FOLK

FOLK

Didn't think I'd leave Folk and Decoy hanging, did you?

"You still look thin."

I kept my eyes on the road as my sister's disapproval filled the car, avoiding her all-seeing gaze from Decoy's phone screen. Somehow, since I'd introduced them over FaceTime a few weeks ago, she'd figured out calling him was easier than trying to pin me down, and I was one hundred percent going to throttle Ranger for giving up his number. "I'm not thin. I'm happy."

Beside me, Decoy smiled, and it was autopilot on my part to reach for his hand, a gesture I knew that Finch wouldn't miss. I hadn't got round to telling my family that Decoy and Ivy were permanent additions to my life, but we weren't the kind of brood where announcements like that were necessary.

They knew me . They loved me. And they'd love Decoy and Ivy too when we could visit them without my sister figuring out I'd almost died a few months ago. That was hassle I didn't need and it belatedly occurred to me—like most things occurred to me lately—that Ranger giving out Decoy's number and calling him my "new fancy man" had been to avoid telling Finch the truth.

Damn. That meant I had to thank him for this nonsense, and I was never going to hear the end of that.

"Are you even listening to me?"

"No." I turned the car onto the street that housed Ivy's school. "Unless you're saying goodbye."

"See, that's how I know something's been up. You're only this rude when you're dying. Did you relapse?"

Sighing, I parked the car and took the phone from Decoy. He squeezed my thigh, then disappeared into the throng of parents to collect Ivy, leaving me alone with the penetrating gaze of my sister. "I didn't relapse. I'd tell you if I had."

Finch's stare remained unrelenting. "Then what is it? You've been so distant lately, and don't tell me nothing's going on with you. I know you better than that."

"My joints are playing up," I told her honestly. "It's getting me down. I don't love being in this much pain when everything else in my life is so good."

"You love Decoy, though, don't you?"

"I do."

"Are you going to marry him?"

"If he'll have me."

"Did you ask him yet?"

"No, but I will. When the time's right, for him, and for Ivy?—"

The back door of the car opened and the little lady in question, clambered into her seat, already leaning forward to peer at the phone screen.

"Finchie!"

"Ivy!" My sister's worried frown melted away, leaving behind the ethereal beauty that had got me in so many fights at school. "Folk, give her the phone. I didn't call to see your ugly mug."

She had, if only to tell me in great detail how ugly she thought it was right now. But I was beyond grateful to Ivy for the distraction and I relinquished the phone before escaping the confines of the car for some fresh air.

I don't know how it happened, but Decoy had come to know me better than anyone. Even myself. He was waiting with his shy smile, quiet company, and a bottle of water.

"Your sister really cares about you."

"I know."

"She's a lot like Orla."

"Without the constant threat of violence."

Decoy's smile widened a little. "Orla's never threatened me."

"You're her favourite."

"Not anymore."

Because Locke was. But it didn't take a genius to figure out that how Orla—and Nash—were growing to think about Locke was something entirely different. "You're definitely Juana's favourite."

"Stop." Decoy nudged me with his elbow so gently I barely felt it. "She only likes me because I'm easy to be around compared to Mateo."

I disagreed. Juana found Decoy as devastatingly attractive as I did. But most days I was only just managing to convince him that I wanted him, so I kept quiet and sidled closer to him, absorbing his solid warmth, accepting the fact that loving him had given me something I'd never known I needed so much.

"Do you want to have dinner at home or at the compound tonight?"

"Hmm?"

Decoy repeated the question.

"I don't mind." I glanced into the car. Ivy was still talking to Finch, gesticulating with wild hands and laughing as if my sister was funnier than Rubi. "We can let her decide."

"She'll choose the compound. Wrecking the place with Liliana is way more fun than having dinner with just us."

"It's nice that they're so close."

Decoy nodded, but I'd grown to know him as well as he knew me, and I didn't miss the frown that flickered through his features.

