37. MADDY

37

MADDY

My phone, just like everyone else's in the building, goes off with an emergency notification.

EMERGENCY ALERT.

Severe thunderstorm and hurricane warning in this area until 6 a.m.

Take shelter.

It's finally here, the hurricane everyone was talking about for months. The one from the coast of South Africa bypassed us two months ago. This one is coming from West Africa and is not supposed to be as strong. But we all received the general memo for checking the generators if we have them, flashlights, and candles. Ayana is a relevantly small place, and the Center has enough space for everyone in case of an extremely bad scenario, as well as water, food supplies, satellite phones, and a bomb shelter. The bungalows on the lower level were evacuated. But Bo said that he talked to Bishop who used to be a military meteorologist, and he's keeping an eye on the weather trackers and says it shouldn't be as bad as we thought.

Nevertheless, all the cameras at Ayana are turned on in case of emergency scenarios.

Dr. Hodges tells me to go home early.

I spend the rainy afternoon cleaning my porch. My bodyguard, Ali, helps me close the hurricane shutters and take the flowers from my porch inside. It's pouring by the time we finish, so I tell him to be safe as he waits outside the door until I lock it and put in the security code.

It's been raining since yesterday. The winds howl and slash the rain sideways. Yet it still feels much safer than it did on the Eastside for two years.

After what happened in Port Mrei, I am more worried about something happening to Little or Raven.

I haven't seen Raven in two days. The night the guards were killed at the port, Bo told me that Ayana is now implementing a restricted entrance policy.

"What does that mean?"

"That means we are doing extra security at the entrances, filtering many of the workers who come in, and doing a thorough delivery vehicle search. Judging by the effects, that cuts the Port Mrei employees at Ayana by half."

"That's not too bad."

Bo snorted. "You kidding me? It is for those who pay for cooks, pool cleaners, gardeners, masseuses, and yacht maintenance. I had to deal with the super-smart one who got in my face about the pool guy who didn't show up to clean her pool the other day. I said, ‘Your safety is more important.' She said, ‘Not if I die from some infection in that pool.' I told her to address all complaints to Archer."

Now we have a hurricane warning. It's already too dark outside for six o'clock in the evening. I turn on the light in the house. My phone has enough juice and a portable charger ready to go, as well as my iPad.

I'm spending this hurricane by myself for the first time in two years.

I text Kat.

Me: You guys are fine?

She replies right away.

Katura: We have QiShan, Axavier, Marlow and Ray-Ray. They are all playing video games. Wanna come over? Before it gets too bad? I'll send Slate to pick you up!

I thank her but decline.

Just as the emergency alert sends out the notification about the extreme wind gusts, my lights go out. The sudden darkness is eerie. I don't mind the darkness. Except now, when I think about it, I see Raven. Somehow, the thought of him brings comfort even when he's not around.

I turn on the electronic candles sitting all around the room. The house comes back to life.

I pick up my phone and dial Callie. "Hey, girl. Are you guys all right?"

There is noise and voices and music in the background.

"Yeah," she says cheerfully, "we are all together, riding this out. Ty, Dani, Ya-Ya, Kai, me, Guff." The Eastside crew. We used to spend a lot of time preparing for this kind of scenario back on the Eastside, and I suddenly miss them, for a second wishing I'd agreed.

"You should come over," Callie insists. "Do you want me to send Kai and Ty to come get you?"

I could be with them, but there's another person I'd rather see, and he's not here.

"I'm all right," I huff out. "Is Sonny with you?"

"He asked to stay with Raven."

My traitorous heart thuds at the sound of his name, always does, like it's a trigger.

"You let him?" I ask.

Callie's chuckle is soft and soothing. "I'm sure Raven is the safest person to be with. Call them," she suggests as if sensing the reason I asked. "Hey, let me know if you need anything. It should be over by tomorrow."

When I hang up, I stare at the phone, fighting the urge to call Little. I want to hear the little guy's voice. But even more so, his . So, I call Little's phone.

"Maddy!" he answers with a shout. "Rave is telling me about the"—he lowers his voice as he asks away from the phone—"was' it called?"—then louder as he speaks to me—"yeah, the u-ni-verse."

He starts chirping a mile a second, but my body is tense because he said my name, and Raven heard it and is listening. I can sense him on the other line. Like there are invisible threads that connect me to him. We are not talking, but we are connected, and that's how it always feels with him.

Raven's voice in the background makes my heart hum.

"Rave is asking if you are all right."

"I'm fine. Just wanted to make sure you are okay. Is Rave okay?"

Little's voice is muffled when he speaks away from the phone, "Maddy is asking if you are okay."

My heart gives another anxious thud, and I smile to myself.

"Maddy!" he chirps happily. "Rave is asking if you want us to come over and stay with you."

I think I'm dizzy. Butterflies are roaring in my stomach. I purse my lips to kill a smile.

"Do you want us to come over? Can we?" Little presses on. "We can watch a movie… together."

Raven won't get anything out of this. My studio with a kid in it doesn't leave room for his games. He knows that, so his intentions are not quite clear. We've watched a movie before. But we are talking about the entire night, right?

"Yes, that would be lovely," I say, my heartbeat spiking so high I think I might pass out. "But I don't have electricity."

"We are coming! Wait for us!" The line goes dead.

You don't often find people who feel like home. The little guy does. And Raven? He doesn't feel like home. He feels like a gothic castle I step into, terrified but curious, trembling at every sound but wanting to explore the darkness and learn its secrets.

I pace around the room, waiting for them, the shadows dancing on the walls with the flicker of the candlelight, when a knock comes on the door.

