Shame washed over him again. “No, I didn’t.”
“Uh, yeah, you did.” She sounded weird, and he could smell how excited she was. “That dumb kid pissed you off, and you almost shifted.”
He scowled at her. “I have better control than that.”
“Do you?”
“Yes,” he snapped before grabbing the pizza from her and carrying it into the kitchen.
She trailed after him. “It’s no big deal if you shift around me.”
“It wouldn’t scare you?”
“Not at all,” she said. “Anytime you want to shift to your polar bear, go right ahead. I have no problem with it.”
He studied her, a little confused by the eagerness in her voice. “What -”
“Oh my gosh!” Cece stopped abruptly and stared at the light, which now glowed brightly from three bulbs. “You fixed the light.”
He set the pizza on the table as she said, “Thank you for doing that.”
“You’re welcome.”
There were a few seconds of awkward silence before she crossed to the fridge and opened it. She peered inside, then shut the door and turned to the pantry. Like the rest of the cupboards, it was missing its door, revealing its nearly empty shelves. Cece studied the two cans of soup and the bag of rice before choosing one of the soups.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Heating some soup for dinner,” she said.
“I got pizza,” he said.
She blinked at him. “Okay.”
“It’s for both of us,” he said.
“Oh, um, that’s kind of you, but I don’t actually eat out that much. I’m on a pretty tight budget, and I can’t afford to cover the cost of my share of the pizza.”
He sighed in annoyance. “It’s my treat. Grab some plates and napkins.”
She hesitated, and he made another soft growl. She rolled her eyes. “God, you’re so growly.”
He swallowed his answering growl and flipped open the pizza box as Cece grabbed plates and napkins. She poured them both a glass of water and slid into the chair across from him.
“It’s pepperoni and mushroom with bacon and green peppers,” he said. “If you don’t like it -”
“It’s perfect,” she said. “Honestly, any pizza that doesn’t have ham or pineapple is perfect to me.”
“Pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza,” he said.
She grinned. “Well, look at that, we actually agree on something.”
She took a big bite of the slice of pizza he put on her plate, a blissful look crossing her face as she chewed. “Oh God, this is so good. I haven’t had pizza in ages.”
His cock now a fucking stone in his pants, he concentrated on his own slice rather than imagining how else he might put that blissful look on Cece’s face. Making her ride his face, maybe. Or fucking her on that comfortable couch while the firelight danced across her perfect body and her magic -
“Briggs?”
He dragged himself from the fantasy, his voice hoarse when he said, “Yeah?”
