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And so I did.
Chapter Seven
Jude was extra playful while we made dinner. We kept getting in each other’s way while we were chopping and stirring and sauteing. He had been out all day shopping at a fancy market, one that flaunted their names on their thick canvas bags.
I giggled at seeing him with those extravagant bags with even more extravagant food inside. Hilda and I had gathered wild herbs and vegetables and fruit from the outlying fields around the mountain. We kept them all in handwoven baskets that we made ourselves. If we had anything from a store, it was stuff that the kitchen staff tossed away. Usually out of date or dented.
But I didn’t say a word. Jude looked so proud of himself, strutting in with his fancy bison and organic purple potatoes. I swallowed against the boulder in my throat, watching him babysit the ground meat as it cooked in his favorite cast-iron pot. By all standards, both human and dragon, he was gorgeous. It wasn’t just his body, either. It was him. He was kind and truly enjoyed life. It was rare to see him without a smile on his face or some kind of plan for the future, even if that plan was something as simple as what we were having for breakfast or remembering whatever sport he had watched earlier.
“What are you looking at, female?” he murmured as he passed behind me, reaching over my shoulder for the cheese I had shredded under his watchful eye. I didn’t even know there was a cheese called Muenster, but the bit I tasted made me glad there was.
“Your meat,” I replied without thinking. Oh boy, I was in trouble. That wasn’t the right thing to say. My cheeks heated up until I thought they could melt the cheese I’d shredded, all on their own.
“Is that right?” he said, laughing, though his stare was anything but comical. His whiskey eyes bored right through my skin, my muscle, my bones, and struck me right in the heart. My core pulsed with need. Jude’s smile was everything.
“Shut up. You know what I mean.”
He didn’t let it go until we placed all the food on the table and waited for Soren and Nico to come eat. I’d set the table while he lovingly placed the bison shepherd’s pie—I wasn’t sure if you could call it that since it wasn’t lamb…maybe buffalo herder’s pie?—on the table, along with roasted green beans and garlic rolls that resembled cinnamon rolls. My turnovers, swiped from the kitchen, were set in a lovely basket lined with a white napkin making them look like something out of a magazine.
Jude made this place feel like home.
“Where are they?” I asked, my mouth watering for the food in front of us.
“We know where Soren is, and I’m not sure about Nico. He just said he was going out.”
I heard footsteps and, like he was summoned from thin air, Nico appeared. “That’s because it’s none of anyone’s business.”
Nico was dressed in a black shirt and black pants, not casual but as informal as I had seen him. His platinum hair was pulled back into a ponytail. The look highlighted his chiseled jaw and bold cheekbones.
It also made the fact clear that Nico was rail thin, so gaunt that worry swirled in my mind. He didn’t take care of himself, but, more than that, it seemed purposeful, and that scared me.
Maybe I could take care of him.
I realized right then and there that deeper and deeper, I was sinking into love with these men, equally but differently, and all at a different space. My soul craved attachment to them, not only in spirit but in physical form.
My want was quickly evolving to need—to hunger for them all.
But I couldn’t take that step over the line…and I didn’t know why.
“You need to eat,” I said and again, for the second time this night, realized my mistake. Damn, this mouth of mine was going to land me in a world of trouble.
“Youneedto not tell me what to do—ever.” His tone shocked me. I was foolish to think that they were falling for me at the rate I had fallen for them, or at all.Stupid Freya, they are royal asshole dragons after all.I should’ve known better.
My happiness at helping to prepare the feast ebbed. My chest ached, and I denied the tears that fought to form in the corners of my eyes. If they were all like Jude, I would’ve been thoroughly mated and probably with a child in my belly by now. My feeling that there should have been no barriers between us faded as I recalled the reality of committing to the three of them for a lifetime.
“Smells good. I’m starving.” Soren came in and cut the tension.
Jude rubbed the small of my back, probably knowing that Nico had stabbed me with his words. “Let’s all sit. Seems like there’s some hanger going around.”
We sat wordlessly and divvied out our portions. I had thought Nico had soured my appetite, but once the savory, flavorful shepherd’s pie—I decided it was okay to go with the name since Jude called it that—hit my tongue, my appetite revived times ten.
Halfway through the meal, Jude reached for my hand and held it right there on top of the table. I couldn’t help but notice that not only Soren but Nico stared at the connection, but I couldn’t tell what they were feeling. Damn it. Life would be so much easier if I could crawl inside their heads and know what they were thinking.
On second thought, maybe I didn’t want to know.
“Feeling better?” Jude asked as he sat back and patted his stomach.
“It was delicious. Thank you,” I replied.
