That made it worse. He intended to speak privately to both Amber and Trinity about it before the night was through. The way things stood at the moment, there were far too many risks and holes in the plan right now.
He couldn’t stop his wife from doing this—though God knew he would love to—but he at least wanted to be satisfied that she was in the least amount of danger possible when she did.
The scent of rich tomato sauce redolent with Italian seasoning wafted down the hall. He and Kiyomi had made a big batch of it together this morning, working with a brittle silence standing between them like a wall.
Feeding a crowd this size was a job in itself, and all of them had to pitch in. Given the sensitivity of the intel and mission prep happening around here, he hadn’t wanted his cook around, so he’d given her a paid week off to afford them maximum privacy. Until he was certain that the threat looming over them was neutralized, he wasn’t taking any chances.
“Ten more minutes on the lasagnas,” Kiyomi announced from in front of the oven, bent over at the waist to peer inside one of the cobalt blue Aga doors.
His gaze strayed to the perfect shape of her ass outlined in her snug jeans before he could stop himself, and when he realized what he was doing he berated himself. That pose was anything but coincidental.
She was manipulating him. Not in a sneaky or underhanded way, but trying to coax him out of his mood by distracting him with her body and the promise of sex.
It had been days since they’d last enjoyed each other. That wasn’t helping improve his mood any.
A low, distant rumble drew his attention to the deep windows above the sink. Dark clouds had rolled in throughout the afternoon, blotting out the bits of blue sky that had been there this morning. The wind had picked up, shaking the trimmed yew hedges surrounding the formal knot garden and stripping petals from the rose trees planted amongst the neatly-clipped boxwood rows.
Karas shifted next to him and licked her lips nervously, her ears going back as she moved closer, pressing against his leg. “It’s all right, lass,” he murmured, reaching down to stroke her head in reassurance.
“Oooh, looks like we might get a thunderstorm,” Chloe said, coming up beside him to scan the darkening horizon. “I love thunderstorms.”
Shocking. He managed not to roll his eyes as he grabbed a couple large bowls from one of the cupboards and thrust them at her. “Here. Make yourself useful and help me get the salads together. I just had the knives sharpened,” he added, knowing that would hook her.
“Ooh,” she said in delight, already reaching for the large butcher block on the counter.
Dinner was noisy but fast, the lasagna served with two different kinds of salad and toasted cheese bread on the side. Kiyomi sat halfway down the table from him, laughing about something with a few of her fellow Valkyries. She drew his eye without even trying, the happy sound of her laughter increasing the heaviness in his chest.
He kept glancing at her amidst his conversation with Ty and Jesse. The woman meant everything to him. Did she understand that?
He couldn’t seem to settle down. Couldn’t get his secret fears under control.
As he and the lads helped clear up, a brilliant flash of light lit up the dark sky out the kitchen windows. Thunder rumbled, closer now. The storm was almost here, its seething energy perfectly matching the building chaos inside him.
This wasn’t like him. He needed to get away. Needed time and space to get himself back under control before he did or said something he would no doubt regret.
He left the others to finish up and went out through the back door, pausing on the crushed gravel path to pull in a deep breath. The air smelled like impending rain, a heavy, taut quality to it.
Thunder cracked, rolling like a wave above them. Karas whimpered and ducked her head, looking up at him nervously. The horses would need to be checked. “It’s all right,” he told her, and started for the stable.
The first drops of rain hit him halfway there. Fat drops that splattered when they hit the ground. Intermittent at first. Then, seconds later, the clouds unleashed their watery load in a deluge.
He hurried through the rain and stepped inside the shelter of the stable, leaving the door partially open while the sweet scent of hay and horses surrounded him. In their stalls the horses blew anxiously from their nostrils, their shod hooves clattering on the floor with their nervous shifting.
He ran a hand over his wet face and then through his soaked hair as he flipped on the lights and went to check each horse. Rollo was the first one to greet him, sticking his large head over his stall door, his ears perked and an almost eager expression on his face.
“She’s not here, mate,” he said, meaning Megan, who had bonded strongly with Rollo early on when she’d lived here. “Afraid you’ll have to make due with me.”
“Yes, I am.”
He spun around to see Megan striding in through the partially-open door, her coat glistening with rain. She pushed her hood back and grinned, coming over to stroke Rollo’s head. “Hey, handsome boy. You’re not afraid of a little thunder.”
“He’s missed you,” Marcus murmured, watching as Rollo’s eyes half-closed under Megan’s touch. The horse loved Kiyomi, but he was besotted with Megan.
“I’ve missed him too. I love my horse back home too, but no horse could ever replace Rollo.” She turned her head and met his gaze. “Missed you more, though.”
His cynical heart squeezed. “Why would you miss a crippled old sod like me,” he muttered, though he was touched. They’d spoken regularly since she and Ty had returned to the States, but he thought of her often.
She’d changed the trajectory of his life. If she hadn’t come to stay here when she had, he would have merely gone on surviving instead of living. And without her, he never would have met Kiyomi.
Megan cocked her head a little and measured him with warm hazel eyes. “Guess I’m sentimental. I miss riding Rollo at dawn and shooting arrows at the targets you used to hide along the trails for me before the sun came up. But mostly, I miss the quiet times we had here, when it was just the two of us.”
He glanced away, a pang hitting him. She had saved more than his physical body when she’d pulled him out of his prison. Over the months that followed, she had done the impossible and made him want to live again. He owed her everything for that.
“Aye.” He cleared his throat. “Did you come out to check on Rollo, then?”
“No. Came to check on you.”
He shot her a frown. “No need for that.”
She leaned against the stall door and watched him with a knowing expression, rubbing Rollo’s sleek neck. “You’ve been like a lion with a thorn in its paw since the rest of us got here.”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Okay,” she said easily. Too easily, and went back to giving Rollo a fuss.
Marcus pivoted and continued down the center corridor between the rows of stalls, checking on the other horses. The thunder made most of them nervous, but they calmed slightly when he approached.
“Have you tried talking to her about it?”
He stopped walking, his shoulders bunching up. Damn. He should have known she wouldn’t let this go. “About what?”
“You know exactly about what.”
He grabbed a brush from the bucket hanging on the opposite wall and entered the stall at the end to run a soothing hand down a nervous mare’s neck. “No point. She won’t listen.”