Page 105 of Reckless Harmony

He frowned. “That isn’t enough, Rayna.”

She just shrugged, and he said, “You have to eat.”

“I know,” she said, with another glance at her watch, “but I also really need to get this dog train thing sorted out, and I don’t have time to sit and wait for food to arrive. I’m not trying to be rude, I swear, but I just… I have a lot to do.”

“All right,” he said. “We’ll go to your house. I’ll order the food, and you can work while we wait for it to arrive.”

“I don’t have time to,” she hesitated, soft pink rising in her cheeks, “socialize tonight.”

“I know,” he said. “I have some work to do as well.”

She chewed at her bottom lip as he waited with more anxiety than he should have felt for her to say yes. His need to spend time with her tonight, even if they weren’t having sex, had become a bright flame impossible to ignore.

“Okay,” she said before giving him a faint smile. “It’ll be nice to have some company while I beg strangers for help.”

“Let’s go then,” he said and held out his hand.

She stared at it for a moment before sliding her hand into his. Still holding hands, they left his bedroom.

“Don’t you dare quit on me, you bastard.” Rayna lifted her laptop and smacked the bottom of it with her hand.

Instead of stopping, the laptop's whirring and groaning sounds grew steadily louder.

“No, no, no,” she chanted before whacking it again. The screen flickered rapidly and then turned black, accompanied by a rapid popping sound, and the smell of fried electrical circuits drifted out of it.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Rayna dropped her dead laptop on the table, blinking back the hot tears. She rarely cried, but the frustration and exhaustion had her emotions on edge.

“What’s wrong?” Stark walked into the kitchen, tucking his phone into his pocket as his nose wrinkled. “Why does something smell like it’s burning?”

“My stupid laptop just died.” Rayna bit the inside of her cheek, willing herself not to cry.

“I’m not surprised,” Stark said, examining the laptop. “This thing looks older than me.”

Rayna stared at Bea, who was asleep on her bed in the kitchen. Her frustration was overwhelming. A tear escaped, and she quickly brushed it away, but it wasn’t fast enough to hide from Stark.

“Shit,” Stark said, crouching in front of her. He wiped away the second tear sliding down her cheek with his thumb. “Baby, don’t cry.”

“I’m not crying,” Rayna said. “My eyes are aggressively watering.”

He laughed and sat in a chair before pulling her into his lap. “Come here.”

She sat in his lap and put her arms around his shoulders before burying her face in his throat. She took a few deep breaths as Stark rubbed her back with his big, warm hand. He’d been unbelievably sweet to her all evening, ordering in from her favourite restaurant, cleaning up after they ate, and even feeding Bea and letting her out into the backyard a few times.

Bea had spent more time alone this week than she should have, and she’d spent most of the evening sitting on Stark’s feet every time he stopped moving and whining for him to pet her. He’d been patient and gentle with her, giving her lots of attention while Rayna worked to find transport.

Speaking of which… she made herself sit up. As much as she wanted to sit in Stark’s lap all night - forget that, what she really wanted was to take him to her bed - she couldn’t use orgasms as a procrastination tool. Not when she had twenty-seven dogs waiting for her to save them.

Are you sure we couldn’t just get one from him? It’s a great stress buster, right?

She sighed inwardly, wishing she could give in to what she wanted, but she was rapidly running out of time to get the dogs to New York. And with her laptop dead, that left her with just her phone to make arrangements and holy shit, that was about to be a right pain in her ass.

She tried to slide off Stark’s lap, staring at him when he tightened his hold around her waist. “I have to get back to work. I’m still waiting to hear back from three different people about possibly transporting from New Cassel to New York, and I haven’t gotten a solid yes from a single person, which means -”

“I’ve arranged to get the dogs from New Cassel to New York on Sunday afternoon,” he said.

She stared at him. “I’m sorry, what?”

He kissed her upper chest. “I’ve booked a private plane to fly the dogs to New York. We need to have them at the airport in New Cassel by eleven am on Sunday morning.”

---