AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Good.” I grinned up at him as he approached. “I want to see it before you package it up, though. Will you show me in the morning?”
“Sure.” He stopped in front of me, threading his fingers through my hair and lightly scratching at my scalp with his claws, making me want to purr. He grinned, sharp teeth gleaming. “Your hair’s all crazy.”
I laughed, my heart once again going nuts as I wrapped my arms around his hips. “My hair’s always crazy.”
“Yeah.” He sifted through the strands. “I love it.”
My pulse leapt at the L-word coming from his mouth. As terrifying as it seemed when I hadn’t fully gotten to grips with it yet, a part of me was suddenly desperate to hear him say it. To hear him tell me.
My Aunt Violet was the only person who’d ever told me they loved me. My mom obviously hadn’t, having taken off after birthing me without a look back, and I didn’t have a single memory of my dad ever saying it. Ever saying anything a child needed to hear. That they were wanted and loved.
I tried to imagine Greid looking down at me, taking my face in his enormous hands, and telling me that he loved me, his big yellow eyes solemn and focused solely on me. My gut went all weird and fluttery, heart rate picking up speed yet again. Pure joy mingling with panic.
Fuckety fuck. I was definitely completely in love with him.
But I had no idea how strongly he felt about me, and that made me really freaking nervous. Sure, I knew he liked me. I knew he was attracted to me. But he’d been burned before in a relationship, and the fact that we lived together didn’t mean I could assume he was in this for the long haul. We’d had sex, but we hadn’t slept in the same bed. There was still a line there—a divide—and neither of us had brought up crossing it.
“Okay, you totally need to go to bed.” Greid’s hand shifted to cup the side of my face, his thumb smoothing over the skin beneath my eye. “Your eyes have gone all glassy and unfocused again. Was she really that amazing? If you run off with Parin var Gelligar, I’ll be kinda pissed, but I’ll understand. Do you think she still has those tiny shorts from the show?”
I burst out laughing, Greid’s cute dorkiness managing to, at least temporarily, tamp down the chaotic emotions suddenly swirling inside me. “You could always ask her tomorrow,” I said teasingly.
He gave me a dry look. “Yeah, sure, and while I’m at it I’ll ask for her home address. And her shoe size. Just to really hammer home the awkward creep vibe I try so hard to give off when I’m out in public.”
“You never give off a creepy vibe,” I said, defensive on his behalf. Tightening my arms around his waist, I grinned up at him, my head tipped right back. “You give off a super-hot quiet guy vibe.”
His face spikes twitched with pleasure. “Shut up, no I don’t.”
“Yes you do.” Chuckling, I plastered myself to his front and rubbed my cheek against the soft fabric of his sweater, breathing him in. “I’ve missed you the last few days.”
My pulse jumped as soon as the words escaped me. I was suddenly worried I was being too obvious. About the whole being madly in love with him thing.
His twin hearts thudded under my ear, increasing in speed. I smothered a smile against his chest.
“I missed you too,” he said, wrapping his long arms around my neck and hugging me tighter.
I sighed, leaning my weight on him. When my eyes slid shut, exhaustion hit me in a wave. It had been a long week, and a weird, unsettling evening. First I’d met Parin, then Gavin had made me feel like crap for the rest of my shift. Then I’d had all my demiurgus coworkers—friends?—rallying around me, clearly trying to cheer me up and make me feel less self-conscious.
And then I’d had the jarring realisation that I was in love with Greid.
I needed to go to bed and let him go to bed too. He had to be tired as well. And as much as I didn’t want to let go of him, I knew I should take some time to process all these new, scary emotions.
Plus, my feet were really sore from being on them for so long.
“You okay, berry?” Greid asked, dipping his head to press a kiss to my hair.
I’m fine. I just realised I love you and for some reason it’s kind of terrifying.
My throat clogged up, and I allowed myself a few more seconds to cling to him. Go to bed before you do something stupid like blurt out that you’re in love with him! Go!
What I really wanted to do was ask Greid to come and sleep in my bed with me. The squirmy feeling in my gut held me back from voicing it, though. Irrational fear made me worry that it would be too obvious—that I’d be exposing things I wasn’t ready to expose.
Realising I hadn’t answered him out loud, I pressed a kiss to his chest and forced myself to step back. “All good. Just ready for bed.”
“I’m gonna go find a frame for that.” He nodded at the napkin, then seemed to remember the bag of snacks he’d picked up, which instantly diverted his attention. “Wanna take any snacks up with you?”
“I’m good, thanks.” My mouth twitched as I watched him rummage through the plastic bag and pull out some chips. And some jerky. And a purple cake-looking thing that I’d seen him eat before, but had no idea what it actually was.
“I swear I must’ve lost a few pounds this week,” he said as he unwrapped the cake thing. Stuffing it into his mouth, he added in a muffled voice, “I definitely missed some meals.”
