Chapter 8 Zill
ZILL
Breaking News! Sombrans! Everything you need to know to snag yourself a shadow daddy lover.
Once we finish at the beach, we reconvene at Mauve's office, going over the different articles that managed to be whipped up in the short amount of time Reese and I have been pretending to be with one another.
I'm still slightly spiraling from how far I let the kiss get while we were on the beach, and when I see some of the images of it, well, it makes it clear to anyone who knows anything about Sombrans that Reese is mine.
She, thankfully, isn't upset when she sees the images.
She has no problem with the way my shadows had clung to her body, wrapped around her bare skin, and held her close to me.
It was an invasion of her space, but seeing as I was distracted, they were unruly and rude.
Not that they were repentant at all, if anything, I can feel them scheming ways to do it again.
My comm makes a soft chiming sound, one that's used only when one of the crew needs something.
I check it, not wanting to make anyone wait if it's important.
Reese is drifting between consciousness and dreams as Marr takes us back to the apartment.
It's been a long day. Based on how the woman likes to spend her time relaxing when she's not cooking or baking, I'm surprised she's lasted as long as she has, since we've been going nonstop since this morning.
Kolos
Anything you want to tell the rest of us?
Kolos's message is followed up with an image taken earlier today, and I let out a soft groan at it already making its rounds so much so that the crew knows about it.
He already knows how I feel about Reese, but he was waiting to give me a hard time about it until it was out in the open.
At least he has some ethics. Another chime comes in, followed by a second message from Kolos.
Kolos
Can't believe boss man is out here sleeping with clients. How's that going to make the rest of us look?
Isha
Didn't you try to sleep with the Fizneran ambassador's twin daughters when you were there for his birthday?
Isha's message pops up while I'm trying to keep myself from being too angry at Kolos's statement.
Reducing what I feel for Reese to something as trivial as sleeping with her is low, even for him.
But then again, Kolos has made a joke of the bond between a Sombran and their soulbond ever since his rejected him.
And thankfully, the others are in the chat better able to diffuse the situation than I am, considering I'd like to whack him on the back of the head.
Kolos
Try implies I was unsuccessful.
Skia
Is everything okay? Do I need to take a transport to you?
Skia's message ignores everyone else's, and if I know Kolos and Isha, which I do pretty well at this point, they're bickering up in the ship about how he's acting like an ass.
I'm fine. Isha, will you hit Kolos on the back of the head for me?
There's no new message for a moment, and then a few come in all at once, all of them from Kolos.
Kolos
She'd already hit me.
Kolos
But you'll be happy to know she did it twice more for good measure.
Kolos
But seriously, how did that happen?
"Everything okay?" Reese asks me.
Her eyes are heavy, her voice thick with sleepiness. I silence my comm, not thinking about how annoying the chiming might've been to her since she was trying to sleep.
"Everything's fine," I tell her, locking the screen and tucking it back into my pocket. "My crew saw the pictures and had questions, but they're mostly just trying to annoy me."
"Oh, did they not know about it?" she asks, her voice morphing with a yawn as she leans back against her arm that's tucked up against the window. "You can tell them it's fake. I doubt they'll go out and sell the story to the tabloids."
I don't respond to her statement, just watch as her eyes flutter back closed, her breathing deepening.
I brush a piece of her hair out of her face, my thumb lingering over her cheek for a moment long enough for my shadows to think it's permission to scatter all over her.
A few of them spread across her face. One of them is daring enough to press against her lips.
I rein them back in, pulling them back to my body and keeping them where they belong.
"When do you plan on telling her?" Marr asks from the driver's seat, his eyes on me in the rearview mirror.
"When this is over," I answer him honestly. "I don't want her pushing me away while she still might be in danger. And trust me, the guy who will take my place is a lot more annoying than my unrequited crush on Reese."
Marr snorts, his shoulders shaking with a silent laugh. "Unrequited. Okay."
If we weren't pulling into the underground parking garage for Reese's building, I'd ask him what he means by that. And, truthfully, a part of me wants to believe that there's a chance Reese wants me the same way I want her.
