Buttons and Lace (Buttons 1)

Right now, I wanted something.

He denied it to me before, but perhaps a button would change his mind. I grabbed one button from the jar and walked to his bedroom. The door was locked like usual, so I knocked.

He answered it a moment later, shirtless and tired. His hair was messy, and his eyes conveyed his exhaustion. He didn’t look at me with irritation like he normally would. Now, he was just concerned.

I held up the button then placed it in his palm. “Can I sleep with you?” A single button in exchange for a night of sleep seemed fair. But I would give him two buttons if he really wanted to negotiate. I didn’t care about the price. I just wanted to be in that bed with him, to let him chase away my nightmares.

He eyed the button in his palm and rubbed his thumb along the grooves. He turned it over and felt the other side, feeling the tiny holes located in the center. He pushed it between his forefinger and thumb before he grabbed my hand and placed it within my palm. He curled my fingers around it and closed my fist. “You can keep the button—this time.”

I pulled my hand to my chest, treasuring the payment I didn’t have to make. Keeping the button didn’t matter to me. Freedom didn’t matter to me anymore either. But the gesture, the kindness, meant the world to me.

Crow kissed the corner of my mouth before he guided me into his bedroom. He lay beside me in bed and wrapped his powerful arms around me, sleeping with me just the way I liked.

I placed the button on the nightstand directly next to his lamp where I could grab it the following morning. It glinted under the light from his alarm clock, shiny and pristine.

Crow hugged me to his chest and pressed a kiss to the side of my neck. “Sleep well, Button.”

I hooked his arm across my chest, using it as an anchor. “I will.”