crept in, but it was easier to push them away now after Raph had proved time and again how much he cared about me.