Warrior (Relentless #4)(176)

A loud, angry male voice jerked me from sleep, and I looked at the blue walls and billowing white curtains in confusion. Then I felt the warm body nestled against me – or actually, on top of me – and I realized where I was.

I looked down as Sara raised her head, and her wide eyes met mine.

A slow smile spread across my face at her sleepy confusion. With her hair wild around her face and her lips still swollen from sleep, she was ravishing.

“Morning,” I murmured roughly.

“What are you doing in her bed?” Nate demanded loudly, reminding me what had awoken me from the best sleep I’d had in ages.

Color flooded Sara’s face, and she moved off me to bury her head in a pillow. “Oh God,” she moaned.

I slid off the bed and looked for the shoes I’d kicked off last night. I picked them up and turned to face Sara’s irate uncle standing in the bedroom doorway.

“Good morning, Nate. And Tristan,” I added as he appeared behind Nate.

“Nikolas,” Tristan said with a smile.

Nate took a step into the room. “I know you two are in a relationship, but this is inappropriate. Sara just came out of some faerie…coma. The last thing she needs is –”

“Nothing happened!” cried a muffled voice from the bed. “Tell them, Nikolas.”

My lips twitched, but I didn’t think laughter would help the situation. Schooling my expression, I addressed Nate.

“I walked Sara to her room and stayed to talk. I meant to leave, but I fell asleep.”

Nate wasn’t appeased. “And you had to get into bed with her to talk to her?”

“No, but I haven’t seen Sara in a long time, and I wanted to hold her for a while.”

I figured honesty was the best option. I respected Nate more than most humans I’d met, and I considered him a friend. I also knew he didn’t understand Mohiri bonding or a bonded male’s need to touch his mate. But I wouldn’t apologize for spending the night with her. That would mean admitting we’d done something wrong, which we hadn’t. Not to mention Sara was eighteen, an adult in both the human and Mohiri worlds.

“He was on the bed, not in it,” Sara clarified.

“That doesn’t make it right,” Nate told the form beneath the covers. “Why are you hiding in there? I want to talk to you.”

“No way. I’m not doing this again.”

“Again?” Nate glowered at me. “What does she mean by that?”

“It’s nothing. She fell asleep on my couch one night back at Westhorne.”

I decided not to mention the part where she’d been drinking and ended up sleeping on top of me. I loved her favorite sleeping position, but I probably shouldn’t mention that either.

“I might have embarrassed Sara when I showed up at Nikolas’s apartment the next morning,” Tristan said.

“Hmph,” Sara muttered, drawing smiles from Tristan and me as we remembered his disastrous attempt to talk to her about sex. Again, not something to share with Nate in his current mood.

“It was all quite innocent,” Tristan assured Nate. “I’m sure this is as well. Nikolas wouldn’t try to –”

“Gah!” Sara shrieked. “Out. Everyone out of my room, right now.”

“You two leave,” Nate said. “I want to talk to Sara.”

The bed covers moved, but Sara didn’t show her face. “You too, Nate. I am so not talking to you about this.”

“Sara…” he began.

“Out,” she said again. “Or I’m not coming out of here until tomorrow.”

It was an empty threat. I knew there was no way she wouldn’t spend Christmas with him and the others. But it worked.

Nate sighed. “Okay. We’ll talk later. Do you want breakfast? Heb made all your favorites.”

“No thanks. I’m not hungry.”

Her stomach growled loudly in protest.

I leaned down to whisper to her. “Liar. I’ll send Heb up with some food. Something tells me you’re going to need your strength.”

She groaned and burrowed deeper in the bed. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

I laughed softly. “See you soon.”

Straightening, I walked around the bed toward the door. Nate didn’t move until I’d left the room and headed downstairs to the kitchen. I found Heb and asked him to bring something to Sara. The dwarf was eager to help and hurried to prepare a tray for her.

Sara came downstairs an hour later, and we all spent the day lounging around and stuffing ourselves on Heb’s endless supply of food.

Nate didn’t say anything else about finding Sara and me together, but he kept shooting me looks every time I went near Sara. I understood his anger. He’d raised Sara as his daughter, and she’d always be a child to him.

I almost laughed when I walked into the dining room for dinner and saw Sara already seated between Nate and Tristan. She scowled when I smirked and took the chair across from her.

“The food looks amazing,” Tristan said, reaching for a platter of roast goose. “The cook outdid himself.”

“Yes, everything looks so good.” My eyes met Sara’s. “I don’t know where to start.”

She blushed and picked up the mashed potatoes. The heavy glass bowl almost slipped from her hands, and I leaned across the table to grab it. My fingers grazed hers, and warmth coursed through me. Her small intake of breath told me I wasn’t the only one affected by the touch.