Cyrus (The Henchmen MC 9)

"Wait," I said, shaking my head. "You're a knight... and a maidservant?"

Cy's lips twitched up at that. "What can I say? Apparently, Henchmenland is a very thriving matriarchy where only women get to be in power and all the boys have to do their bidding. Or so I am told, right Queen Bri?"

"Girls can be in charge!" Bri asserted with a firm nod.

"Darn right they can," Maze agreed. "Who wants a juice pouch?" she asked, getting all of their attention.

Cy stood up, moving over to me, not bothering to reach up to remove his crown, perfectly comfortable putting his masculinity aside for the enjoyment of the kids, a fact that I could never have known I would find as sexy as I did right then.

I reached up, pulling a flower out of his beard.

"You like kids, huh?"

His head ducked to the side, small smile on his lips. "You gonna give me some?"

Oh, I so, so was.

"Some day," I agreed.

"Well," he said, moving a little closer. "After dinner, maybe you and me, we should, y'know, practice making them. Just to be sure we get it right when the time comes."

I pressed in a little closer, my own smile wicked.

"I think that might be a very prudent idea."Reese - 3 months"Ree, stop," Cy said, grabbing my hands to hold them still as I frantically tried to clean up the apartment.

Yes, the instead of my. While Cy still stayed at the compound once in a while, he had pretty much moved everything of importance into my apartment. I had cleared off a few shelves in the living room for his CDs, vinyl, and an 8-in-1 record player. I was even starting to get more into music than I ever had been before. When he was around, something was always on, and he was always humming, singing, or even strumming along. I began to look forward to it. Even if my attention was on a book, I liked having it as background noise.

And, well, it was possibly the most soothing sound in the world for him to sit up in bed with me curled at his side, singing something slow and soft at night.

I finally understood the fascination with men and guitars.

I had had him playing in my bed for three months, and every single time he finished, I needed to jump him.

"There is junk everywhere!" I insisted, trying to pull my hands away.

"She won't care."

"You don't know that! What if she sees some smutty book laying around? What if..."

"Ree, she isn't like that," Cy insisted, giving my hands a squeeze as he pulled them to rest on his chest. "If you saw her RV, you would know that she is a knick-knack kinda person. She won't care about all the books. And don't worry, I already got your clothes off the floor in the living room where we left them last night."

See, Wasp was coming to visit.

The original plan to meet her went out the window months back when she had just up and left town without a word.

But she was back.

And, apparently, Wasp wasn't exactly one for advanced notice. She just breezed into town on a whim. In fact, Cy told me that her ten-minute warning was actually generous, that she usually just stopped in unannounced.

I could do a lot of cleaning in ten minutes if he would just let me go.

I mean, the house wasn't dirty or anything. I was just known for leaving sweaters all around because I was always cold. And my Harry Potter slippers were in front of my papasan chair. And about two dozen books were lying across various surfaces in the main area of the house.

It just needed a straightening up.

Like you would normally do when having someone over for the first time. After the first time, well, all bets were off. But I wanted to make a good first impression.

Wasp had been something like a legend in my mind since Cy first started telling me about her and her work and her quick wit and adventures.

I just wanted her to like me.

Just like I wanted Reeve to like me.

I had met him on five separate occasions, and I still wasn't sure that he truly did. But, as Cyrus explained, that was just how Reeve was. And when I finally heard why, I stopped waiting for him to give me a smile that reached his eyes, sure that those didn't exist for him anymore. That thought always made my heart hurt when it crossed my mind.

Poor Reeve.

Someday, I wanted to see him even just a little bit happy.

I was sure it would be a sight to see.

But before I could let thoughts of Reeve really settle in again - something that put me in a bit of a funk for the rest of the day when it happened - there was a banging on my door.