Chapter 54: Entertain Me, And I'll Talk

ARES:

Her glare was adorable. Sure, she might have been a killing machine, but one could easily mistake her for the opposite. Or maybe it was just me.

Maybe it was because of the palpable size difference between us, but it was difficult for me to think of her as anything than what she was to me. My mate. The thought reminded me that I definitely needed to discuss this situation with her father. He wouldn’t believe me.

“Are you going to continue to stand there like an idiot or are you going to tell me why you’re here?”

Not one time did she remove her alluring stare from those mini little powdered treats that she was eating. Only when I still didn’t answer did she grant me a passing glance then her gaze moved to the bag in my hand.

Since she wanted to be aggressive, I’d oblige. Instead of speaking, I snatched the bag from her grasp. Her eyes darkened into visible anger. She didn’t look at me, her eyes just stared distantly from me.

“You…are really trying to get on my hitlist aren’t you?” she growled in a voice that seemed to echo and deepen. “Give. Me. Back. My. Sweet treats.”

When I didn’t, she looked up at me and I saw the dilation in her eyes. I struggled against the urge to chuckle at her. I handed her a plastic bag.

“I see you’ve already gotten a change of clothes. Your sister, I presume.”

She didn’t answer and instead looked in the bag. “Peaches?” she looked at me with bewilderment.

“Even immortals can be unhealthy, little inhuman. Fruit of the earth…what better sweet is there?”

I could feel her frustration lessening, and then she stood up from the bed and walked away. Perfect view of her curvaceous form and round backside. She wore a bra and leggings.

She was a very shapely creature. Staring at her was addictive in its own right. It was easy to lose my train of thought around her. I’d like to say that it was sudden. That this didn’t start happening until I found out that she was mine by divine law. I’m afraid that the little inhuman always caught my eye.

“You’re expecting a thank you?”

Her throaty voice pulled me back into the present and just in time as I watched her bite into the succulent peach. As her lips pulled away from the peach it was as if she was pulling away from a passionate kiss, lingering juices falling down the side of her bottom lip and onto her chin.

Get it together Ares! This time it wasn’t Bain that pulled me back in. I was going crazy thinking about her.

“I would not dream of you displaying such courtesy.”

She smirked, and shook her head, her eyes wandering outside of the window. “Thank you for the peaches, I guess.” She added that last bit. I’m not surprised that she did. Then she took another bite of the peach. “Are you going to tell me why you’re here? Certainly, I’m sure, it’s not because you wanted to be kind and give me fruit.”

She turned around and went to her bed, pulled out a shirt, and grabbed her knife. She always had some sort of blade on her voluptuous person.

“You’re right,” I told her.

I watched her cut the shirt’s mid-section off. “Well?” she said and glanced at me before putting the shirt on.

“Your father wants you home. He believes that you’ll be safer.”

“And he couldn’t come and get me himself?”

“Your father doesn’t do well in hospitals.”

“Yet he was here when you needed him here.”

She was quick on the draw, this one. It was amusing. “I didn’t need him, and I certainly did not ask for him to come when I was attacked, pet.”

“Pet?” she leered impatiently.

“I am trying it out.” I teased her, knowing that she wasn’t happy about. I didn’t care. She rolled her eyes. She was irritated because of her father not coming. “Your father had something very important to tend to,” I finally said. “Something that he could not put off. Besides, I volunteered.”

She frowned. “Why?”

“Because” I retorted. “As I said, you are my responsibility, and…we need to talk.”

“What if I said that I am not in the mood to talk?”

“I’d say that I don’t care.” I started toward her. “We are going to talk whether you’re in the mood or not.”

Neither one of us yielded on the stare down following my remark, and I was fine with that. I found myself realizing that I could stare in those dangerously alluring eyes for hours.

In those ember-like eyes, I saw that there was a hint of consideration in them. Maybe a little of the old Vale peeked through.

“Fine,” she said in a resigned tone.

To be honest, I was a little surprised. “Okay,” I replied precaution and then her eyes narrowed, and a grim smile fell across her luscious lips.

“You’re going to do what I want to do first, though.”

Do what she wanted? Intriguing. What could that be? “Excuse me?” I decided to stick with the guise of being apprehensive toward her request.

“You heard me, old man.” she took yet another bite of that enviable peach.

It took every ounce of my self-control not to lick the remnants of that trickling juice from the corner of her lips. Part of me was glad when she turned her back on me. I had to take a step back. I didn’t want her to mistakenly feel the sudden stiffness in the jeans that I was wearing.

“I need a break from all of this,” she said distantly. I studied her face through the reflection and noticed that something was weighing heavily on her mind. “We need release…or they’ll drive me up a wall.”

At this point, I was sure that she wasn’t even speaking to me. There was something deeper going on with Vale, something that I wasn’t even sure she fully was fully aware of.

Suddenly as interesting as the idea of hanging with her for a short period of time was, I became even more intrigued after what she’d said. Who is they?

“Fine,” I suddenly said. “I will…oblige your desires for the time being.” As if my voice broke her out of her thoughts, her eyes subtly widened in realization. What realization, I wasn’t sure, but I hazard a guess that had to remember that she wasn’t alone. She turned around to face me with a hint of what I could have sworn to be delight. “But only for a little while,” I told her the condition. “When your father calls, I will be there. And so will you.”

“Whatever you say, old man.” she traipsed passed me, put on her socks and combat boots. She put on the long-sleeved shirt that was now jaggedly cut off across her stomach. But only enough to display her covered wound.

I followed her as she headed for the door. I wrapped my hand around her wrist, but I didn’t pull her to me. I knew better than to do that again. “Oh, and we will talk, little one. I haven’t forgotten that.”

She scowled and rolled her eyes. “Of course, you didn’t.” She turned around to face me. “If you’re going to force me to have this conversation, you’d better make this night worthwhile, lycan king.”

Then with one small smirk, she turned on her heels and sauntered out of the door with me following behind, wondering in silent excitement of what this night would bring.