Every Last Breath - Armentrout Jennifer L. - Страница 67
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They hoped to be in a new home by spring, but her aunt’s house was as nice as the McMansion Cayman had acquired.
“Have I told you lately how much I like Roth and all his good ideas?” she said.
Laughing, I picked my sweater up off the counter. “You like him because he brings you food.”
“I’d like him even better if he acted like a real demon and turned my brother into a frog or something,” she muttered.
As I dragged the thick sweater on over my head, Robin darted across my shoulder and ended up stretched out along my lower back. “I don’t think Roth has the capability to do that.”
“He could try,” was her response, and I could practically hear the pout in her voice. Picking up the phone, I turned it off Speaker as I headed into the bedroom. I frowned as I spied one of the kittens curled up in a fuzzy little ball atop the scarf I planned on wearing. It was Thor.
Dammit.
A familiar pang of loss hit me in the chest as I cautiously approached the bed. I missed Bambi. After things had settled down a little, I’d remembered that Roth had mentioned seeing her. We’d reached out to the coven and surprisingly they’d allowed us to visit. Seeing Bambi had healed some of the hurting in my chest. I knew she was happy and she was okay, treated like a princess, but still, even though the apocalypse was averted, she no longer belonged to us.
“So...” Stacey drew the word out. “Are you getting ready to go talk to Zayne?”
I stopped a few feet from the bed, my brows knitting. “What? How do you know I’m doing that?”
“Zayne told me he’d texted you yesterday,” she answered.
Thor lifted its head.
“I didn’t know he told you that,” I murmured absently, distracted by wondering how I was supposed to gain access to my scarf without shedding blood.
“It doesn’t...bother you that Zayne and I talk, does it?”
“What?” I ignored the way the kitten’s ears flattened. “No. It doesn’t bother me. Why would it?”
“I don’t know,” Stacey murmured. “I just wanted to make sure.”
I shook my head even though, again, she couldn’t see it. “I think it’s great that you’re spending time with Zayne.” And I really, truly meant that. Stacey had lost Sam, and Zayne had lost his father...and, in a way, he’d lost me. At least that was how it felt sometimes. “You guys are there for each other, and that’s amazing. I just didn’t know he told you about texting me.”
“Good,” she replied. “I’m happy to hear that, because it’s nice... It’s just good to have him around right now.” There was a pause. “Is Roth going with you?”
I snorted. “Uh, no. If Roth went with me, they would spend the entire time trying to outsnark one another.”
Stacey giggled. “You know, if it wasn’t for you, I think they’d have an epic bromance.”
Zayne and Roth bromancing it out? Doubtful.
“Well, I’ll let you go, but call me when you get done and let me know how everything goes with Zayne. Okay?”
“All right. I’ll talk to you soon.” After saying goodbye to Stacey, I slipped the phone in my back pocket, and then took a deep breath. I may be one badass half demon, half Warden, half something else entirely, but these damn kittens terrified me.
Snapping forward, I grabbed the edge of my scarf and yanked hard as I jumped back from the bed.
The little demonic ball of fur flopped onto its back, four paws sticking up at the ceiling. It just lay there, swirling its tail back and forth over the comforter.
“Sorry?” I said, backing away.
Thor turned its head toward me and meowed the most pitiful sound known to man. I almost started toward it, to make sure it was okay, but then I caught myself. “I’m not falling for that. You’re fine.”
The kitten’s ears pinned back as it rolled onto its side. Then it popped onto its little paws and strutted across the bed, and I mean, it strutted, tail swaying and all. What an evil little turd.
Looping the scarf around my neck, I headed downstairs. I could hear Cayman talking in the kitchen, something about basting versus brining, and while I wanted to believe he was talking about a turkey, I wasn’t willing to put money on it. I’d taken one step off the stairs when Roth walked through the entryway.
My heart did a cartwheel. The sight of him alone did that to me, and I doubted that would ever change.
As tall as Roth was, the height and breadth of his shoulders was striking enough, but throw in the work of art that was his face and eyes that shone like topaz jewels, he stole breath and hearts everywhere he went.
He was wearing a long-sleeved dark blue thermal and even with the studded belt, his black jeans hung distractingly low. As he reached up to scrub his fingers through his hair, pushing the choppy lengths off his forehead, the thermal rose and I was greeted with quite the glimpse of golden skin and those two little indents on either side of his hips.
Roth was grinning when I finally dragged my gaze to his. “You keep looking at me like that, Shortie, and you’re not going to be leaving this house anytime soon.”
Heat flooded my cheeks as I toyed with the loop I’d made in my scarf. “I wasn’t looking at you in any particular way.”
“How many times do I have to tell you what a terrible liar you are?”
I wrinkled my nose at him. “Whatever.”
He crossed the distance between us. Catching my hands, he pulled them away from the scarf, and then he started readjusting it himself. “You’re leaving to go talk to Zayne now?”
“Yeppers.” I eyed him cautiously. I knew he wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea of my heading off to meet up with Zayne, but he knew how much it meant to me, so he was basically—surprisingly—
keeping his mouth shut about it.
“Robin’s with you?” Fixing the scarf to his apparent satisfaction, which looked no different than how I’d done it, he then dropped his hands to my shoulders.
I nodded just as the fox’s tail switched along the base of my spine. “On my back.”
He frowned. “I still don’t like that idea of you going out there. I can—”
“Roth,” I said, stretching up and placing my hands on his chest. “I’m going to be okay. You know that. I’m officially pretty badass.”
“I’m not questioning your badassery, but just because the Lilin is gone and the Wardens are playing nice right now, that doesn’t mean everyone is puking rainbows out there.”
Yuck. I could’ve done without the imaginary. “I know.”
He studied me for a moment, and then sighed. “I’m being overprotective.”
“Yeppers peppers.”
His hands slid up my neck, eliciting a shiver from me. He cupped my cheeks. “It’s hard not to be, at least for a little while.”
“Understandable.”
“Text me when you’re done. I’ll meet you.” Guiding my chin down, he kissed my forehead, and I think he also kissed the top of my bun, which was really cute. “Okay?”
“Okeydokey.” I was evidently in a rhyming kind of mood as I started to slip away, but he caught my hand and tugged me back. Badassery went right out the window, because I ended up pressed against his chest. “Roth—”
Circling an arm around my waist, he bent me backward as he lowered his head. Roth kissed me, and he...wow, he kissed me like we’d never done it before, like it was his first time learning the curve of my lips, and he took his time doing so. The kiss was thorough. My pulse raced as I melted into him, wrapping one arm around his neck as I clutched his arm with my other hand.
“Oh for the love of my innocent, virtuous eyes, could you guys not do that where I have to see it?”
Cayman’s voice carried from the kitchen doorway.
Roth lifted his head, and as he straightened, I watched in a daze as he grinned slyly at me. “Just want to make sure you don’t forget me.”
Cayman snorted. “I don’t think she’s going to forget that anytime soon.”
So true.
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