"What are you worried about?"

He turned his honey-brown gaze on me, oblivious to the tremor in my heart and the skip in my pulse. So completely unaware of how beautiful he was. "Liliana's so much older. What's going to happen when she settles into high school and makes more friends her own age?"

"That might not happen. Liliana's coming at life from a completely different planet compared to her peers at school. And she's as unfriendly as her father."

"Mateo's not unfriendly."

"He is to anyone he doesn't know or trust. Which is ninety-nine percent of the population."

Decoy pursed his lips, disagreeing, because he'd never been on the receiving end of Mateo Romano's suspicion. I had, and even before we'd known about Liliana, I'd understood it. But that didn't make it less potent, and Liliana had inherited every bit of it.

Ivy opened the window. "Can we go yet?"

"Sure, bug." Decoy knocked his fist on the roof of the car and spirited a kiss to my cheek. "I'll drive."

Because he'd noticed me rotating my wrists and rubbing my thumb joints.

I hadn't.

God, I loved him.

We drove to the compound and lost Ivy to the after school madness of every club kid tearing around the yard at breakneck speed, making the most of the autumn sunshine.

It was Mateo's turn to police it, which shouldn't have been funny, but proved entertaining enough that I parked myself in a deck chair to observe.

Locke joined me and immediately dozed off. If I hadn't known the source of his regular catnaps, I'd have wondered if it was my company. As it was, I was grateful he still trusted me enough to sleep around me when he knew how much blood I had on my hands these days.

No regrets .

It was true. I had none. But that didn't mean the people around me felt the same.

Decoy does.

I found him in the crowd, helping Saint move some wood from the timber yard to the fresh paving Rubi had put down a few weeks ago. I'd lost track of what it was for. The original Kings, Cam, Rubi, Nash—even River. They were never still. Always building. Always growing and becoming better men, setting the tone for the rest of us, even if they were too humble to know it.

Decoy, though. I sank lower into my seat, distracted from the hilarity of Mateo's roadman version of crowd control, and fully leaning into watching Decoy's strong body bend and stretch as he hefted wood around as if it weighed nothing, as tall and strong as Rubi, but far less obvious about it, his build less hulk and more sexy lumberjack.

"Veles, you are smiling." The Russian words came from behind me. From Alexei, naturally, as he dropped into the vacant seat on my other side, casting a shrewd glance at Locke. "Are you thinking dirty things?"

"No more than you."

There was only one—all right, two —people who could draw Alexei out into the yard to do something as simple as sitting in the sun, and Decoy wasn't one of them. "Unless you came out to play bulldog with the kids."

"I did not."

No. He'd come to gawp at Saint. Which he did to the unique brand of silence we'd nurtured between us over the past year or so. The kind of quiet we'd needed to survive living in each other's pockets for so long while planning mass murder.

It was strange. We hadn't talked much then, and we didn't talk much now, but it still felt like he understood me better than Rocco ever had.

A big hand landed on my forearm. A warm hand. But it wasn't Decoy, it was Locke, very much awake and checking in with whatever my face was doing. Our eyes met and the years we'd shared before he'd had the luxury of relaxed naps in the sun flared between us. The years he'd lost. The brother we both mourned. The deep fraternal love and concern we'd always hold for each other.

But Locke didn't need to worry about me. Loving Decoy hadn't healed every wound I carried, but all of it—everything—it hurt less, and I was more thankful for that than even Locke would ever know.

His phone rang.

Willow.

My big friend heaved a sigh and unfolded his tall frame from the low-slung deck chair, rubbing his back. He ambled away with his phone pressed to his ear and Alexei peeled his gaze from Saint long enough to watch him disappear.

"Does Mishka have an old injury?"

Yes. Lots of them. But to my knowledge, he hadn't told our new friends, so any answer I gave Alexei would be a betrayal or a lie, and I wasn't in the market for either of those things. "Giraffe people have bad backs. So do firemen."

