Page 93 of Imprisoned with the Vampire King

"Do the waffles really look like that?" she asked, finally looking at me. Surprise lit her eyes as she took me in, then immediately refocused on the screen.

"I don't know. I've never been. It looked like something you'd enjoy."

Her cheeks reddened slightly. "Yeah. It kind of does. But putting on sweats and taking me out to eat at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant doesn't erase our problems."

"I never said it did."

"It was implied."

"It wasn't implied, Ophelia. And for the record, I don't think your assessment of me and our situation is accurate. Or fair to either of us."

The flush on her cheeks spread down her neck. The only time I'd ever seen her blush like that was when I was between her thighs. Even with my current hunger and uncertainty, the sight made me instantly hard.

"I'm not arguing about it," she finally said.

"Neither am I. Now, get in the car. I'm buying you waffles."

"This will only work once," she warned, already making her way to the car with steps that weren't as reluctant as she was trying to seem.

She was mad, and she was hurt.

I'd fix it.

And somehow, I'd fix us too.

It was the only acceptable outcome.

Everything else would have to take a back seat, because she had a point about me putting other things first.

"Alright," I said, though I knew it would work again. If there was one thing I knew about my female, it was that she was a sucker for good food.

"I'm only going for the waffles," she added.

I hoped that I'd eventually make her like me enough to come along for the company, but we weren't there yet.

"Okay." I held her door while she slid into the passenger seat of my car, looking far more comfortable in the vehicle than she was willing to admit she was. I noticed her nostrils flare as she breathed my scent in, too.

She wanted me, instinctively. At least I had one thing going for me.

I closed the door behind her, and took my seat. I didn't bring up our conversation again until I was two minutes down the road, so she couldn't throw her door open and leave when I started talking.

"You said I spent the last month forcing you to adapt to my lifestyle," I said.

"I don't want to talk about this."

"You don't have to. I'm going to talk about it."

She sighed. Loudly.

"If I forced you into my life, it would look a lot different than this." I gestured between us. "You'd be living in my room in the demon royals' mansion right now. You would've attended the fight that earned me my crown back, and the five challenges that have followed it. You'd be at my family's dinners. Schmoozing. Making friends with my friends. Going with me to the charity gala last week, at the very least. I've been doing all of it alone, which is far from ideal."

Her jaw clenched. "You forced me to move out of the house I own and replaced a bunch of my stuff."

"With nicer stuff. In a nicer house. Which you love."

"The old one was mine. With no debt, and no strings attached."

"So is the current one."