Page 47 of Their Promise

“A couple,” I replied again.

“A couple?” he asked, his tone confused.

Looking up, I asked, “Is this what your plan for the date was? Let me in here and let me read?”

Laughing, he shook his head and stood. “No, but I knew if I didn’t let you read a bit of it, your curiosity would distract you from the rest of my date.”

“Don’t act like you know me,” I teased and flipped my hair over my shoulder as I, reluctantly, turned away from the journal.

“You are welcome here any time that you wish to be. That’s why I gave you a key.” He followed me up the stairs. “There’s a room for you as well, not for tonight, unless you want to stay tonight, but a room that is explicitly yours.”

I stumbled on the step and started to fall, but he caught me and smirked as he looked at my face upside down.

“You have a what?”

Pushing me forward, he righted me so I could continue up the stairs to the main floor.

“Would you like to see it?”

Yes, but I felt like that should be a later event.

“What else did you have planned for today?” I asked instead. “Hopefully, food is involved.” My stomach growled on cue. “I haven’t been hunting since before my party.” Eating regular food five times a day could keep me full, but even then, I still required a medium-sized animal once a week in my snake form. It was a weird condition that we had figured out when I started school. Eating more in human form still didn’t satiate that hunger either.

“Would you like a quick hunt? Or regular food?”

“Regular food is fine. I’ll hunt tomorrow.”

“Can I join you tomorrow?” Mason asked from his spot on the couch in the living room, eyes focused on the screen as he played a video game.

“You want to hunt with me?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Sure,” I said with a shrug, “I don’t mind you coming.”

“It could count as our second date,” he said and glanced at us for a second before refocusing on his game.

“Well, now that my date has been interrupted by you setting up a date with another man, can we get back to ours?” Trey asked.

I rolled my eyes. “As if you care about me going on dates with Mas or Kay.”

Trey stepped up right into my personal space and said, “I care very much about you going on dates with other men. Every moment you aren’t near me is a moment I detest.”

“That was smooth,” I said and swallowed hard because … it hadn’t been a lie. Or, perhaps my sensor was broken?

“Come, let’s go get food,” Trey said and spun away from me.

We walked out to the garage and got into a shiny red sportscar. His dad had bought it for him not realizing Trey hated red cars.

“Still haven’t painted it?” I questioned as I snuggled into the soft seats.

Sighing, he said, “When I mentioned it, Dad got really sad, so I opted not to do it.”

“We aren’t taking Mason with us as a guard?” I asked.

“Obviously not.”

“You sure that’s okay?”

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