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She paused in the act of twisting the key in the dead bolt. Nervously, she looked up at me. “Why are you growling?”
“I don’t like that the doors are unmarked,” I explained. “That’s dangerous.”
She finished unlocking the door and twisted the knob. “I know. I told the super about it the first week I was here, but then he started bitching at my roommate and me. The next month, the rent increased by two hundred dollars.” Shrugging, she pushed the heavy door open. “Kim nearly kicked me out, but I’ve been covering the extra costs, so she calmed down. I haven’t mentioned the lack of identifying markers for the apartments again.”
I gritted my teeth. First, the super, I promised myself. And then the owner of the building. Both were going to get visits, and neither was going to enjoy it.
Putting aside the need to inflict violence on those two scumbags for the moment, I followed Lis into the apartment. The living room was clean, with only a few decorations to give it a somewhat lived-in feel. None of the pictures on the walls had Lis in them, but there were a few things spread around the room that reminded me of her. Like the fuzzy pillows on the couch. They were gray and looked soft to the touch, but firm.
The urge to drop down and rest my head on them was nearly too strong to resist, but then I heard Lis’s stomach grumbling. “You should have said you were hungry. We could have stopped for something to eat.”
“It’s fine. I have some instant noodles—”
My glower cut her off, and I imagined it was the same look my mother would have given me had I said the same stupid thing. Instant noodles? Felicity Hannigan would have taken a wooden spoon to my ass for simply thinking of eating such trash. Shaking my head at Lis, I walked into the kitchen, which was just off the living room, and opened the fridge.
There wasn’t a lot to choose from. It was obvious shelves were split, with Lis and her roommate having a side each. One side had eggs, a few veggies, and a single steak. It was a cheap cut, but still, it was protein. There were also bottles of water and diet soda. Then there was the other side, which held a few bottles of water, two cans of a cheaper brand of diet soda, and nothing else.
My gut knotted. “Which side is yours, blue eyes?”
She ignored me as she opened the pantry, and from what I could see, it, too, was split into sides. One side had cans of soup, popcorn, and a few other snacks. The other had packs of ramen, cups of noodles, and a few other cheap microwaveable items. Lis took a cup of noodles off the shelf and started to open the lid, but I snatched it out of her hand before she could pull it up.
“Hey,” she whined. “I’m hungry.”
“And I’m going to feed you,” I assured her, returning to the fridge to pull the eggs and steak free.
“No, wait!” she cried. “Those are Kim’s. She’ll get mad if we eat her food.”
I started searching for a frying pan. “I’ll replace everything we use.”
“But she’ll come home and see—”
“Lis, I’ll have every shelf in the damn fridge filled to capacity within an hour. But you’re hungry now, and there is no way I’m letting you eat a cup of fucking noodles.” I searched for oil and seasonings. Once I found them, I nodded toward the door. “Go shower and get comfortable while I make your dinner.”
“But…”
“Please,” I murmured softly. “Let me feed you.”
She nibbled on her bottom lip, but after a slight hesitation, she huffed and stomped out of the kitchen. While I was heating the pan, I heard the shower turn on from somewhere close by and tried not to imagine her standing under the spray of water naked.
Needing to take my mind off what was happening just a matter of feet away, I cooked the steak before frying half the eggs in the carton. The entire time, I was on my phone, ordering the groceries. I didn’t know if a store would deliver this late, so I texted my driver to pick everything up.
By the time Lis walked into the kitchen with her damp hair hanging down her back, dressed in pajama shorts that went all the way to her knees and a matching long-sleeved top that was almost as long, the food was ready and my driver was on his way to pick up the groceries.
“It smells delicious,” she said grudgingly as she sat down at the small table where I’d laid out two loaded plates with a half a steak and three eggs on each. I’d found a loaf of whole wheat bread and toasted several slices. I placed the stack of toast on the table between the plates, along with some butter. “Kim is going to kill me.”
“Don’t worry about your roommate,” I commanded, taking the seat across from her. “Eat, blue eyes.”
Rolling those eyes at me, she picked up her knife and fork and cut into the steak. I watched her take the first bite, almost holding my breath as I waited to see if she liked it.
The moan that left her lips made my cock hard as steel. As she chewed, her eyes rolled back into her head. “Oh God,” she muttered. “I haven’t eaten anything this good in…” She broke off, leaving the rest of what she was going to say hanging while she took another bite.
“In?” I urged her to finish what she was going to say, but she kept her gaze on her plate as she busted the yolk of one of the eggs and dipped a slice of toast into it. “How long has it been since you’ve had something home-cooked, Lis?”
“A while,” she said with a shrug.
“Days?” She took another bite of steak. “Weeks?” That didn’t get me an answer either, and my gut only tightened more. “Months?”
Huffing, she shrugged again. “Sometime in August. I don’t remember what day specifically, okay? Happy now?”
