“I’m still mad at you,” he said. Something about his husky tone caused a deep, erotic stir in my belly, and I decided to goad him.
“Be mad all you want. You’re not the boss of me,” I retorted before sauntering into the kitchen to make something to eat. I left so early this morning that I didn’t have the chance for breakfast. My stomach rumbled.
Opening his fridge, I found the ingredients for a Spanish omelette and proceeded to throw them all together in a pan. While I did this Ethan watched me. I felt his eyes on me, and my arousal grew.
He might be mad, but he still wanted me.
“Your face is bruised, and I think you might have a couple of bruises elsewhere, too, given the hits you took before I got to you,” he said a few minutes into my food preparation. He was angry about my injuries, but he needn’t worry. I wasn’t too badly hurt.
“I’ll be okay,” I said.
Once the omelette was done, I dished it onto a plate and sat down to eat. Ethan watched me for several moments before leaving the room. When he came back, his shirt was off and the button at the fly of his jeans was undone.
Gulp.
He walked to a cupboard, rummaged around for a minute, and pulled out a new bottle of body wash.
“The one upstairs is empty,” he said, referring to how we used it all up. “I’m going to take a shower,” he continued. “Call me if you need anything.”
I need you to put some clothes back on so that I can physically close my gaping mouth. Even though we’d had quite a bit of sex in recent days, this was all very new, and I still found myself staring at his body in slack-jawed amazement sometimes.
The bastard knew it, too.
This was his punishment for me going out without telling him. I inhaled a deep breath and summoned up the willpower not to climb right up those stairs after him.
I heard the shower come on, and a couple of minutes later, the doorbell rang. When I answered it, Finn, Alora, Ira, Gabriel, Alvie, and Delilah were standing on the doorstep.
“Delilah, welcome home,” I greeted. “The rest of you, come on in.”
“Just thrilled to be back,” Delilah deadpanned.
“Look at this place,” Alvie cooed. “Very swanky!”
I led them all into the living room, helping with bags. Next, I gave them a tour of the downstairs. Once finished in the shower, Ethan came down, looking just as sexy as he had before he went upstairs. He kissed me briefly on the lips and began to guide everyone to their rooms. There were a lot of bedrooms in this house since it was comprised of three floors; one bedroom downstairs, four on the first floor, and three on the top floor, plus Ethan’s study.
I went to check in with Amanda and Rebecca, who had taken to each other like ducks to water. Unlike me, Amanda knew exactly how to act around kids since she had a tonne of younger cousins growing up. I found them both playing an elaborate game of Barbie dolls on the floor of Rebecca’s room.
“Where did all these toys come from?” I asked.
“Ethan got them for Rebecca,” Amanda replied, and I was momentarily touched that he’d gone to the trouble.
“That was nice of him,” I said, taking a seat and watching them play for a while. Their giggling made me smile until I got a tingling sensation in my brain. The tingling transformed into an itch, and suddenly, I was seeing Roman in my head.
I need to talk to you, Granddaughter, he said.
Amanda and Rebecca’s game of Barbies had become the background and Roman’s face the foreground.
Where? I asked.
Come to the roof.
You’re on the roof?
Yes, come. And hurry.
Leaving Amanda and Rebecca to their game, I went up to Ethan’s study on the top floor and crawled out through the window. There was a part of the roof that jutted out, allowing you to climb to the top. I whined a little as I pulled my body up since I had a few bruises from this morning’s attack. Roman was perched on the roof, his arms folded, as he watched me struggle.
“Hey, Gramps, care to give me a hand up?” I asked.
“Why, of course,” he replied smoothly and took my hand into his. A little zinging spark of recognition ran through me, my magic identifying him as kin.
I sat down next to him, taking him in now that we were meeting in the flesh and not in one of my dreams. If I thought he was handsome in a dream, it had nothing on him in reality. His face was almost too perfect, his eyes shining like bright blue sapphires.
He touched a finger to my cheek where there was a bruise blossoming.