King Tomb (Forever Evermore, #3)(52)
Antonio walked to me and bent over, ruffling my fur around my face as he kissed the tip of my nose — yes, I quit growling then — and stated, “If you’re going to attack in the future, make sure you do it right and don’t get caught.” I nodded as he lifted and peered back to the still silent Vampire, my husband. Antonio patted my head once more. Kissed my head again as I stared across the room, and he stated, “Cahal’s got Isa right now, so don’t worry…and I’ll keep her for the night in my tent so you have the entire evening to yourself.” I blinked, my head snapping to him, but he quickly scurried out of the bedroom before I could object to Isa’s first overnight sleepover with her grandpa.
“I didn’t know it was you. If I had, I wouldn’t have reacted as I did,” Ezra stated calmly — not really apologizing — as I swung my head to stare at his statue-like form. His chest expanded, but that was all that moved as he spoke behind his hand. “I can imagine what that must have looked like.”
I fairly vibrated where I sat, staring at him as I was, the image replaying of him on top of her, entwined in her arms and legs, so I jumped down, only to jump onto his bed and begin to sniff at it, my tail twitching like mad in my agitation as I picked up the various scents.
He continued, “It’s late, so she was wearing her pajamas,” the woman wore that to bed?, “and I was starving so I had her lie back.” I wish he would just lie so I could pee on his bed. “She’s a regular donor of mine, and she sometimes tries to get frisky, but I’ve never had any type of sexual interest in her or done anything intimate with her.”
I sighed into the sheets, relieved he hadn’t lied about any of it but still pissed I couldn’t hunt the woman down now and take her out in the pitch black of night. But it didn’t mean I couldn’t scent up his sheets, which luckily for him, held no scent of sexual fluids whatsoever. So I started rolling on his bed, working on the area where I smelled Lacy the most, wiggling and rolling, pressing my furry cheeks into his pillow and shaking my head. And this is how it went for the next fifteen minutes as I thoroughly went from one end of his bed to the other, systematically working my way across, not leaving one area untouched, while Ezra sat on the arm of his couch and eventually lit a cigarette as he watched me with a slowly growing expression of amusement.
After I was through and sat on my haunches at the end of his bed, staring at him, he pointed with his cigarette, lips twitching, “You missed a spot.”
I growled quietly.
He took a drag of his cigarette, blowing the smoke up as he stared at me thoughtfully. “You know, you got lucky. I was almost done feeding and she had passed out, otherwise she would have seen you.” His eyes flicked down my furry frame. “In fact, a lot of people could have seen—”
I shook my head and huffed, crouching low and military crawling softly across his bed.
He snorted on a chuckle. “All right, so you were stealthy as you moved.” His small grin, which I was pretty sure was real, faded as he continued evaluating me. “But why would you come here tonight like this?”
I cocked my head, then I glanced down at the bed before hopping up to the top and burrowing under the covers. And shifted. Poking my head out from underneath the blankets, I saw Ezra freeze as I brushed my hair out of my face, careful to keep the soft blanket covering all my private bits. “Because of trust.” I flicked a hand between the two of us as Ezra started to slowly resume taking a drag of his cigarette, his eyes not really holding mine but flittering down to any exposed skin showing, which wasn’t much, only my shoulders and arms. “You and I didn’t start off on the right foot—”
“And this was supposed to be a new beginning?”
Involuntarily, my hand went to the other side of the bed where the woman had been lying. My palm hovered over the spot, and I wondered if I could still feel the heat there from her body. “Yes, it was. I was taking the first step to a decent, trusting relationship between the two of us…” I sighed, pulling my hand back. “It didn’t quite work out as I had expected.”
A quiet rumble. “And for that, I will apologize.” I peered up at him, watching him as he watched me. “I’m sorry we haven’t gotten that chance yet.”
I felt my face soften, my heart beating a little faster even as my muscles relaxed at his humble words, his honest apology that we hadn’t gotten our chance to make things right. “Thank you.” I tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear, deciding to go for broke. “What you said at lunch before you left…I get it.” I picked at the blanket, staring at the fabric. “This is an…odd…situation we’re in, our predators feeling as they do, as we do, knowing what we were to each other in what feels like a previous life. And yet, it’s not a previous life since the person’s standing right in front of you, someone who might as well be a complete stranger.”
Ezra grunted softly, grinding out his cigarette, his eyes still steadfast on me. “That’s putting it mildly.” He moved fluidly, slowly, across the expanse of the room, his movements again reminding me of a cat. He sat next to me on the edge of the bed, eyes scanning my face and other, lower parts of me, watching as I tightened my grip on his blanket to keep it steady when his weight on the bed tugged it. “You really are shy, aren’t you?”
My lips pinched, but I eventually nodded once in affirmation.