"I'll get the elevator," Marr says as he turns off the transport and hops out. "Will you get Reese?"
I don't have to answer him. He knows full well that I'll get Reese.
The only problem is that I didn't realize just how out she was from everything.
Even when I go to open her door, she falls out of the transport.
Thankfully, she's caught by her seatbelt and my shadows, which move much quicker than I do.
I unfasten her seatbelt, keeping my shadows from getting handsy with her while she's unconscious, something they take great offense to.
They're acting as if they weren't all vying to get up her dress when we were on the beach.
I hoist Reese up into my arms, surprised when she doesn't do anything other than mumble her irritation at being jostled and then nuzzles up against me.
There's a sense of pride that fills me as she sleeps in my arms. It's a pleasure that comes from knowing she feels safe enough in my arms to keep sleeping.
Her restlessness has been obvious to me while sharing the apartment with her.
She gets up multiple times during the night, she has to watch something until she's so exhausted she can't keep her eyes open, and even then, the little sleep she does get is fitful.
I'd hoped that the longer I was in the apartment with her, the easier it would be for her to sleep through the night, but that hasn't been the case.
Marr gives me a soft, knowing shake of his head as I carry Reese onto the elevator with us.
"She's tired," I say with a whisper, though why I feel the need to defend myself to him I have no idea.
"I'm sure she is," Marr says, his tone neutral.
It doesn't match the knowing smirk on his lips, but I choose to ignore it, knowing he cares about the woman in my arms as well.
Not in the same way as me, even just the thought of that has my eyes narrowing on him in the mirror of the elevator's walls, my shadows tightening around Reese.
If anything, the Lokan finds my reaction humorous, and I lower the restrictions on what I don't want to hear from everyone around me, and listen in on his thoughts.
Besides finding it amusing that I'm so territorial over Reese, he's thinking about doing a perimeter around the apartment complex and whether or not they should call in takeout since Reese is tired and probably won't want to cook for everyone tonight.
I clench my teeth, upset for not thinking about it first.
"Would you mind ordering something for all of us?" I ask Marr.
He looks at me like he has no idea what I'm talking about, which is fair. No one is ever expecting someone to ask questions or make comments based on their thoughts, and it's seen as quite rude to do so. Something I seem to be forgetting when it comes to taking care of Reese.
"For dinner," I say, giving him a soft shrug of my shoulders as an apology for listening in on his thoughts. If Marr cares, he doesn't show it.
"You got it," he says as the door slides open.
I step out, but he remains inside, pulling his comm out of his pocket. I reduce the loudness of his thoughts, letting my shadows take on the brunt of shuffling through all of the thoughts in the apartment complex, since I'd be an irritable mess if I had to listen to all of them.
"Brandr's waiting to talk to you. He said there was something that happened earlier that you'll want to know about."
I don't like the sound of that one bit, but I still have a sleeping Reese in my arms who needs to be taken care of, so I tell Marr I'll deal with it and head down the hall for her apartment.
Just like Marr said, Brandr is waiting at her front door, leaning up against it and doing something on his comm.
When I approach, he looks up, smiling when he sees Reese in my arms. He has a mate somewhere here on Earth and two kids.
Reese has told me frequently all about them, and Brandr himself is the first to sing their praises and tell us all how much he misses them.
According to him, pay is good for security work.
When it comes to twenty-four-seven work, like with Reese, he'll have enough after three months to take some time off and spend with his family before taking on less demanding jobs until another high-paying opportunity comes around.
"Marr said you wanted to talk to me?" I ask, my voice still a whisper.
"Care if we do it in the apartment?" Brandr asks.
"Yeah, her keys are in her purse, if you want to grab them," I say, but he doesn't need to.
He pulls out a key ring, flipping through the few keys on it until he gets to the one he needs, and then he's unlocking the plethora of locks that Reese has installed on her front door. He senses the question I have and answers it before I get a chance to ask it.
"Reese made us copies after we kicked her last door in," Brandr says with a slight chuckle. "Thought it was probably smarter to give us access than to kick them down every time."