Page 145 of The Hunt
I humored him with a nod. His weirdness was escalating.
“Good. Keep your hands just like that. Now, let me get into position so I can work some magic.”
He picked up the deck of cards from his desk.
“Don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t go in the first time.”
The door to Fenris’s bedroom flew open, scaring the salt out of my cracker. The boot flew through the air as I jumped and put a hand over my heart. Fenris howled with laughter, and Raiden, his father, caught the boot with a scowl.
My gaze shifted between Fenris and his father.
“What’s going on?” I panted. If not for Fenris’s side-splitting laughter, I would have thought there really was a world-ending event happening.
“Hello, Eliana. I’m sorry for startling you. Everything is fine. Fenris, stop wheezing like old Fitzer. You’re not as funny as you think.”
“Funny?” I asked.
Fenris leaned down to playfully lick my nose and winked at me before facing his father.
“Go ahead, Dad. Tell Eliana why you burst in here.”
Raiden met my gaze.
“When Adira proposed allowing Fenris to spend time with you, she assured me that you were nowhere near ready to participate in sexual acts. Does she know you’re holding hands? Kissing?”
The flush that ignited at his first sentence bled away with his last question. I clasped my hands in my lap and tried not to panic.
“Kissing? We’re not kissing.”
“In my world, that lick on the nose Fenris just gave you is a kiss.”
Panic officially bloomed.
“And you used to kiss me like that when I was a pup, Dad. You’re grasping at straws where there are none, given what you heard. Next time, don’t be so nosy.”
“This is the first time you…” Raiden’s gaze darted to me then back to Fenris. “Next time?”
“Don’t start acting like Adira. Not everything needs to be a crisis that needs addressing. As you’ve now seen for yourself, nothing inappropriate is happening here, just like it hasn’t been happening since I hit puberty.”
Fenris nodded toward his door. Raiden’s gaze volleyed between me and Fenris. Then, he left the way he entered. Suddenly.
My mind was still trying to sort through everything that had happened when Fenris lifted a finger to his lips. He tilted his head as if listening to something. It was the same look he’d had just before he’d jumped off the bed to show me his boot trick.
He relaxed and sat on his bed with his cards.
“Okay. We have the house to ourselves again. Now, where were we?”
Angry and hurt, I stood.
“You heard your dad come into the house and purposely worded things so it would sound like we were about to have sex. On top of that, you kissed me in front of him and in front of Jenna and the others this morning without telling me that’s what that was. You purposely hurt Jenna. I agreed to be your girlfriend, Fenris. But I am not a means for you to hurt the people in your life.”
With each word I’d spoken, he’d grown more and more serious. Hurt and worry emanated from him as he straightened from the bed.
“Those kisses weren’t to hurt them. They were for you because you make me happy. Seeing you makes me happy. But I am guilty of purposely misleading my dad into believing we were about to have sex and admit it was a small, harmless bit of revenge for how I’ve been manipulated for so many years. I’m sorry, Eliana. I didn’t mean to hurt you by doing it.”
I stared at him, weighing his words against his actions. I recalled the moment he’d started acting even weirder than usual. He obviously hadn’t had a plan when we’d entered. And that was the catch to all of this. Fenris was impulsive. I’d known that when I’d agreed to help him but had thought my boundaries would keep me safe.
“Talk to me, Eliana. I can smell how upset you are and want to understand so I don’t ever again cross whatever line I just crossed.”
