Page 108 of Like Grim Death: Part One
“Didn’t Luce tell you he’d be another day?” Mav presses.
I roll my eyes but don’t answer him.Yeah, his vague text told me.
“You look like you’ve got this shit all figured out.” Those words come from Cain, low and gruff as he pushes his phone back into his pocket, his coal-black eyes flicking up and down my body. His head is buzzed as usual, and he looks every inch the fighter he is, the dress shirt clinging to his broad shoulders.
I don’t know what he’s talking about until I glance down and realize I’m swaying back and forth. An instinctual thing to keep Rain quiet and soothe him. It’s about the only instinctual thing I think I’ve gotten down, and my swollen breasts beneath my son’s soft body remind me of that fact.
“Thanks,” I mutter to Cain.
He doesn’t smile but strolls past everyone else and comes to stand beside Mav. I inhale, catching the scent of his dark cologne, remembering how it consumed me at Ignis. Howheconsumed me. Our gazes lock, and my heart flies in my chest. There’s something slightly overwhelming about Cain’s presence. Not just how big he is, or the darkness of his eyes, or how he always dresses so fucking well. He just… commands the space, no matter where he is or who he’s with, all without saying a word.
“You look really tired.” His voice has dropped so low, I don’t even know if anyone else heard him. It’s almost sensual, in its way. “Let me hold the boy.” His eyes lower to Rain, and I see something soften in Cain’s face. Maybe he unclenches his jaw, or his plush lips part slightly, instead of being pressed tight together. I can’t pinpoint the specifics, but something changes about him.
“You don’t know how to hold a fucking baby,” Mav snarls, and I hear the jealousy in his words. “Besides,I’mhis uncle.”
Cain looks over at Mav, and I take in his side profile. High, broad cheekbones, five o-clock shadow, full lips, strong neck.
Damn, he’s fine. And I remember just how big his dick is too.
Stop it, Sid.
“We’re all his uncles.” His voice is still quiet, but full of something cold. He doesn’t say anything about knowing how to hold a baby, but I notice Maverick’s expression shifts. From angry and jealous to… something that if I didn’t know any better, I’d call sad. It’s like there’s a story there I’m missing.
Cain turns to me, lifting one dark brow, as if to ask if he can take Rain.
I swallow the knot in my throat and glance at my son. It’s hard for me to let anyone else watch over him. It’s why Brooklin and Mav both have only done it a couple of times, and only for a couple of hours. But Cain isn’t going toleavemy house, I’m sure of it, so even though something overprotective and anxious grips my throat, I nod, and offer Rain toUncle Cain.
He takes him with a gentleness that surprises me, and it turns out Maverick was wrong.
Cain holds Rain as if he’s held babies dozens of times, one hand on his bum, other on his head. Cain’s hands are huge, and they both seem to engulf Rain’s entire baby body, but Cain tucks my son’s head against his chest, and starts to sway a little like I was, with Rainy in his arms.
His eyes are on my son, and without another word to anyone, he walks off down the hall, toward the kitchen. As if he knows I’m on edge when I turn to track them with my gaze, he says, “I’m not going far, Mama.”
Mama.
Something warm heats in my belly and I quickly turn back to face Maverick, Ella, and Atlas. The latter two trail further into the house, after Cain, and Ella glances at me with her green eyes, lined in mascara, and I realize she looks different somehow. I mean, I’ve seen her more than a few times since what happened at the Ignis house, and just a few nights ago, but it’s the first time I guess I’ve reallylookedat her.
She’s… lost weight. That’s what it is. Her clavicle is more pronounced in the scoop neck of her black shirt, her cheekbones seem sharper, and there’s almost a hollow look about her, like she’d be better off at her usual weight.
Before she slips past us though, Maverick shoots his arm out and grabs her shoulder, yanking her back to his side, cake and all. A startled noise leaves her lips, but she stays near him, obedient, waiting, as Atlas goes further into the house. Frowning when I hear him taking jabs at Ezra for drinking, I fold my arms and face Mav, whose posture mirrors my own, like he’s mocking me.
He still has a hold on Ella though, but it’s almost like she isn’t there, the way he’s looking at me.
“Spit it out.” I raise my brows. “What’s going on?” Another thought seizes me, of Lucifer’s kisses to Rain before he left. His lingering look at me. His fingers coming to the marks along my throat from our angry fuck after the shit with Nikita, then over my belly from when he had bit me. He didn’t say goodbye. Didn’t tell me he loved me.
We had fought again, over nothing at all, and with a coldness that seemed forced, he just walked out, softly closing the door behind him. I heard the locks click and knew he’d done that on his phone before he even got into his car, parked in the driveway instead of the garage because he was in a hurry after he got back from getting Rain more formula.
Now, in the dim lights of the dark foyer, Maverick keeps one hand on Ella, then lifts his other arm, his cool fingertips coming to my neck.
I shiver with his touch, but raise my chin, letting him graze his index and middle finger along the scratches on my throat.
His baby blue eyes seem to darken as my spine crawls with his touch.
I drop my own arms. My tight nipples graze my shirt, the ache in my breasts throbbing. Not because of Mav’s touch or Ella’s nearness, watching, but because they’re engorged. Lucifer offered to help me one night when I woke up with my heartbeat seeming to pulse inside my breasts.
I denied his help, sitting in the tub alone, pressure building behind my eyes, but I didn’t dare fucking cry.
I remember how Lucifer licked me from his hand though, the same night he bit the J.
