“I guess I’m not very exciting.” A dark cloud rolled into my brain, and I peered up into its squishy core. This was the man who had stolen a box of tampons the day I got my period and showed me how to use them. “Maybe you know me too well.”
Thay’s eyes flashed, disgust and anger welling in their core, but he didn’t have time to respond before Silas, Christopher, and Merrick came rushing up behind him.
“Hello, beautiful.” Silas pressed a hot kiss to my cheek, practically pulling me from Thay’s arms to wrap me in his, but I pulled back, falling deeper into my thoughts.
“Happy birthday, asshole!” Chris cheered, punching Thay in the arm before narrowing his eyes at the Seattle Science Center. “Little old for field trips, aren’t we?”
“Don’t look at me,” Thay pointed. “This is all Daph.”
“Hi, love.” The Irish charmer stepped out of the shadows to kiss my neck. “Jay told me to tell you he has a new set of locks to pick later, if you’re interested.”
Oh yes, my rogue lessons.
Of all the men in the house, Jay shared my affinity for early morning whiskey and insomnia. One night, he found me on the lounge in the common room, snuggled by the window watching the rainfall, and ever since, he kept a batch of door locks and tools waiting for me in case my hands needed something to do.
In a different life, he would have been a teacher. Not only did he sit through each click and sound with me, but he did not seem to mind when I hurled them across the room in a fit of toddler rage. Thanks to him, I had become damn good at getting into places I shouldn’t be.
“Where is he?” I asked, moving to see if he was straggling behind.
“In the shitter,” Chris chuckled. “I told him not to eat burritos from the Quickie on Seventeenth, but that fucker never listens.”
I made a face, and the guys laughed, passing a cigarette around between them.
“Alright,” I smiled. “I guess it’s time to go then.”
Silas inched forward, throwing his arm over my hips as we walked under the dusky lights that veered toward the back of the Science Center, just past the Space Needle. Although the men who surrounded me resembled minor gods, they looked small in the shadows of Seattle’s looming architecture.
I shot a smile at the birthday boy, who was busy cataloging every touchpoint that Silas had created, sending me a look of disgust. I pivoted, spinning toward him with wild, playful eyes that reminded him I was his.
“It is right through there,” I pointed to the metal entryway.
“Daph?” Chris smirked. “Are we breaking into the fucking Science Center?”
“No,” I cooed, twisting the knob and flinging it wide. “We arewalkinginto it!”
They gave me a look.
“Through the naughty back door?” Merrick held it open for me. “Whose dick did you have to suck to pull this off?”
“The doormen’s.” I flashed a grin and blew him a kiss.
“Holy shit!” Chris charged through, completing a random karate kick in the air. “Speaking of dicks being sucked. Your sister is fucking hot, Silas!” Chris yelled into the darkness, riding high off the way the worddickechoed throughout the empty chamber.
Silas grabbed him by the collar and tossed him into the wall, sending him a warning that none of us missed. Well, less for Christopher, whose grin only promised he would destroy her. I pressed my thighs together to dull the slow ache at the thought of being obliterated.
“What is this?” Thay bent low, his dark, dreamy voice trickling into my ear.
“Remember when we slept on that bench at the Kingston Ferry, and you talked about the way the storm clouds created the strangest art in the sky?”
“Irememberthat my balls nearly froze off,” he cleared his throat. Our life wasn’t the kind you thought much about, if you could help it.
“You askedif nature creates art from all the madness, then what does it make us?” I shimmered in the metaphor, loving the way his mind worked when his anger wasn’t controlling it.
“I don’t think we are art, Daph. Just scars!” he made his way through the empty auditorium, sitting in the middle row.
“Because scars are forever?” I asked, tracing an X over my heart as Thay watched.
“You certainly are.”