Page 88 of Hate Me

That didn’t last too long, though, as I took my seat at the kitchen island on Sky’s left side and she settled beside me, Caleb on her right, then said, “Forgot about my excellent hearing, didn’t you, boys?”

Cas pulled up a stool beside Cal and shook his head at the two of us. Shit.

Fortunately, she let it go and focused on the food.

“This looks great.”

“Tastes even better,” I assured her.

Just like you.

I looked her over in her black bootcut pants and matching scoop neck top, even a replica of that studded and embellished blue leather jacket of hers that had been one of her signature pieces of clothing before, another callback to two years ago.

Cas, being the highly-attentive person that he was with those in his inner circle, had ordered her some more clothes in that either closely resembled or precisely matched her go-to items of clothing. He certainly had an eye for detail and, given who he was, he could make a lot of things happen and in very little time. He’d pretty much had the closet in her room outfitted and filled to the brim within forty-eight hours of her being back here.

All of it was evoking memories of back then with her and then slamming up against me taking her recently, having her in my arms, having her all over me, touching, tasting, sinking into one another again.

It had been missing our full connection, though, because she’d been shut down and I’d been on guard, still harboring some ill will and a whole lot of pain. The urge to recapture that properly, to take her again, to fuck like animals, down and dirty, rough, and no holds barred, had been plaguing me ever since.

Holding all of that at bay wasn’t easy.

And with the way it was going, I wasn’t sure how much longer I actually could. There was definitely an expiration date on it.

As we dug in, murmurs and moans of appreciation from Sky and Cal had me and Cas smiling to ourselves. The two of them were enjoying their food so much that they couldn’t talk, instead, intent on savoring every bite.

And as silence fell over the four of us, it was really nice.

Beyond just comfortable silence, something a whole lot more.

It felt so right being together like this.

In this moment in time, it really seemed like it could stay this way. Just the four of us. Close and united. Reveling in each other’s company. Stable and content.

At peace.

“Better than your ridiculously over-sugared junk food, huh?” I asked, when they were finishing up.

“Gummy worms are seriously underrated,” Cal said, defending it, as I’d expected. And then the second thing that I’d expected came out of his mouth, right on cue, really. “Plus, you know they help me sublimate.”

“I thought you two were back on good terms now?” Sky said.

Caleb shrugged. “We are, but Cas has been run off his feet and I’ve got my own work shit too. Plus, there’s also you, darling.”

“Caleb,” Cas grumbled.

I wasn’t in agreement with him grumbling at that. I was glad Caleb had brought it up. I wanted it out there. Fuck, I needed it out there.

“She brought it up,” Caleb said, lightly nudging her.

She nudged him back. “Actually it was Bastian who brought it up.” She flicked my shoulder. “As for me snacking on the fondant balls, it wasn’t just my sweet tooth that was in play. I wanted you to see how much I appreciated you making them for me. I mean, I would’ve done the same with the cupcakes, but those are long gone now. They didn’t stand much of a chance.”

I grasped her wrist, holding her hand to my shoulder as she went to pull away. “I just wanted you to feel more at home.”

“I know you did.” She looked out at Caleb. “And you, salvaging my game, then going so far as to get a massively impressive start on the coding for the sequel… it’s another level. Thank you so much.”

Cal smiled and wrapped his arm around her. “You’re most welcome, darling. To be honest, it was a blast coding the sequel. You’ve got some really good stuff in there. I can’t wait until you get further along with it and we can get back to it together.”

There was a shift there then and she tensed, murmuring, “Yeah.”

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