The TV is still on when I wake up, with the volume down low. Ethan covered me with a blanket and has one arm around me.
“I fell asleep,” I grumble sitting up.
“You did.”
“Have I been asleep long?”
Ethan taps his phone to check the time. “It’s one AM, so kind of.”
“Shit, I’m sorry to end our first date this lamely.”
“You killed a demon and led a seance. Today was anything but lame.” He pushes my hair out of my face and urges me back down so we’re lying on the couch together. “It’s been a long fucking day. Go back to sleep, Anora.”
I pull the blanket over the both of us and snuggle up with Ethan. He slips his hand under my shirt and runs his fingertips over my back. It doesn’t take long to fall back asleep.
Chapter Sixteen
“Good morning.”
“Morning,” I reply, still wrapped in Ethan’s embrace. He brushes my messy hair back and I move to the side, wedging myself between the couch cushions and Ethan’s body. “How’d you sleep? We’re kinda crammed.”
“I slept pretty well, which isn’t something that normally happens,” he admits, saying each word slowly. “Being a hunter has made me paranoid.”
“I’m paranoid enough with just seeing ghosts. I can’t imagine how you feel.”
“Sleeping with a gun under my pillow helps.”
“You’re not joking, are you?”
“Nope.” He stretches his legs out, hooking one over mine. “You learn to deal.” He holds me a little tighter. I bend my arm up and run my fingertip along one of Ethan’s tattoos.
“Do they have meanings?” I ask, tracing the outline of the bottom half of a shield on his bicep. “I know they all mean something to you, but do they have like secret hunter meanings?”
“This one,” he starts and pulls one arm up from under me so he can roll up his sleeve, revealing a tattoo of a cross inside a shield, but the cross ends with a point and there’s a creepy-looking eye in the middle of the cross, “is the Order’s symbol. It’s a rip-off of the Knight’s Templar’s crest if you ask me, but it’s supposed to represent good ruling over evil or some shit like that.”
“Did you have to get it?”
“Yeah. It was either that or be branded. The branding is smaller but that shit hurts.”
“You’re not joking again either, are you?”
“I wish I was,” he says, and I can see the distaste on his face. It’s not the first time he’s looked rather bitter when talking about the Order.
“That’s barbaric.”
“It is,” he agrees, and I run my finger along another intricately designed tattoo. There are scars scattered all over his arms as well, which I suppose shouldn’t surprise me. Demon hunting must be up there on the list of dangerous jobs. “But, hey, I turned out just fine.”
“You did.” I look up, smiling when our eyes meet but also very aware that I fell asleep without brushing my teeth and probably have terrible morning breath. I need to get up and pee, but I’m so damn comfortable with Ethan right now I don’t want to move.
Hunter, on the other hand, can’t wait.
“I’m sorry, buddy,” I tell him, petting his head as he wags his tail. “I usually let him out before I go to bed.”
“He’s been there all night. He’s a good pup.” Ethan extends his hand and Hunter comes over, loving getting scratched on his chest.
“He really is. I found him too. Someone has to be missing their dog, but he’s mine now. I tried really hard to reunite him with his owner,” I add. “Just in case. But no one claimed him.” Hunter puts his front paws on the couch, trying to weasel his way up with us.
“I’ll let him out,” Ethan offers, hands going back to my waist. “So you can change or whatever. We should get going.”
“It’s nine o’clock already?” I say out loud when I see the time on the cable box. “How?”
“You slept pretty soundly,” he chuckles. “And using magic for the first time is draining, not to mention that you were almost hypothermic. That had to take a toll on your body.”
“I just hope you slept well too.” I sit up, sweeping my gaze over his body. His t-shirt has ridden up a bit, exposing his abdomen. He’s just as muscular as he felt, and the little trail of dark hair leading past his belly button and disappearing under his pants makes me want to undo his belt and see just where it leads. “I know it’s not the most comfortable to be jammed together on the couch.”
“I’ve slept in much worse places,” he assures me. “And this couch is comfortable and wide.”
“That’s why I got it.” I smooth my hair back when I stand. “I might not sleep through the night very often, but I am the queen of naps.”