Series: Cobalt Empire Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 234
Estimated words: 226965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1135(@200wpm)___ 908(@250wpm)___ 757(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 226965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1135(@200wpm)___ 908(@250wpm)___ 757(@300wpm)
Maybe I should ask them if it’s okay? It’s their space too. I whip my phone back out. The night Charlie, Eliot, and Tom spontaneously showed up at the End of the World, they exchanged their numbers with me, and then this morning, Ben and I ran into Beckett near the elevator in the apartment. He asked me for my number as well.
So I text all four of Ben’s brothers at once, starting a group chat.
Harriet
Is it okay if I spend the night again? I won’t bother you or anything. Just want to make sure you’re all comfortable with me being there.
I press send. Then I add really, really fast.
Harriet
You can say no if you want to.
I send that one way too quickly, and I groan at myself. “Of course they know that. Ugh, Harriet. Why?” I don’t have to second-guess for long. My phone is already pinging.
Eliot
Always welcome, never a bother. It’d take a force beyond human capabilities to make a Cobalt uncomfortable.
Charlie
I don’t care what you do.
Tom
Just don’t blast shitty music in the living room, Harry.
Relief begins to wash over me, then my phone rings. “Oh fuck.” I spring back off the chair, holding my phone out like it’s contracted a staph infection. Beckett is calling me?! Why? Oh no, is he going to grill me over the phone? Ask me what my intentions are with his baby brother?
I intend for him to rail me tonight, if you must know. I have a love-hate relationship with my brain right now.
“Okay, you can do this,” I pump myself up, then answer the phone. It connects to my earbuds. “Hey?” I’m praying that didn’t sound hostile.
“I don’t mind if you spend the night again.”
I wait for more, but he says nothing after. “Did…did you just call to tell me that?”
“Yeah, sorry, I don’t text.”
I pause for the joke. “Wait, you’re being serious? Is this like a seventeenth century Cobalt Empire role playing thing?”
Beckett lets out a light laugh. “No. I wish.” His breathing sounds shortened. I wonder if he’s on a treadmill. Or moving very quickly somewhere. “It’s sadly a friend leaked my messages to a tabloid type of thing. Don’t take it personally. I don’t even text family.”
“Good to know.” I stare out into the pitch-black darkness of the lab. “Sooo you’re really okay if I just crash with Ben in the middle of the living room? Even if we…I mean, I’m not saying we will…but maybe…” Stop talking, Harriet.
Whyyyy does Beckett Cobalt intimidate me?
“You’ve already spent the night twice,” he says smoothly. “Third, fourth, fifth time—if that’s what Ben wants, it’s what I want. I have to run, but if you ever need a ride to the apartment, you can call my driver. Put this number in your contacts.”
I store the number Beckett reads out over the phone. My pulse beating a mile a minute.
Then he says, “One more thing.”
“Yeah?”
“Stick around. I haven’t seen my little brother this happy in a long time, and it’s definitely because of you.”
My eyes spring a tiny leak. What the fuck? I wipe my cheek quickly. I’ve just never been a source of someone’s happiness before. I can see how Ben feels around me, but to hear it from a witness makes this fact durable, solid, like it’s etched in stone.
Stick around. How do I even tell Beckett I’m not the one in threat of bolting?
In this moment, all I manage to reply is, “I plan on it.”
46
HARRIET FISHER
Later that night, Ben and I devour frozen pizzas in his kitchen. Vegan margherita, which Ben let get extra crispy in the oven for me. I like a crunchy charred crust. None of his brothers are home early enough to swipe a slice. Seeing as how their professions have late hours, I’m not surprised we have most of the apartment to ourselves again.
We’re cuddled on the couch (not the pull-out mattress), and I lie longways against Ben’s firm chest, his arms weave around me while I untangle a knot in the stuffed lion’s mane.
He lists off all my name suggestions. “Cubby? The cub? Baby lion? Son of Ben?”
“What I lack in creativity I make up elsewhere,” I say a little defensively, forgetting how much I love my audience.
Because Ben immediately says, “You’re plenty creative, Fisher. SOB is pretty funny.”
I smooth the golden-yellow fur. “If you had an actual baby, would you name them something earthy like Clover or Aspen?”
“You trying to tell me something?” he teases.
I peer up at him, my face warm. “Unless the condom broke, I think we’re in the clear on the baby-making front, Cobalt boy.” I hold his gaze. “But I wouldn’t mind forgoing the condom next time. I’m on birth control.”
His smiling blue eyes sink down on me. “Yeah, I know, you mentioned being on the pill.”
So he did process that information a while back. “Just letting you know. I’ve also been tested recently, all negative, and I’m not sleeping with anyone else, so…”