Page 67 of Mr. Aster
As I began to panic, afraid of waking up Darcy for the second time with my bullshit, I heard her voice from behind me.
“Really, dude?”
“Shit, Fuck! I’m sorry. I turned off the burner, but it won’t stop whistling?—”
I stopped talking when Darcy walked over, grabbed the kettle, and set it on the opposite burner.
“Well, shit. Would you look at that,” I said, laughing even though I knew I shouldn’t. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re saying that a lot tonight,” she eyed me with tired eyes. “I think your best side comes during vampire hours when the humans are trying to sleep.”
“How did you get the damn thing to shut up?” I asked. She had no make-up on, her hair was a mess, and those breastswere peering at me through her white see-through camisole top. I needed to quickly pull my attention away from her because I found her irresistibly gorgeous. “I turned off the burner.”
“It’s an electric cooktop, and the burners take a while to cool down on these ceramic glass stoves,” she said. “Have youevercooked anything? I mean, you could’ve called for the room’s butler.”
“I wasn’t going to bother Ricardo to make me a cup of tea,” I said, placing a sugar cube in my cup and pouring water over my tea bag. “I didn’t want to wake him.”
“Well, at least Ricardo gets to sleep through the night,” she laughed. “And since I won’t be able to go back to sleep this second go-round, you might as well pour me a cup of tea, too,” she said, walking around the counter and sitting on a barstool.
“Take mine,” I said, searching for another mug and tea bag. “It’s green tea,” I said as if I knew this would help her sleep, “I was making it in the hope that it would settle my nerves and I’d fall back asleep.”
“Oh, well, green tea usually has caffeine, so that won’t make you sleepy. You need chamomile or some other herbal tea,” she offered, handing me the mug back.
“Oh,” I said, looking at the box of various teabags where I’d found the green tea.
“Let me see,” she walked over to the box and started flipping through its offerings. “Right here,” she pulled out a bag that said chamomile. “How much water do you have left in the pot?”
“I filled it up,” I answered. “There should be enough.”
“I bet you’ve never done anything in the kitchen except make espressos, have you?”
“I honestly haven’t, and that’s a bit painful for a man like me to admit,” I answered. “I feel like an idiot right now.”
“Well, the thing aboutnormalpeople is that no matter how smart or on top of the world we are, there’s always somethingto learn. It’s good to see that you’re normal,” she said, handing me a mug of freshly poured tea. “It needs to steep for a minute before you drink it.”
“I know how to drink tea,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “Care to join me on the patio? I would love the company.” I offered a friendly smile after I noticed she was walking back to her room.
“I was just going to turn on an old Spanish flick on the television. I figured that would put me to sleep.”
“Are you sure?”
I had no idea why I was nearly begging for her company like a child, but I just felt a bit unnerved and wanted to be around her.
“If we go out on the terrace, we’ll most likely wake up the guests next door, arguing over something stupid, like we always do.”
“I promise I won’t argue with you.”
I could tell she was concerned about going outside with me, but I wasn’t sure why. She and I had been getting along fine—no fighting or bickering—and I thought it was quite nice to be in her company since we’d arrived here. Hell, I’d been enjoying being in her company since we had dinner with Jim and Avery.
A lot of it was me, though. I felt much less dark in thought since we started this whole role-playing of the fake relationship, and that had to be because I was doing something entirely out of the norm. It served me well to behave in such a silly way because it was something I had never done. My whole life, I’d had too much pressure on me to perform at the highest level, never taking a moment to slow down or behave frivolously like my brothers, and getting a taste of that now was refreshing. I liked how it made me feel, and I liked how it affected Darcy. It showed me a different side of her, one that was adorable instead of combative.
It was just something different, and I knew that was fueling this turn for the better in my mood, which had been horrible and dark for the last year.
It might’ve been two in the morning, but I felt awake and filled with life, even though I was tired from not sleeping well.
“Fine, I’ll join you,” she said, “but once I get tired, I will rudely leave you and insist that if you can’t sleep for the rest of the night, you stay outside and let me sleep in peace.”
“Deal,” I said, and then led the way to the glass doors that opened to the beautifully lit patio and pool area. “This is perfect.”
