Page 56 of Muzzled

It was a scary proposition.

Scarier still, the fact he was dreading it.

He was already showered and halfway through his morning shave when she appeared in the doorway, her black eye makeup smeared and her hair cascading across her bare shoulders in a tangled web. “Morning,” he murmured. He wiped shaving cream from his razor and closed his eyes for a moment when she wrapped her arms around his waist and dropped her head to his arm. “I’ll be done in a minute. Coffee’s on and ready.”

Kissing his shoulder, she mumbled something incoherent and stumbled back into the bedroom, the sound of her phone turning on filtering through the room before she groaned. “I’m selling Logan.” She came up behind him and held her phone to the mirror as he finished up his left side. “Who mats charcoal pieces in navy?” She snatched her phone back and fired off a text while he washed the last of his shaving cream off, then rolled her eyes when the response came in. “Close enough, he says. I’m coming up on two years of training this kid to conquer the circuit on his own, and do you see this? Close. Enough. Navy isnotclose enough to black.”

After straightening up the counter, he turned, wrapped his arms around her, and kissed the top of her head. “We’ll pick up as many black mats as you need when we go,” he assured her. “Crisis averted.”

“Averted,” she parroted, glaring at her phone as she nudged him out the door. “You get dressed, I’ll be out in a few.”

He flipped open his laptop while the shower ran, jotting down the locations of framing shops nearby in case the art store wasn’t stocked, determined to put the hunt and the Pirithous on the back burner for one final day.

*

Mike looked upfrom her stack of work, biting her lip as she watched Ryan carefully pack the finished pieces into the case, each aligned and ordered by size and medium. “You’re kind of hot when you get all type A like that,” she said, passing another black-matted charcoal to him and ignoring the building pressure in the back of her head. “All meticulous and studious and serious. Hot and intense.”

He wrinkled his nose and slid the piece into its place. “Nothing says ‘jump me’ like excessive organization and lists, right?” When she leaned over and kissed his cheek, he grinned. “You’re an odd one, you know that?”

“You love it,” she laughed, taking pity on Logan when he slunk out of the bathroom and gave them wide berth as he looked at the pile of abandoned navy mats in confusion.

Handing another completed piece to Ryan, she froze. “It’s just an expression. No panicking allowed,” she said quietly, giving his knee a quick squeeze and turning to Logan. “Your mountain oil paintings will look amazing in these navy mats, so don’t sweat it, okay?”

Ryan swallowed and returned to his work, glancing over as Logan left with a wave a significant decrease in tension. “See you later, man,” he called over, waiting for the door to close before he gave her a tight smile. “Not panicking,” he muttered, checking his phone. “Just—”

“Panicking,” she interjected with a smile. “We discussed this. I know what the plan is, you know what the plan is, we know where everything stands. We’re good, okay? Words are just that. No freaking out over them.”

He shrugged, closed up the case and stood, then stacked it with the others. “I suppose we also have the line to lean on,” he mused, his brows knotting as he assembled the rest of her inventory. “If this was going anywhere, the Fates would have already stepped in and roadblocked it.”

She held up her hand to him for help, got to her feet, and pulled in tight to him. “See? You and I are going nice and smooth. If we were meant to be together, your freaky gatekeepers would have already stuck their noses in and put a halt to it.”

He took a deep breath and nodded. “We’re good.”

“Very. Now let’s get this into the car before someone stakes their claim on my turf.”

She followed him out of the suite, admiring the view from behind while he climbed the stairs, her supplies and canvases loaded onto his back and in his arms.

If this was going anywhere.

A strange ache had settled in her chest when he said it, the reminder they were nothing more than passing ships, nothing more than intimate strangers. She had no worries she would be unable to fulfill her half of the bargain, that she would be able to keep him at arm’s length when it came down to the wire.

She worried that she didn’t want to.

The ride to the festival street was quiet, his attention on the road, but his focus somewhere in the distance. She was no better, the pressure in her mind building as it drifted between the night they’d just had and the loneliness she’d return to once he was gone.

The shade situation was scary, but how she was feeling about Ryan was close to overtaking the top spot. For the first time in her life, she found herself wondering what it would be like to wake beside the same someone every morning for more than a month here and there. She thought about how easily she embraced having him at her side when she’d spent a lifetime forging her way alone, aside from the day she decided to take Logan under her wing and off the back alleys where he was living.

And Logan was different. With him, she was the demanding mentor and the overprotective older sister. She was his mom and his tormenter and his teacher. With Ryan, she was simply Micah.

“I’ll pull over here,” he finally said, breaking the silence. “If we cut through the alley, we’re under a block away.”

Shaking off the melancholy worming into her, she got out of the car and began unloading the trunk. “These long festivals are lucrative, but so, so tiring.” She stepped back as he lifted the heaviest cases out. “By the end, I always feel like a caged circus tiger.”

“Aw, damn.” He groaned, closing the trunk. “I forgot the collar and leash.”

Reaching into her purse, she jingled the chains. “I grabbed them. Though I’m not keen on the idea of using them on you. It’s weird.” She shoved them into the bottom of her bag. “And not in that kinky ‘I’d like to tie you up’kind of way.”

Loading his back with the bags, he hooked his arms in her cases and smiled. “Trust me, I’m way more on board with those than with animal control. The fines are steep and they almost always vaccinate.” His shoulder twitched. “I’m not a fan of needles.”

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