Chosen One (Forever Evermore #6)(67)
I didn’t bother looking. “Not now, Cain.”
“How easily my name rolls off your tongue when we’re alone,” he stated quietly, but his voice was still void as it had been all day. “How did you know it was me?”
“Forests before a rainfall,” I muttered, resting my head against the arm of the loveseat, hearing him move closer…only because he was walking heavily, as if he didn’t want to frighten me.
“You can truly scent me then?”
My teeth gritted, because he wasn’t leaving. “And when you’re aroused…forests before a rainfall spiced with evergreen.” I flicked a finger at the door feeling his heat from behind the loveseat. “Now, really, I’m not in the mood.”
A plate of food was suddenly hovering in front of my face, and he stated impassively, “You didn’t eat when you came back from fighting. Or at dinner.” The plate jiggled a bit, the smells heavenly, wafting as I stared at a mirage of carbs and protein. “Remember? You need to eat more.”
“Right,” I muttered, lifting my hands from the blanket, just on the cusp of grabbing what appeared delicious when only hours ago dinner had seemed like a sick, cruel joke. “Me, and my mothering hips, really need this.”
His wolf huffed quietly, but his voice was still toneless when he spoke. “Just eat it.”
My lips pinched, but I grabbed the plate as the brown gravy started to spill over the mounded wall of mashed potatoes onto the chicken and part of a buttered roll. “I could probably eat.” Lifting a large spoonful of potato goodness slathered in brown heaven, I paused, stating, “Thank you.”
He grunted, and I saw his hip lean against the back of the couch, and he flicked a finger to the television. “You’re watching this because…?”
Not bothering with manners, I stated around a mouthful, “Leric pretty much indicated I needed to do things I enjoy to keep my mind off of the shit that went down, all that,” my mind blanked for a moment, memories of darkness, and I shuddered, “evil. But since I don’t play chess, or whatever he uses to cope, I picked what I do like.” I pointed at the screen with my spoon. “I enjoy these movies.”
“Ah.” His wolf huffed quietly. “And bike riding?”
“Yes.” Isolde woke on my lap, staring up to him. After two more bites down, and he didn’t appear to be going anywhere, still as a statue behind me, but silent and watching the show, I sighed heavily. “Want to watch the movie with me?”
“I am.”
I grunted, and took another bite. “Fine. I didn’t want to share the loveseat, anyway. The last time I shared it with a Shifter I ended up getting squashed.” Not to mention, a lecture the next morning. “I can hate you just fine from where you’re standing.”
A moment passed, then he asked slowly, “What Shifter did you share this sofa with?”
I chuckled quietly, a bit evilly. “Not going there, Cain.” My gaze flicked back to his expressionless, stony face. “You took my virginity, not the other guy.”
His eyes narrowed the barest bit before flicking back to the television, and I saw his jaw ticking the barest bit, a crack in his stony fa?ade. “Does your mate know you’re down here?”
I snorted, turning my attention to the show, taking another bite. “He’s not my mate. He’s my One. And after he peeked into the room to make sure Sin wasn’t sleeping in there—”
He snorted.
“he left for his own room.”
“And Sin? Did you leave him peacefully unaware?”
“Pretty much.” I ate another bite. “He’s stressed enough as it is.”
Another long moment passed. “He’s never kissed you like that before.”
My spoonful paused to my mouth. “No, he hasn’t.” I ate the bite slowly.
“Why now?”
Simple words. “Because he was frightened I’d really been hurt, plus, he’s figured us out.”
His fingers tapped on the back of the couch for a full minute while I tried to concentrate on the show, then he asked gradually, “What has he figured out exactly?”
I snorted about his finagled way of asking me my own thoughts. “Other than we’ve slept together?” My eyes flicked back to his striking handsome, stony profile, then to the television. “He’s also figured out we love to hate one another.”
“Hmm,” he hummed quietly with long minutes passing of his fingers tapping near my shoulder. “We’ve never just watched a show.”
“We haven’t done a lot together,” I mumbled honestly, continuing to eat my meal.
More tapping of his fingers, tempo speeding slightly, the only sign indicating what he was feeling. “Maybe I will sit for a bit.” Instantly, he was moving around the arm of the loveseat, blocking my view of the screen…also giving me a great shot of his bare back muscles flexing as he maneuvered on silent feet between the couch and small coffee table, his tight ass covered in soft cotton, black pajama bottoms. I immediately started moving my legs as he sat woodenly next to me, his frame even bulkier than Brann’s, so he utterly squashed me. “Christ,” he muttered, lifting his hips, pulling my feet out from under his legs not having moved them fast enough…and he placed them gently on his lap, his hand resting over them, keeping them there as he tried to get comfortable, “Elementals have the smallest damn furniture.”