"Maddy! It's us!" Little shouts outside against the roaring rain.

I can't hide a smile when I open the door, training my eyes to look lower to where my little guy's face is. He's wearing a blue rain poncho, his grin bigger than life despite the fact that the wind almost rips the poncho off him.

I let him in and lift my eyes to meet Raven's. I can't discern his expression, except that his eyes burn right into my heart, making it pound. "Come in," I say.

He knows this is the first night we will co-exist in a room all night probably without a single touch. Yet, his gaze burns me harder than ever, like this is the most important night yet. The candlelight and the colors of the stained glass on the wall decor reflect in his huskie-like eyes, turning them a shade of emerald. Crazy. He is crazy mesmerizing.

Little drops his poncho and runs straight for the couch while Raven hangs his on the coat rack, does the same to Little's, then studies the place with a frown.

"Did your generator not kick in?" he asks, ruffling his damp hair that looks even sexier when messy from the rain.

Though most of the bigger and luxury villas have generators, I don't have one. If it were just me and Raven, I would say my semi-dark bungalow is romantic, though there's nothing romantic about what we do together.

"I don't have one," I say.

I never told anyone, but I used to love storms on the Eastside. A bunch of us would gather in one cabin, and we would sit through the night and wipe the water from the leaking ceilings and drink and play music and talk in the darkness lit up only by flashlights and tell stories. I would listen to the crashing waves outside, the howling winds, the rain slashing against the windows, and I'd imagine that we were alone in the entire world. Somehow, as messed up as it sounds, that fantasy was comforting because I knew no one would be looking for me.

Raven throws a glance at my potted plants and flowers stacked on the floor in the corner. I put a lot of work into them. They are my babies, and I didn't want to leave them to the storm. When you don't have anything, you get attached to the smallest things.

"Trying to save those?" he asks.

"Yeah. They were a lot of work. They are rare. I had to order them from the mainland."

"Next time just ask. I can get you a garden." He is boasting, and that's unusual.

"Uh-huh," I murmur. "If I asked for a flower for every time we've been together, I would've had a garden already."

We are still standing close to the door. My hands are in my back pockets. His are on his hips. When our eyes meet, the comment burns the air between us.

"You guys hungry?" I ask, keeping his stare.

"Snacks!" Little shouts. "Can we watch a movie on your iPad? Until the juice runs out?"

Raven blinks and smiles. He smiles . A big, wide smile. And even in the dimness of the room, it makes his face suddenly charming, something I never thought of Raven before. It's a spontaneous smile. It's a smile to Little's loud comments. Raven's unguarded smile renders his face in the most beautiful way, and I stare in awe.

His smile falls as he notices the way I look at him. "What?"

They say every rose has a thorn. But Raven is a thorn bush, prickly and dangerous. Except I just saw a bloom. His smile is like a rare flower, and my heart blooms in turn.

"Huh." I stand, mesmerized, smiling back at him. "Snacks then," I murmur.

Raven starts smiling again, not understanding, probably thinking about something completely different while I let myself admire the man who for the first time let out a genuine grin. There's a haunting beauty in a smile that breaks out of years of pain and hurt. It's like his face changed completely, and I can't look away.

"You all right?" he asks.

I nod, starting to move toward the kitchen. "I'm great."

His smile morphs into a little smirk as I pass him. "You okay with me here all night?"

Here it goes again. He always seems to think his presence is a curse.

For a second, his eyes flick to my bare legs, and here they come again, the images of us slowly spinning in my head like a carousel. The way he undresses me from the waist down and opens my legs, then works on me as I am sprawled on the bed, drowning in one orgasm after another. Or the way he takes me afterward while I am so worked up that everything he does to me is extra-sensitive, making me drown in gasps. The way he pauses inside me, studies my face, slowly rolling his hips now and then as if trying to read my expression while inside me. Every little push of his hips resonates in a wicked glint in his eyes. Every deep roll of his hips makes my lips part in a tiny moan, and he does it repeatedly, like some sort of sex researcher. His whisper in my ear, "Tsk, tsk, Maddy, Maddy. So impatient." And then he kisses every inch of my face. Everything but my lips. He knows he can't and he intentionally gets dangerously close to see if I cave in.

I don't.

I want him to ask for it.

He never does. Like he is only there to fuck me, like he is trying to keep a barrier between us. And he never asks me what I want. Never talks about the possibility of what's happening being more than just a deal that he thinks he is in charge of.

My phone rings. I hold my breath as I see "Unknown ID" on the screen. I show it to Raven. His jaw tightens as he takes it from me and answers the call.

"Hello," he says gruffly.

I can tell there's silence in response, and after several seconds, he hangs up, then right away gets on his phone and starts typing.

This little episode somewhat mars my mood. But Raven is here. And somehow, that makes all the difference in me not being afraid.

"Maddy!" Little shouts from the couch, poking the iPad with his forefinger, searching in the movie library. "Did you know that there might be other creatures on other planets?"

I walk to the kitchen to collect an assortment of snacks from a cupboard.

Raven gets off the phone. "His latest thing, planets and space," he explains.

"Every day, it's different," I say as I walk around the island toward the couch and take a seat on one side of Little, who is perched in the center of the couch.

I look up at Raven and nod to the other side. "Movie time?"

"Yeah!" Little answers instead, not taking his eyes off the iPad screen. "You, Raven, and me."

The thunder rumbles outside, shaking the bungalow.

I don't break eye contact with Raven who walks up to the couch.

"You, Raven, and me," I repeat, matching the little smile that ticks up Raven's lips.