He stalks over to me and cups both of my cheeks in his big hands, swooping down to kiss me thoroughly. I'm reminded once again that we had our own morning-after stolen from us by the Resistance attack. Even though I'm feeling an itch across my skin to get back to Gabe, I'm glad that Atlas is here and that I'm getting to see him again.
“Are you hungry, Sweetness? I checked the fridge this morning to make sure that Gabe had thought far enough ahead to bring over supplies. I can whip you up something to eat, if you are.”
I nod back, my stomach rumbling at the mere mention of food, and rise back up onto my tiptoes to kiss him again. “I’m starving, actually. Is it okay if I grab a shower before I head down though?”
He nods and lets me go, bending down to grab his shirt from where he’d discarded it on the floor, and then he pulls it back over his head as he steers me out of the room.
His bedroom doesn't have carpet yet, but the walls are painted and there's already curtains up on both of the huge windows. When I duck my head into his closet to have a look in there, the shelving is already up as well, so it's just the bathroom and some flooring left before he will be moved in as well.
He walks me back past all of the other rooms, dropping me off at my bedroom door before heading back down to the kitchen by himself. I watch him walk away for a moment, enjoying the tight stretch of his shirt over his shoulders, but the itching across my skin to get back to Gabe doesn't ease up.
The post-bonding nesting is in full effect.
When I get back into the room, I find Gabe is stepping out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his hips and his magnificent chest on display. It's as though the both of them are trying to kill me this morning with their nakedness.
“Was Atlas working already?” Gabe says, and I nod.
“He’s gotten the bathtub in, but he’ll need some help with tiling. I offered our expertise. I hope you don’t have other plans for today.”
He scoffs and steps back into the bathroom to head towards the closet to get dressed. “He certainly needs it. I wouldn't let him tile anything by himself. It’s not fucking rocket science, but he can’t figure it out, no matter what I try.
I follow him through to the bathroom and strip to climb into the shower, soaping myself up and trying not to get emotional at the scents of him washing away from my skin. I already know that it is a nesting instinct to want that sort of marking, having experienced it three times over, but it doesn't make it any easier.
When I turn to duck my head under the spray to wash out the shampoo, I find Gabe leaning against the door, completely unabashed as he watches me with hooded eyes. I might arch my back just a little more than necessary in a teasing motion and enjoy the groan that rumbles out of his chest as his eyes latch on to my nipples.
“I didn't think you would want to go for another round while Atlas was here, but I’d never say no to you, Bonded,“ he says with such male satisfaction that it sends tingles down to my toes.
I smile like the Cheshire Cat and shrug with a flirty smirk. “Who said anything about going again? I'm just trying to wash my hair out. You're the one with all the dirty thoughts.”
Then I hear him chuckle, except it's not out loud, but in my mind. He's also ended up with that connection and a grin bursts across my cheeks.
I can't believe I was so upset about having my Bonds in my mind.
The fear in me was so strong that I didn't have that connection with him as well. The teasing that they all do when no one else can hear has become vital to me and my happiness. The feeling of belonging and love and companionship, all of those things make being a monster a little easier to deal with.
“Come on then, Bonded. Let's go eat something and get Atlas’ room finished so that I don't have to share with him anymore.”
I roll my eyes and cut the water off, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around myself as I step out of the perfectly luxurious shower stall. “You guys are surprisingly good at sharing. I was not expecting the two of you to last in that room a whole day, let alone the weeks that you have.”
Gabe shrugs again, and his eyes roam over my body as I dry myself off, fixating on all of his favorite parts. I know this because he gets a very animalistic look in his eyes when he sees something that he wants to taste again and, God, do I want him to taste it all again.
“Stop it. If you’re insisting on helping Atlas, then you need to stop thinking that shit.”
Getting dressed has never been so freaking hard.
“I went to visit Sage yesterday while you were gone.”
At Atlas’ words, my head snaps up from where I was completely focused on the tiles in front of me.
He’d cooked us a full breakfast with all of the trimmings and made some awful jokes about being a morning-after chef, but Gabe had just laughed along with him, happily grinning and kissing me at every opportunity as the three of us ate together. Surprisingly, having the two of them together and Atlas making those jokes didn't bother me. It felt more like the dynamic between Gryphon, North, and me than an awkward, kill-me-now sort of thing.
As soon as we had cleaned up the dishes, we went back up to Atlas’ room together to get to work. The bathroom isn't small, none of them in the house are, and the tiling job could easily take all three of us the entire day to get through.
Gabe had checked out Atlas’ work anchoring the bathtub and measured up all of the points where the faucets were going to go before we rushed into the work. Then the two of them had gone downstairs to carry up giant boxes of tiles, tile glue, and grout.
I'd offered to help, but both of them had shot me down very quickly. As though I am some delicate flower who can't carry a box. Once we had everything we needed, Gabe and I had gotten to work laying the tile while Atlas was mostly lifting heavy things for us and doing most of the manual grunt work.
“How did she look? Did you get to speak to her or just see her? Did you see Kieran or Felix? How did they look?” I fire off questions at Atlas, and he doesn't react to any of them until the stream of words has tumbled out of me. Gabe’s movements stay steady and sure from where he’s working, but a small wrinkle forms over his brow.
“Sage looks devastated. She looks like a fucking mess, to be honest. She was in a room by herself, but Felix and Kieran are close by. Gryphon had originally instructed for the three of them to be roomed together, but Sage requested to be left by herself.”
I sit back on my heels, careful not to freak out and ruin any of the very careful positioning that Gabe and I have done around us. Atlas was not exaggerating when he said that he was terrible at doing this, and he has been relegated to mixing the tile glue for us instead of helping.
“Why would she ask to be alone and away from her Bonds? No wonder she looks like a mess.”
Gabe clears his throat, careful to keep his eyes on what he's doing as he lays another tile and levels it off. “She's afraid that she'll hurt them, that's why. She has no recollection of killing Dara, no clue how someone manipulated her into doing it, and she's terrified that there's some sort of ‘kill switch’ inside of her waiting to be flipped that could be used against either of her Bonded.”
My heart drops down to my feet.
I want to burst into tears for her. I know exactly what it feels like to be terrified of something inside of you that you have no control over. The thought that she is now going through this, and going through it by herself, locked in a cell so close to the people who love her the most but completely terrified to even seek comfort from them… I just want to scream.