I look at Ash and can’t help the hint of power I feel rolling through me. I’m sure it’s reflected in my eyes. Shit. I’m embarrassed, amused, and would give pretty much everything to hug her into me right now but despite the kiss last night, I’m pretty sure it’s too soon.
“This thing is defective!” I snarl, in my own defense.
“Oddly, I’ve never had any trouble with it!”
Damn it. I look down. I was just trying to do something nice, for Gods sake. Besides, I have always been the better cook of the two of us.
I hear Ash sigh. “What is this?”
Struggling against the embarrassment, I try to explain myself. She needs to eat. She’s already lost a lot of her muscle mass in the time she’s been gone and she’s never going to gain it back if she isn’t eating appropriately. She always did need a keeper.
She’s studying the kitchen and I can feel the blood rushing into my face. I have no doubt I am blushing.
“What’s in the oven?”
“Potatoes,” I mutter. “I was trying to bake potatoes but this thing doesn’t have any instructions. Cooking over an open fire doesn’t require a temperature or a timer so…” I trail off.
“That’s okay. We have other ways to bake potatoes.”
“We do?”
“We do.”
“…can you show me?”
I feel a butterfly surge in my stomach when she takes my hand and smiles. She pulls me to the sink and shows me how to use a different box in the kitchen to make potatoes after stabbing them with a fork.
In short order, we are seated together again on thecouch, with bowls of salad, steak and hot potatoes. I watch with — fuck, those are nerves, aren’t they? — as she cuts into her meal and takes the first bite. She closes her eyes as she chews and lets out a little moan, then starts wiggling her shoulders, swaying side to side. One causes a lump to rise in my throat, whilst the other causes a stirring of heat in my blood. Not wanting to to focus on the stirring and risk my cock becoming noticeably hard, I instead focus on the sorrow I feel watching her happy food dance. She’s done this since we were kids and fuck me, I miss this female.
I realize that I’ve never missed her more than now, when I have her right in front of me, and she has no idea who I am.
She opens her eyes and my breath catches in my throat when she smiles fully. She’s so fucking beautiful.
“This is fantastic!” She’s positively beaming at me.
I lower my eyes and focus on my own meal. “Good. Eat it while it’s hot.”
We both give our attention to our meals, while I concentrate on locking down my emotions, my impatience. My emotions are proving to be all over the place, as are my hormones, and reading that book from Betsy earlier didn’t help.
Just as I open my mouth to try to engage her in conversation, I’m interrupted.
‘Can one of you let me in, please?’
Glancing towards the window, I see Calida sitting on the ledge, her silver eyes narrowed as she stares at her dinner through the glass. Ash puts down her utensils and rushes over to let her in. As Calida glides in and sets upon her steak with single minded focus, a knock sounds at the door and Ash looks at me in a panic.
“What the hell? No one ever comes here.” Casting a wary look at Calida, she goes to answer the door.
Chewing thoughtfully on the last bite of my dinner, I lean back against the couch and get comfortable, ready to be amused. Unlike Ash, I’ve already detected who is on the other side of that door.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Ireally hope whoever is here is going to be super cool with weird shit really quickly.
Then again, as I told Flint, no one ever comes here so I can’t imagine who would be banging on the door. Not that it’s late by any means — it’s barely six at night. Still — when no one ever comes to visit, especially unannounced, the time of day doesn’t really matter, does it?
‘This is cold,’Calida says through ourmental link, nudging her remaining steak with her snout. She sounds unimpressed.
“Well, if you had come when I called, it would have been warm. And since you whine when it’s cooked, it only got the barest of treatment. Do you want me to cook it further?”
