Page 76 of Thorne
THORNE
I standin the kitchen as the front door opens, watching Skye Summers lead the way. Her ER trauma doc energy precedes her like a physical pressure wave. Behind her is Forest: a mountain of a man who makes the entryway look small, his presence absorbing the light in the foyer and making the air in the house feel suddenly, violently crowded.
Lily's head snaps up. She scrambles to her feet and runs toward him, stopping just short of the giant.
"Are you—Thor?" Lily tilts her head back to look at the giant.
Forest stops, looking down at my daughter. He doesn't know her, but the hardness in his face melts instantly; the jagged edges of a man who has seen too much combat softening into something unrecognizable. He drops to one knee, bringing himself down to her eye level with a grace that shouldn't belong to someone that size.
"I'm Forest," he rumbles, the sound like low-frequency thunder vibrating through the floorboards.
"You're as big as a mountain." Lily pokes his forearm with a tiny, cautious finger. "Do you have a hammer?"
Forest looks up at me, a quick glint in his eye, acknowledging theGod of Thunderstatus Lily has granted him. "I left the hammer in the truck. It was too heavy for the carpet."
"See!!!" she squeals, turning back to Pop. "He is. He is Thor."
Her finger is still on his skin, tracing a path over the ink on his right forearm. She goes still, her brow furrowing. "What's that?"
She's staring at the Jörmungandr tattoo, the world serpent, coiled in a perfect, lethal circle, biting its own tail.
"A snake." Forest glances down at his arm.
"It's eating itself." She tilts her head, her eyes wandering up to his shoulder, where another dark line peeks out from his sleeve. "Do you have more? Are they all snakes?"
Ten feet away, Stratton is at the worktable with Brass. She's frozen, the stylus poised over her tablet. Suddenly, the stylus starts moving. It isn't the methodical, architectural rhythm she's been using to rebuild the patient lists.
It's frantic.
A jagged, feverish scratching of ink on the digital screen, her shoulders hunched as if she's trying to hide the work from the rest of the room.
I watch for a second, puzzled. She looks like a woman who just found a leak in a dam and is trying to plug it with her bare hands. I dismiss it as a side effect of fucking her less than an hour ago.
My own blood still burns. I told myself I wouldn't touch her, that last night was a closing balance, and that resolve lasted less than ten seconds after opening her door. Even now, with a house full of people, my blood races south. I want to fuck her again. Right here. The desire is a physical ache, a dark, heavy pressure that makes it hard to focus on anything but the scent of her still clinging to my skin.
What the hell is wrong with me?
Forest shifts, the fabric of his shirt straining against his biceps. "Not all snakes. I have a compass. And some trees."
"To find your way in the forest?"
A ghost of a smile touches Forest's mouth. "Exactly. So I don't get lost."
"I have a dinosaur," Lily declares, running back to the sofa to retrieve Theodore. She holds him up for inspection. "He doesn't have tattoos, but he has very sharp spikes. He's a protector."
Forest inspects the stuffed animal with a solemn nod. "He looks like he could handle a few frost giants."
"Alright,God of Thunder." A rare smirk tugs at Ghost's mouth as he greets the Guardian HRS team. "Sit down."
As the men banter, Brass asking Forest about the California traffic, Torque showing off a new encrypted comms link, Lily's curiosity shifts. She wanders back toward the worktable, her eyes fixing on Stratton.
"Hi." Lily leans against the edge of the table, her eyes curious. "Are you helping Halo? Those are a lot of numbers."
Stratton freezes. She doesn't look up, but her fingers tremble against the tablet. The charcoal shirt is too big on her, the collar gaping to reveal the pale line of her throat, territory I claimed recently. I can still feel her pulse against my thumb.
"Lily, leave her alone." My voice is louder than it needs to be. The room goes quiet for a heartbeat.
"I just wanted to say hello, Daddy. She looks lonely."
