His gaze was locked on her mouth. Her own heart skipped a beat.
“I want you,” he rasped, “but I can wait. I will wait.”
Nina’s voice drifted up from memory. For you, control likely is super important. But there’s more than one way to have control over yourself, and over your abilities.
The only way to find out what she could handle was to try.
So she leapt.
Maya went up on her toes, bracing herself against his chest. His mouth was tempting, but bravery only went so far. She brushed her lips along his jaw, inhaling the now-familiar scent of soap and sawdust. Just a glancing kiss, before she let her heels thump back to the ground and hid her face against his neck.
Their joined hands were trapped between them, and she could feel both of their hearts racing. She shivered and leaned into the solid strength of him. “I know you’ll catch me when I fall.”
“No matter what.”
Maya closed her eyes and let him hold her as the implacable wall of his body blocked out the chaos of the world. Maybe this could be its own sort of meditation … lulled by protective warmth, utterly safe as she matched her breathing to the steady beat of his heart. Her breaths slowed as it slowed, until she felt steady enough to straighten.
His hand still gripped hers. She stepped back but kept their fingers twined together. “Want to help me find some tablets I can rescue?”
“You’re in charge.” He lifted their joined hands to his mouth but barely grazed her knuckles with his lips. “I’m just along for the ride.”
Her heart did a funny flip in her chest at the gentle promise in the words. And as she tugged Gray toward a shelf of cracked tablets, she decided Nina had been wrong.
Kissing Gray would definitely make her brain explode.
She might do it anyway.
TECHCORPS INTERNAL EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATION
From: RICHTER, T
To: SKOVGAARD, B
Date: 2077–012–11
Given your obsession with personal security, may I inquire about your choice to appoint Simon to your Ex-Sec team? He is a literal child. I have hundreds of far more qualified candidates.
From: SKOVGAARD, B
To: RICHTER, T
You may inquire. I’m under no obligation to answer.
FIFTEEN
“Put this one down at the other end, would you?”
“Do we need knives or just forks?”
“How many chairs?”
“Eight.” Gray grunted softly as he and Nina set the butcher’s block island from the kitchen down at the end of the dining table. It was just the right height to extend the surface, but damn, it was heavy. “Luna and Ivonne went out, so it’s just us tonight.”
“I count nine, then.”
Everyone froze and stared at Mace, who was standing in the back hall.
“If that’s all right,” he added belatedly.
“Of course it is,” Knox called from his place in front of the stove. “You’re just in time.”
“A little late if you like bread, though.” Maya slid a basket with only a few slices remaining down the table until it rested near the butcher’s block. “Don’t tell Knox, but we’ve all been eating it warm before dinner and ruining our appetites.”
“Speak for yourself,” Gray muttered. “I can still eat. It smells good.”
“Tastes good, too,” Conall said, snatching up one of the final pieces. He ignored Maya’s chiding look and shoved half of it into his mouth.
Rafe carried in a massive platter of Knox’s handmade spaghetti and settled it on the table. “It should smell good. That marinara has been simmering since we got back from the market. And there are meatballs, made from actual beef from actual cows. We are living the high life right now.”
Gray hid a smile as he took a stack of plates from Dani. “Nina must really like them, if he went to all that trouble.”
“Oh yeah, she does. Here, Rainbow.” Maya handed her a fistful of silverware. “Do you know how to set the table? Just put the knives and forks next to the plates when Gray puts them down.”
Rainbow accepted the forks with the solemn nod of a soldier on a mission. She followed Gray around the table, dutifully placing a fork on the table precisely one second after he placed each dish.
He set the next plate on the table upside down. When she looked up at him, startled, he made a face.
The giggle that escaped her was bright, cheerful, and over too quickly. “You’re very silly,” she proclaimed.
“Gray?” Dani asked dubiously.
“Sometimes,” he allowed. “When I’m happy. That’s the best time to be silly, isn’t it?”
After some serious consideration, Rainbow set a fork down next to the plate. Upside down. Her small face broke into a smile.
Maya carried a full pitcher of sweet tea to the table and set it next to the icy pitcher of lemonade. Her gaze found his, and her smile was sweeter. Warmer. “I could get used to silly Gray. We’ll save a ton of money on the windswept moors and the haunted castle.”
He rolled his eyes at her, but it was no use. Her smile only deepened, and his stomach gave a strange little fluttering flip.
Rainbow poked him, and he realized he’d stopped setting the table. “Right. Priorities, kid. Got to get this done so we can eat.”
Moving slowly, Mace slid into the same chair he’d occupied that morning—and Gray finally realized why he favored it.
It was the chair closest to the door.
Rafe came back to the table and started setting out glasses. Maya ducked under his arm to deliver a cutting board with a fresh loaf of bread still steaming from the oven. Nina appeared behind her with a wooden trivet, which settled in place in time for Knox to set down his huge pot of marinara and meatballs.
It was a careful, coordinated dance, no different in some ways than a firefight or a building infiltration. Even Rainbow slid into it like an errant card into a shuffling deck. Only Mace sat outside of it, stone-still, his face a neutral, exact mask.
It hurt to look at him.
But not as much as it hurt to look at Knox. He watched Mace carefully as he circled the table, settled into the seat next to him, and unfolded his napkin. “You’ll have to tell me what you think of the sauce—”
An ear-splitting noise rocked the room, something between the sharp crack of a pistol and a small-yield explosion. Gray ducked instinctively, curling his body over Maya’s. A moment later, his brain categorized the sound.
“Just a car backfiring,” Nina said calmly. “I swear, these ancient combustion engines—”
With a roar, Mace snatched up a dinner knife from his place setting and dove at Knox.
The room exploded into motion.
It all happened so fast. Rafe’s chair toppled over backward as he swept a wide-eyed Rainbow out of her seat. Knox rose to meet Mace, angling his body to take the knife in the shoulder instead of the throat.
His grunt of pain galvanized Nina. She dragged him back, out of Mace’s reach, as a blur of red and white shot across the room. Dani vaulted over the table, slammed Mace against the wall, and followed him down to the floor.
He roared again, rolling over to pin her to the hardwood. But she kept the momentum going, bashing into the scattered chairs as she flipped him onto his back again. Mace lay there beneath her, his chest heaving, his eyes slowly drifting shut.