Page 23 of Their Property
I just didn’t feel safe enough with any other men to cure my loneliness.
Before I could make up my mind about touching Grudge in any way, he did so first. I felt a nudge on my arm and looked to see a question written on a small notepad.Why Icelandic?he’d asked.
A laugh burst from my throat at the sudden question. “The short answer is because I wanted to annoy my dad.”
Grudge smiled, laughing with soft huffs of breath. “Ah?”
He seemed interested in hearing the long answer, so I went on. “He was just being really overbearing and kept telling me to pick a ‘useful’ language, like Spanish. Which, in hindsight, I probably should have done. But when you’re ten years old, always under someone’s watch, and utterly bored with no way to rebel against your parent, you get creative. So I picked the most obscure language on the list to learn. And because I’m fueled by spite, I studied it for over ten years and became fluent.”
Grudge nodded like he approved of my rebellion, still grinning and laughing quietly. I remembered the gesture he made earlier in the day,I hear you.
“Icelandic was the language I used to challenge myself,” I said, now signing my words as well. “But ASL was my favorite of the two to learn. And it’s been useful in more situations than I imagined, like today.”
Grudge flipped to another page in his notepad.Have you ever read the Eddas?
“No, what are those?”
He smiled while writing down the answer.Epic poems and stories written in Old Norse. They tell of the Norse gods, heroes, and legends of the medieval Viking age.
“Oh, that’s fascinating!” I said. “Have you read them?”
Only the English translations,he replied.But I’ve heard Icelandic is very close to the Old Norse language. You may be able to read the Eddas in their original form. I have a book, if you would like to borrow it.
“I would love to!” I exclaimed. “Thank you, Grudge. I promise I’ll take good care of it.”
He nodded again, his smile more shy, subdued. We had leaned closer to each other almost subconsciously. He, to show me his notepad, and me, eager to read what he wrote. Now there were only mere inches between us.
“Have you ever considered learning to sign?” I asked. “It may get things across easier for you. Faster, as well.”
The mood shifted instantly, like a switch flipping. Grudge leaned away, his smile gone. He faced forward, body stiff. It was clear that my question struck a nerve. After a few seconds of tense stillness, he shook his head in a firmnogesture and looked out his window, away from me.
Shame and regret filled me, turning my stomach. Why did I have to open my big mouth? Dad always chastised me for asking too many questions at inappropriate times. I’d always been curious, perhaps to my detriment, but I never meant to be offensive. If I had taken just a second to think before speaking, it might have occurred to me that Grudge wasn’t comfortable discussing his muteness.
My fingers skimmed over the seat between us, inching toward him before I pulled them back to my lap. He clearly didn’t want to engage with me anymore, and I wasn’t about to push those boundaries.
We rode the rest of the way home in uncomfortable silence.
EIGHT
GRUDGE
“You don’t impress girls with books, Grudge,” T-Bone teased me with a playful nip to my earlobe. “You tell them your war stories, show off your scars and tattoos.” His palm ran down the front of my pants. “Or just whip this bad boy out.”
I snorted, knocking his hands away before closing theProse Eddaand sticking the book in an inner pocket of my cut. Something told me that Kyrie wasn’t the type to be impressed by my cock, at least not that alone. I wasn’t even trying to impress her, not really. She wanted to try reading Old Norse, and I happened to have a book in that language.
T-Bone saw everything as flirting. If someone attractive so much as breathed in his direction, he’d take it as an invitation to hit on them. But I already knew Kyrie would never see me with any kind of romantic interest. Yes, I had my own feelings to deal with now that we were guarding her all day every day, but that was on me to handle.
She wanted to do important things in this territory, and I admired her for that. I wouldn’t let my own feelings get in the way of what she wanted to accomplish. But it didn’t hurt to be friendly and share books, right?
“Here’s what we got for today.” T-Bone squinted at a piece of paper in front of him, Kyrie’s schedule, given to us by her assistant.
“You need glasses,” Dyno chuckled at him. “Let me see that.”
“Fuck off. I do not.”
“It’s okay, T. We’re all getting older.”
“She didn’t have to write this so fucking small. Jesus.”