"Is that a yes? Or a deflection?"

"You choose." I got up as Ivy picked her moment to come barrelling across the yard to me.

She jumped and I caught her, spinning her around. "Nice save, bug," I whispered in her ear. "Alexei was about to ask me to tidy all the things."

Ivy laughed loudly enough that Alexei knew he was the subject of her amusement, but his soft spot for her gave me the out I needed and I took her inside to clean the mud from her face.

"Can I stay at Lili's tonight? Rubi gave us silent disco headphones."

"You need to ask your dad."

"You're my dad too."

It was late afternoon and we were in the bar, surrounded by grumpy old timers drinking lager and watching the horse racing on the flat screens Cam kept threatening to tear down. Ivy wasn't even looking at me—just casually calling me dad like it didn't make my heart swell and my eyes burn. "Okay, well let's ask the first and best dad you ever had what he thinks. He's the boss."

Decoy said yes to the sleepover. It left us with an evening to kill and we went for a ride—the first long one I'd been on in a while.

It was late by the time we got home, but despite the ache in my cantankerous body, it felt good to be on the road again, especially with nothing but love for company.

"I need a shower." I spoke into the home I'd made for myself between Decoy's shoulder blades the moment he'd shrugged off his riding jacket. "Come with me?"

Of course he would. He always did on the rare days we had a moment to be together like this, and it wasn't about sex. At least, not recently, since I'd broken myself to the point where standing up had been a tall order. But I felt good tonight. Better than good. And I didn't want to be apart from him. I wanted to get clean with him so we could work on getting dirty again.

Because, yeah. Alexei had been right about where my mind had gone this afternoon, and the more clothes Decoy dropped on the bathroom floor, the more rooted in that place I became.

Decoy was a shy lover. Like everything else, he didn't know how good he was at reducing me to a shivering wreck. Even as we stumbled from the bathroom to the bed, forgoing the lights in favour of rolling around in the dark until his broader frame had me pinned, he still stared down at me with the faintest edge of bewilderment clouding his gaze.

"What do you want?" I whispered. "I have no limits."

Decoy rubbed his warm palm over my hip, gripping my thigh—an instinct, more than a demand. "I remember. You told me before."

I'd told him lots of things, in this existence and the one where we'd first met. In Cyprus. The night we'd walked away from each other with no clue if we'd ever see each other again, let alone build a life that was fast becoming my wildest dreams come true. "I'd have let you fuck me that very first night."

Decoy's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yeah." I claimed his mouth for a heart stopping, breath-stealing kiss, before I came up for air again. "I thought about it all the way back to base and it drove me mad for weeks after. I was still thinking about it in mission planning. My friend Mal had to throw a Mars Bar at my head to pull me back to earth when I should've been marking rally points on the map."

Decoy laughed that quiet laugh. Then he sobered as he thought harder about what I was saying. "What were you thinking about…exactly?"

"How I liked that you were bigger than me. And how sure I was that you'd fuck me like you loved me, even if I never saw you again."

"I do love you."

"I know. That's why I'm hoping you'll fuck me tonight."

His eyes widened again, nerves colouring his gaze, but his body, his cock already hard against my abdomen, gave away how he really felt about it. "Are you sure?"

For him, it was a serious question. For me, it was almost laughable. I really had thought a lot about Decoy fucking me when we'd met all those years ago. Then we'd met again in this wild new life, and every moment I'd been able, I'd thought of it even more. "Seth, I'm sure."

Seth . No one else called him that. And I knew it affected him when I did. His cock twitched again and he leaned down to kiss me, his shyness fading the moment our lips met, overcome by the perfect alchemy that had been there from the start.

We sank into it and devastating heat rose between us. We'd already worked each other up in the shower, but this was something else. Something new, forging another layer in our foundations. Decoy knew my body, he knew me , and I held his face with reverent hands as he descended the bed and took me in his mouth, his fingers getting busy elsewhere. I gave myself over to it, relaxing into the heady rush of pleasure that built in my belly until I could take no more. Until I needed more.

