Page 16 of Irreverent (The Marked Saga #7)

Trace arrived at my house a little after midnight with a cautious smile on his face and a black gym bag in tow. As furious as I still was with Jaqueline, I knew that the escalating situation with Nikki and her minions had to take precedence over everything, including the dark family secret my mother had been harboring for eighteen years.

That certainly didn’t mean we were on speaking terms, though, or that she hadn’t tried to continue our conversation the moment I stepped foot into the house, but I’d made it clear that I was only dropping the silent treatment long enough to catch them up on what happened earlier at All Saints.

“That bag doesn’t look like it fits nearly enough clothes in there,”

I noted as I eyed Trace’s rather small overnight bag sitting on the floor in the foyer.

“I’m not moving in,”

he reminded, his dimples popping with a smile as he took in my disappointed face. “Besides, I live like ten minutes away, remember?”

“True.”

My cheeks blushed at his two very valid points. “So…are you hungry? Can I get you something to eat?” I asked, pushing up on the balls of my feet, eager to change the topic and get him settled in.

“Nah, I’m good,”

he said and then buried his hands into the front pockets of his jeans, his eyes skirting around the room as though he didn’t know where to look. “Just tired, I guess. It’s been a long day.”

“Right. Totally. I guess I should probably show you to your room then,”

I said and then turned for the grand staircase as Trace followed quietly behind me.

After letting everyone know that Trace would be staying with us, we had only the small matter of who would be sleeping where to contend with. While Tessa had been sleeping in her old room, Gabriel in the guest room and my mother in Uncle Karl’s old bedroom, the only room left for Trace would have been my room. Except that I had taken my mattress downstairs to sleep next to Dominic. A fact that I was sure Trace would have just loved to hear about. Especially since we had only just started talking again.

So, after a quick session of musical beds, we finally decided on Tessa and my mother keeping their rooms, me going back to mine, while Gabriel moved to the basement with his brother and a blow-up mattress. Trace scored the guest room.

“If you get hungry, help yourself to anything in the kitchen,”

I said as we slowly made our way up the stairs. “And if you need extra pillows or a blanket or whatever, just let me know. My bedroom is right across the hallway,” I informed and then glanced back to see him smiling. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing, it’s just…”

His smile widened as we paused on the upstairs landing. “I know where your room is.”

“Right. Duh.”

My cheeks burned hot as I tucked my hair behind my ears and then hurried on down the rest of the hallway until we reached the guest bedroom. I opened the door and then stood back, giving him space to enter the room.

“Nice,”

he said as he looked around the room, taking in the dark espresso furniture and queen-sized bed at the center.

Honestly, the room could use a little color and décor to liven it up, but he didn’t seem to mind either way. He dropped his gym bag on the bed and then turned to face me, his hands buried deep in his pockets again.

There was something brewing in his eyes, something surfacing in his veiled expression as though he wanted to say something to me just then, but then decided against it.

“So, I guess I’ll let you get some sleep then,”

I said, still standing by the door, feeling awkward as fuck.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

He nodded, his jaw muscle pumping hard.

Unsure of what the protocol was here, I briefly contemplated whether to go in for a hug or kiss but then settled on a lame-ass wave instead. “Good night, Trace.”

“Good night, Jemma,”

he said, his husky voice sending a shiver through my body that stayed with me long after I closed the door and returned to my room.

***

After changing into a comfy pair of jogging pants and camisole shirt, I slipped out of my room and quietly made my way downstairs to the basement. Gabriel was laying on the air mattress with a desk lamp beside him and a tattered old novel in his hand. I had to admit, it was a good look for him.

“How did it go?”

he asked, setting the novel down beside himself and then sitting up on the mattress, his forearms draping over his bent knees.

“It went…awkwardly,”

I said and then picked up the novel to see what he was reading. 1984 by George Orwell.

“Did you talk to him about what your mother—”

“No,”

I cut in and then set the novel down on his bed. “I’m still waiting for it to sink all the way in before I start shouting it out from the rooftops.”

His eyebrows pulled together. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Why does everyone keep asking me that? Does it look like I want to talk about it? Is there something on my face that’s screaming, ‘I’m Lucifer’s daughter! Please ask me all about my feelings on the subject’?”

He grimaced. “I’ll take that as a no.”

I blew a breath of frustration out as he continued to watch me closely. “Did you tell him about what we’re doing?” he asked after a few beats, his eyebrows lowered in curiosity.

I shook my head. “I didn’t get a chance to. He said he was tired and didn’t really seem like he was in the mood to chat.”

And definitely not about that.

“So, what are we doing about our session tonight?”

he asked tentatively, because I had made it clear to him that I didn’t want to keep lying to Trace. That I intended on telling him what my plan was regarding Dominic and the means I was using to get to it. AKA, bloodbonding with Gabriel.

Except I didn’t get a chance to say any of that and now that I thought of it, I really didn’t want to miss an entire session and risk losing any of the progress we may have made. That pretty much left me with two options: Either I had to wake him up out of his sleep and dump all of this on him at nearly one o’clock in the morning, or I’d have to sneak another session in without his knowledge and go to sleep feeling like a total horse’s ass.

Neither option seemed appealing.

“Jemma?”

prompted Gabriel when all I did was sit there and pick at a loose thread in the comforter.

“I don’t know what to do.”

I looked up at him and frowned. “I really don’t want to do this behind his back, but I also can’t risk losing any of the progress we made either.”

“I don’t think missing one session will derail the entire thing.”

“Can you guarantee it?”

I challenged, knowing he couldn’t. “Because Dominic never missed a session when he was overriding Engel’s bond, and honestly, we’re running out of time as it is.” My gaze bounced to Dominic who was still perched like a perfect statue in the same position he had been left in for days.

“It sounds like you’ve already made up your mind.”

“I guess I have,”

I agreed, not feeling particularly great about it. “But I don’t want to do this down here. There’s no lock on the basement door and I can’t risk Trace walking in on us.” Just the thought of Trace coming down here and catching me in a compromising blood exchange with Gabriel made my stomach twist with dread. I needed to keep this under wraps until I had a chance to talk to him about it. “We’ll do it in my room instead.”

“In your bedroom?”

he verified, and I couldn’t help but notice the nervous pitch to his voice.

“Yeah. I have a lock on my door,”

I explained and then got up from the mattress. “Have you fed yet?”

He nodded that he had.

“Good. I’ll meet you upstairs in five.”

He nodded again, though that strange look of unease never did leave his face.