Page 3 of Always
"Hey Si...ren?" He makes a gesture towards me like,what the fuck?
I lift my hands and sign to him that Raven is acting odd so she doesn’t overhear us. Terrible, I know. But my little bird hates it when I tend to hover, and so I keep my distance… at times. She always comes to me when she’s ready to tell me her inner thoughts and I have to respect her boundaries. Eventhough Ireallydon’t want to. What I really want, is to fuck it out of her. She tends to be much more…openafter an orgasm. As a matter of fact, it’s the reason we still use my home office for certain… sessions.
Maverick shifts his sight to behind me, and I turn, noticing that Kronos is still very much beside Raven. He goes to her and kisses her forehead tenderly. “I missed you,” he murmurs, before wrapping his arms around her in an embrace, to which she returns weakly. He pushes away from her, hands firmly on her arms, and I can tell he’s looking her over, but she’s staring at the ground, intent on not meeting any of our stares.
She barely eats. She’s polite, of course, not getting up from the table until we’re all finished. But the meal I procured from scratch, and one of her very favorites, sits pushed around on her plate. I do not like this whatsoever and the need to hover, to make her tell me what’s wrong is beginning to claw at my basal ganglia. Jonas stares at me like he’s begging me to fix this but we both know, she won’t tell us until she’s worked it out for herself. His eyes bounce between me and her retreating form, going up the stairs.
She sleeps in her bedroom,alone. Kronos sleeps behind her with his head on her hip, where my hand usually goes. The significance of this is an invisible wall. It is a divide. It means we are not to enter.And it is testing my already wavering patience.
Jonas stares longingly at her from her doorway. “Did I do something?” He asks me when my hand finds his hip.I hate the soft whine in his voice when it is not derived from pleasure.
I shake my head and place a kiss to his shoulder. “No, pup. I don’t think any of us did. She said she had a trying day and I believe her.”
Jonas frowns and rubs at his stomach. “I don’t like this. What’s going on? It’s something else. Not just a ‘trying day,’ Damon.”
Maverick makes a noise from the end of the hallway and we both turn to face him. He makes a motion with his head, waving his phone at us. We go to him and follow him into his bedroom. “I just talked to Sabrina. I needed to know if our girl had spoken to her about anything going on. Seems Raven opened up and has been having…doubtsabout us.”
“What?” Jonas and I ask simultaneously, both crestfallen.
“Raven thinks we’re growing bored of her.” He growls the wordboredas if it’s the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard.
I concur. But at the same time, “Well, we’ve all been a bit busy. Most evenings all we have time for is having dinner together.”
My pup's brows draw together. “I have noticed she's been a little quieter than normal. A bit more withdrawn. I thought she was just tired. She's in the studio every day. Or with Brina.”
Mav sighs and swipes his fingertips along his forehead, then pulls off his glasses to clean them. “When it comes to surprises, the pup’s better elsewhere than alone with her because he’ll spill.” He puts his glasses back on, magnifying the annoyance in his tired eyes.
Jonas opens his mouth and puts up a finger as if to argue but only grimaces. “Okay, fair,” Jonas agrees. “I’ve been wanting to do this since the ring was ready but I've been having to wait on you two assholes. Which isalwaysa bad idea.” He shakes his head, forest eyes going back and forth between Maverick and me. He frowns again. “Naw. We have to fix this. We’re so busy trying to keep our proposal a secret from her that we’veneglectedher? It’s bullshit and you know it. We should’ve asked her the second that ring was ready.”
Both guilt and shame flood me. “I can change my office hours. Get off earlier on Fridays.”
Maverick nods. “I can get a second TA. One that’s more… moreresourcefulthan Nathaniel.”
We look at Jonas. The melancholy in his eyes breaks me as he shakes his head. “I’m not on my own schedule. Even if I head here immediately after practice, there’s still traffic. I don’t want to cut my showers in the locker room. I’ll stink up the house and my car.” He exhales deeply. “What can I do? My hands are tied.”
I ponder over this, the unsettling sadness in his stare, and my heart hurts for him, mirroring the frown on his face. “Your next game is in Seattle?”
Jonas dips his head.
Iloathethe next words that leave my mouth. “Take her with you. We’ll stay here and you can have alone time with her. For now, we do as much damage control as we can. I’ll have Rebekah move things around on my calendar. It may not be as much as I would like it be, but the smallest things have the largest impacts.” And I need to do anything in my power to stop whatever insecurities are roaming in her mind.
Maverick turns the screen to his phone and begins to type immediately. “I’ll reach out to a student I think would be a great TA. He’s on a seventy percent scholarship like I was when I was in school so I'm sure he needs the money.” He darkens his screen. “There. Done.”
“I’ll upgrade whatever room I get in Seattle to a suite. I may not be able to propose to baby girl yet, but I’m getting her pregnant, for sure. No way she can ever even think about leaving us ever again.”
Maverick groans but looks at me. “How is she doing otherwise? Could her emotions also be a manifestation from thelack of birth control, like you said? Plus, she’s on the lowest dosages for her other meds now…”
I nod once. “Lots of hormones are on the rise since they’ve been suppressed for almost six years. But we were prepared for this. Or so I thought.” I feel the muscles in my jaw flex and my fingers twitch.
“Damage control,” Mav states, green eyes glittering, frustration etched across his face.
“We all may as well get some sleep.” I sigh, knowing there isn't much we can do about it now.
We all go our separate ways, but not before taking a last peek at Raven’s form. Kronos picks his head up and growls lowly in warning. So much so, Jonas lifts his hands in surrender and backs away slowly.
Yeah. Lotsof damage control.
Chapter Three
