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“Oh, what to have,” she murmured as the labels registered properly. “And you should have some, too.”
“It’s all for you.” He sat at the foot of the bed. “After you’re done, I’ll eat.”
“No, we share.” She took the bag of chips from him and motioned to the others. “You must eat with me—or I shan’t eat at all.”
“Well, this is actually just hors d’oeuvres. I’m going to call Fritz and ask him to bring you a proper—”
“Oh, please do not trouble anyone.” She held up the bag, then opened it. “This is all I need.”
As she put the first chip into her mouth and bit down, she made an mmmmm sound. “Indeed, they did not have food like this where I am from.”
Lassiter went still, and she would have taken the words back if she could have. She wanted no talk of the past. Or the future. Or… the present, actually. Outside of snacks.
“What shall you have,” she said quickly. “Lay’s like me? Or no, how about these. Pretzels with cheese in the middle.”
When she went to pass the “Combos” to him, he tilted his head and studied her. But then he took what she offered. “Thanks. And I really do want to feed you something more than empty calories.”
“How can you not call this profusion a sufficiency—and oh, you brought a Sprite. I do enjoy its fizz.”
As he cracked the top of the green can for her, he said, “Females cannot live by junk food alone. Especially ones as beautiful as you.”
She flushed and covered her pleasure by accepting the soda from him. And then she said, “I liked sleeping beside you.”
The stillness came over Lassiter once more. “Did you.”
“I felt safe.” She took a sip, the bite of the cold and the sweetness of the bubbles a combination she had not liked at first, but had come to enjoy. “It has been a very long time… since I have slept and felt safe. Even in Luchas House, I did not truly rest. So I thank you for that. And for this.”
Lifting the soda in salute, she bowed her head in gratitude.
“I didn’t sleep,” he said.
“Did I keep you up?” She winced and covered her mouth with her hand. “I did not—what is the word—snore? Did I?”
“No.” He extended his long arm and brushed her hair back over her shoulder. “Never.”
“It could happen.” She took another sip because his eyes were burning as he stared at her, and an answering heat inside of her body came up too quickly for comfort. “Tell me, though. Why did you not sleep?”
“I was too busy making sure you were safe.”
More heat kindled within her. So much more heat. “Surely the Brothers ensure proper defenses here.”
“They do.” Lassiter shrugged. “But sometimes a person wants to make sure that another person… is safe.”
She brought the soda halfway to her mouth. Then she lowered it.
He was not so much sitting as poised, his upper body tilted forward, his elbows on his knees, his weight steady but on the verge of a shift in position.
Over the hours of the day, she had felt the warmth of him, a banked fire that had been up against her back on some occasions, and then something that she curled into on others. There had been a temptation, even in her repose, to touch him. To bridge the sanctity of his physical boundaries. To have him reciprocate.
Yet he had held off as they had first lain together and he could be hard to read.
“Rahvyn…”
As the hunger in his voice registered, she thought… well, not that hard to read.
And yet, in the crackling air between them, anxiety threatened, a wolf at her hedges. Would he even want her if he knew that she was unclean? There was much different in the modern world, but from where she hailed, a female who had been used by any male prior to a proper mating, consensual or not, was not considered of worth.
“I need to tell you something,” she said roughly. “Which well may cause you to rethink who I am—”
“Not possible.”
“Do hold your judgment,” she countered, “until the details are known unto you. I—I feel that you must know… I am not a virgin.”
There was a pause, as if her words were sinking in for him. Then he cleared his throat. “Well, I mean, you lived a life before now. I, ah—are you still in love with him? Or, like, with him? Do you have a mate?”
She took another chip out of the bag, but there was no way she could chew it in her dry mouth. Much less swallow it. “No. I was not mated. I… it was not… it was not by choice on my part.”
The change in him was immediate, his brows lowering over his iridescent eyes, his shoulders seeming to thicken, his hands tightening into—
