“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.”
I cleared my throat, ignoring the jibe. “Quit complaining and watch the show.” I pointed with my spoon, trying to disregard how he leaned even more on me after he rested his bare feet on the coffee table. “I like silence during a movie.”
His wolf huffed quietly while his scent enfolded me, his warmth surrounding. “Well, that’s one thing we have in common.” His large fingers started gently playing absently with my toes, and Prodigy toe ring, while I tried to concentrate on the movie. “Although,” he stated a few minutes later, shaking his head at the actor’s antics, his stony countenance starting to dissolve, “our choice in movies varies greatly.”
“Let me guess. You’re a blood and guts type of film lover?”
He chuckled quietly. “That was obvious.” His head tilted toward mine, and suddenly our faces were very close, his gaze instantly locking on mine. My heart stalled in my throat, and instantly, my mouth went dry as I started to fall into their complex depths, memories of our time together rushing me—the lie it had been, half his amazing features outlined in the light of the television, the other half shadowed in the darkness of the room. Much like the both of us in life. His smile slowly disappeared, his lips thinning, and he murmured softly, “I hate you so much you’re not my kind.”
I breathed a tortured, quiet chuckle. “And I hate you because you’re an unscrupulous asshole.”
We only continued to stare.
Heart stalling, I had to ask on a whisper, “Was any of it real?”
His lips thinned even more, his eyebrows slowly squeezing together.
“Right.” I cleared my throat, feeling it start to burn when he didn’t answer. “I under—” His finger against my lips stopped me.
“Don’t.” He shook his head slowly, little by little pulling his finger away from my lips. He ran a hand through his curls, turning his attention back to the television, giving me his profile, but his tone was still quiet when he spoke. “More than I’d like to admit was real.” I froze completely, and his gaze flicked to mine, holding. “But, you were still a job. I reported everything you told me in confidence to Elder Jacobs the minute I left you. My loyalties were not to you. I would have killed you in a heartbeat if I considered you a threat.”
I inhaled slowly. “And when you found out I was from the future?”
Simple words as he held my gaze. “I hated you even more.”
Tears filled my gaze, but I would be damned if I shed them in front of him. “I loathe you.” I hated so much he had used me. Had sex with me for his “in”. Hated the man he had been when I had thought him someone else.
The only consolation…his eyes. While his expression was absolutely neutral, they were just as tortured as mine. He held my gaze evenly, not flinching away from what he saw, and also, not hiding his own conflicted abhorrence. “As I despise you.”
I sniffed once, because it couldn’t be helped, and turned my attention from him, swallowing hard, and eating another bite, the food going down like sludge now.