I grasped his shoulders and hauled him up the bed. "Fuck me."

Decoy gazed down at me, eyes as wild as I'd ever seen him. But he didn't ask again if I was sure. That ship had sailed. He lubed his cock and loomed over me, one fist to the bed, the other hand aligning us, slotting us together, pushing inside, inch by inch, filling me as it dawned on me that as ready as I'd been for this, I'd had no real idea how much I'd feel when it happened.

A rare curse stuttered out of me. A staggered breath. I'd been with too many other men to count, but somehow, Decoy felt like the first. Not because it hurt—it didn't beyond the addictive burn. But because I'd never been fucked by someone who loved me on the primal level that he did.

It blew my mind. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and my legs around his waist, urging him on, and he took the cue, driving into me with enough force to let me know he'd heard all the things I hadn't said.

Don't be careful with me.

I need this.

I need you .

He didn't hold back. And what had begun as playful and warm became something else. Something rougher, though he kept the pace slow, grinding into me with deep, precise thrusts that hit every spot, then dragging himself out, making us both groan, sweat coating our skin.

"I love that I'm bare inside you."

I loved that he was breathless and flushed. I loved how solid he felt in my arms. How strong. How he punctuated his sweet words with a kiss that melted my bones. How he fucked me long and hard, drawing it out until I was hanging off the other side of the bed and we were one deep thrust from toppling to the floor.

Decoy hauled me to the side, pulling out and rolling me before he slid smoothly back in. I gripped the bed frame with one hand and squeezed my rigid cock with the other. I had never been so hard. My mind was relaxed, my heart at peace, but my body was fit to blow.

"You feel so good." Decoy gripped my thighs and hunched over me, building that steady rhythm again, a little faster now, chasing the magic he'd kept at bay for as long as he'd had me on my back. "I never knew it could be like this."

"Neither did I—" My admission was cut short by a blinding bolt of arousal. It buzzed through me, sharp and bright, stealing my breath, and a full body release ambushed me, building in intensity with every deep snap of Decoy's hips. "I'm going to come."

I barely got the words out before the coil in my gut snapped, unraveling so fast my vision whited out. An inhuman sound escaped me and I fell onto my chest, taking Decoy with me as our bodies throbbed together and fresh heat burst inside me, wet warmth spilling into my hand.

" Fuck ." This didn't feel like coming. It felt like mating , and it was the only thought that stuck as everything else blurred to a homogenous mess of sound and sensation.

I couldn't say when it ended. Just that I was dimly aware of Decoy easing out and that I needed to roll over if I ever wanted to see his face again.

If I ever wanted to breathe .

His weight disappeared.

I hated it, but it got me moving. I shifted on my back and he was right there.

"All right?"

Beyond words, I nodded.

He rubbed my chest, sweat and cum pretty much everywhere, but we didn't care— I didn't care. I needed to feel him as much as I needed to replace the oxygen in my blood.

I gripped his hand. "Don't go anywhere."

"Wasn't planning on it."

Decoy lay down beside me and pulled me close.

It was the easiest thing in the world to drop my head on his chest and that's where I stayed for the longest time, the steady beat of his heart better than any therapy I'd ever had, until I remembered something. "Ivy called me dad today."

Decoy's chest rose with a deeper breath. "I thought she might. She asked me if she could."

"What did you say?"

"That she could call you anything she liked as long as it wasn't rude."

I chuckled. "Fair enough. You don't mind it then?"

Decoy shifted us so he could look at me in the dark. "That she gets to love you as much as I do? Hell, no. She's lucky to have you, and so am I."

I shook my head, fighting sleep as much as the urge to gently throttle him. One day, he'd realise, that I was the lucky one. Until then, I'd keep telling him—I'd keep loving him, and everything about that was as perfect as he was.