“Again with the ordering.”
“Yes. Your health is a factor here, so I can be as alpha as I like.”
Nikki battled a smile and lost. “Fine. If it means I get lasagna afterwards, then I’ll listen.” She hesitated a second and then added, “I hope you’re still here when I wake up. There’s a lot I want to ask.”
Rafe could easily tease her, but for once, he resisted. “I’ll be here, don’t worry. Get some sleep before I carry you to bed.”
A flush crept up Nikki’s cheeks, and Rafe bit back a smile. For all of her ranting and raving, she was thinking of him in her bed.
Not that they both didn’t need a break from that. Rafe’s dick was still recovering from a week of abuse. It was the main reason he was allowing Nikki to sleep alone—to avoid temptation.
Nikki opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it. Without another word, she disappeared up the stairs.
Letting out a breath, Rafe ran a hand through his hair. He didn’t like any awkwardness between them. Hopefully, it was only because of Nikki’s exhaustion.
Right, then. The best way to avoid awkward silence or uneasiness was to make the best bloody meal he could and then entice Nikki into some verbal sparring. Rafe wasn’t good at spewing romantic crap, but he had a feeling Nikki wasn’t the type of woman who required it.
He had a feeling that the best way to get Nikki to open up to him was to be honest and treat her as an equal. Although, winning over her stomach wouldn’t hurt.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his mobile phone. After sending his sister a text message to call him, Rafe went to the kitchen to see what he had to work with.
~~~
Nikki stared at the ceiling of the largest bedroom and counted the bits of cobweb scattered here and there across the white surface. Whoever had lived here before hadn’t cared much about cleaning.
Of course, the cleanliness of the room had nothing to do with why she had lain awake for the past few hours. Every muscle in her body was sore, but her mind wouldn’t shut up. It kept wandering to the man downstairs, who was quietly singing along to the human radio station.
Rafe had probably forgotten about her keen dragon-shifter hearing. Still, every dragonman or woman learned to block things out as children. If Nikki had truly wanted to sleep, she would have; she’d trained to sleep when and wherever possible in the army. But as soon as she’d heard Rafe’s beautiful voice, she had been content to merely listen to him sing.
Who would’ve thought the tough, alpha soldier could convey such emotion with his voice?
Her dragon, recently awake from her nap, spoke up. I think someone fancies a certain human again.
Maybe. Not that it can work long term.
If you go in thinking like that, it won’t. Besides, the delicious smell of garlic and herbs wafting up the stairs earns him a chance.
She mentally snorted. You’re worse than me when it comes to food.
Debatable. Why wait up here? Go downstairs and talk with him.
And say what? Rafe and I don’t exactly talk about the weather or what was on telly last night.
Talk to him about Afghanistan. If you don’t do it soon, I will go crazy from your thoughts. He is our true mate. Don’t be afraid of him.
Easy for you to say, considering what he did before.
Her beast flicked her tail. We were all younger. He had just lost one of his friends. Just like when Charlie was killed, and you lashed out. Rafe did the same.
It had been several months since Nikki had thought about her former Protector friend. They’d both been captured by the dragon hunters almost a year ago when they’d been protecting Bram’s mate, Evie Marshall.
Whereas Nikki had been detained and lightly tortured, Charlie had been drained of blood while in dragon form and murdered.
Charlie had been the first female to become a Protector on Stonefire and Nikki had looked up to her. Even after all these months, Nikki missed the older female’s presence. To say she’d taken Charlie’s death to heart was putting it lightly. The loss combined with Nikki’s nightmares had made it hard to be her cheery self for several months. Even Jane Hartley had noticed Nikki’s few lapses at keeping up her cheerful façade when she’d been struck by a memory.
And now that she knew the truth of why Rafe had acted the way he did, it started to make a whole hell of a lot more sense about why he’d acted as he had. She was already halfway to forgiving him; although, she’d need the whole truth before she completely could.
Nikki sighed. You are too reasonable for your own good, dragon.