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She lifted her head, and I saw her trying to tamp down the excitement in her eyes. “We don’t have to, Greid. I’m happy spending our evenings doing this.”
“Well maybe I could, I don’t know, take you on a date,” I said awkwardly, my ears fluttering. “Wherever you want.”
Her eyes softened. “I’ve never been on a date.”
I almost told her that they usually sucked—for me at least. I’d always found them awkward and uncomfortable as I frantically tried to think of things to say, at least when dating someone new. But we already knew each other, and I was so comfortable with Beryl. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
Besides, we’d done all this in a weird order. We were already living together, and now we were… progressing into a romantic phase in our relationship. While sleeping in separate rooms in the same house. I wanted to ask her to sleep with me in my room, but I didn’t want to freak her out by moving too fast.
Beryl deserved to experience everything—all the things she’d missed out on. I smoothed back her hair, cradling the back of her head as I gazed down at her, hoping I didn’t look too lovesick. “We’ll go on a proper date.”
She grinned with excitement, stretching up to kiss me. “That sounds wonderful, Greid.”
For her, I could withstand an evening out in the city. Because it was her, I wanted to.
After watching a few episodes of Gloom Falls, I realised Beryl had fallen asleep on top of me. Her breaths were deep and even, her lax body a slight, pleasant weight on my chest. I was still playing lazily with her hair, and I would’ve been happy to stay like that until she woke up in the morning, but I remembered her wince as she’d stretched after I’d fallen asleep on top of her earlier. She needed to sleep in a proper bed.
I wished it could be mine, but at least my sheets would still smell like her. I’d probably have to jerk off again when I got into bed, and I would definitely be thinking of Beryl while I did it, just as she’d whispered to me earlier.
“Beryl,” I murmured, giving her back a gentle rub. She stiffened slightly as she started waking up, head shifting on my chest. “You should go to bed.”
“Yeah.” Her voice was hoarse, green eyes tired as she propped herself up and rubbed them. “What did I miss in Gloom Falls? The last thing I remember is Huna arranging to meet up with a hitman to have Marish bumped off.”
“I’m not gonna spoil it. We’ll watch it from there tomorrow.” I turned off the TV and started pulling blankets off her.
She snorted, climbing over my legs to stand up. “I already know they manage to take out Marish.”
“Yeah, but you don’t know how,” I said slyly, then accidentally blurted, “And it’s not through a hitman.”
“Damn. Now I’m intrigued.” She held out a hand to help me up. “We need to find a show you haven’t watched yet so we can be surprised together and you’re not sitting there all smug because you know what’s going to happen.”
“I’m not smug,” I protested, even though she was right. “And I’m really annoying when I watch something new, because I talk all the way through it trying to guess what’s going to happen.”
“That wouldn’t annoy me.” She chuckled, then cocked her head. “Well, maybe it would a little.”
I grinned down at her, giving the back of her head an affectionate scratch with my claws. “We’ll find something new to watch so I can annoy the shit out of you.”
And then maybe you can punish me for being bad.
I coughed awkwardly as the thought popped into my brain. It wasn’t that I wanted to be bad—I wanted to be good for Beryl. So good. But… wondering how she’d reprimand me for not obeying her to the letter was more arousing than it should’ve been.
A loud yawn from Beryl snapped me out of my thoughts before she asked, “Are you going to bed too?”
“Nah, gonna stay up for a while. Might do some work.”
She rested her small hands on my chest, rising up on her tiptoes to kiss me when I ducked my head. “Don’t strain your eyes too much.”
“I won’t.” I gave her another kiss, unable to stop myself. “They feel better.”
“Okay.” She stepped back with another yawn. “Goodnight, Greid.”
“Night, berry,” I teased, hearing her chuckle as she left the room.
I listened to the sound of her padding up the stairs and pausing every few steps to blow out the candles, before stretching and gathering up our dirty dishes from dinner. After carrying them into the kitchen, I’d just placed them on the counter to tug open the dishwasher when a bloodcurdling scream came from upstairs.
I jumped violently, and my socked feet slipped over the floor as I turned to race out of the kitchen, my hearts already pounding with terror for Beryl. I moved faster than I ever had in my life as I sprinted up the stairs, tripping several times in my haste.
I burst into her bedroom out of breath. “What’s wrong? What happened? Are you okay?”
