Page 42 of Their Alpha

“Is there a broom in the closet in there?” Gideon’s cheerful voice gave us enough warning to jump apart beforehe walked into the kitchen. “I could have sworn I saw a broom in the closet yesterday.”

We weren’t fooling anyone. Gideon knew what we’d been up to, despite the smile he still wore. I cursed myself for falling into Artemis’s arms so easily. My heart wasn’t going to last long at the rate we were going.

“Yeah, there are actually a couple brooms in here,” I said, pushing away from the sink.

Artemis took over cleaning it and monitoring the water as I walked to the broom closet.

“It’s okay,” Gideon whispered to me once we both had our heads in the closet, sorting through various brooms and mops. “The two of you are really hot together. I get it.”

I winced, but when our hands touched on one of the brooms, I had the weirdest feeling that Gideon was telling the God’s-honest truth.

“I love you,” I told him, leaning in and stealing a kiss from his lips before we backed out of the closet.

The efforts to clean the house were exactly what we needed to distract ourselves. On the surface, the house was fine, but the more we scrubbed and swept and dusted, the more we realized it needed serious attention. There was no washing machine, but there was a giant, antique washtub and washboard. Artemis set those up in the backyard so Gideon could scrub the dusty curtains, then the two of them hung them from a clothesline I’d set up between the side of the porch and a small tree halfway between the house and the cliff.

“This view is every bit as spectacular as I’d imagined it would be last night,” Gideon said once we took a break for lunch.

It was a sunny and surprisingly warm day, so instead of eating the bits and pieces we’d been able to put together atthe table in the kitchen, we’d found a blanket and taken it out to the overgrown grass on what passed for a lawn near the edge of the cliff.

“I love the sea,” I said, breathing in the salt air. “I imagine that somewhere in my ancestry there were a bunch of sailors.”

“I can see that,” Artemis said, grinning at me.

“I can easily imagine you as a guardian of the sea,” Gideon said, smiling at me with so much affection it made me giddy. “Like Argus, the silver dragon prince.”

“Oh!” Artemis gasped and sat straighter. “That reminds me. I have something for you.”

He jumped up and rushed back into the house. I exchanged a curious look with Gideon as we waited for him to come back.

Artemis returned with a book in his hands, which he handed immediately to Gid. “I saw this for you yesterday, and I had to get it for you.”

Gideon gasped, and I could practically feel his glee as he took the large, gorgeous book of fairy tales. “Oh my gosh,” he said, astounded joy taking over his face. “I’ve seen this edition, but only ever online. I never thought I would own the actual thing.”

My mouth twitched with amusement, but I also kicked myself a bit. We had way more money than either of us remembered most of the time. I could have bought Gideon the book of fairy tales at any time.

Then again, based on the enthusiasm of Gideon’s reaction as he paged through the bright, colorful book, I was glad Artemis had the opportunity to give it to him.

Artemis and I exchanged a smile, complete with all the feels through our bond, as we watched Gideon immediately get lost in the book.

“Good job,” I told Artemis with a wink.

“I wasn’t lying when I said I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you, about both of you, since I left you yesterday,” Artemis said. I could sense the seriousness of that statement.

I could also feel the undertones of it. Artemis wanted to be with us. With both of us, me and Gideon. That was reassuring, but I didn’t know how it would work with only one bond.

“You don’t have to go back to your job in Barrington?” I asked as we continued to eat while Gideon fell into reading.

Artemis shook his head and took a long swig from his bottle of water. “I called the office on the way up here, before I lost cell service, to tell them I quit.”

“You what?” I gaped at him.

Even Gideon glanced up in shock.

Artemis shrugged. “I’ve been wanting to quit for a while. That’s why I was interviewing for a new job. I have enough savings that I don’t have to work again for a year, if I don’t want to.”

And really, Gideon and I had more than enough money to sustain all of us for even longer than that. Not that we would really need it, living out in the wilderness the way we were.

“What about your family?” I asked. “Your friends. Won’t people miss you?”

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