Page 32 of Blood and Magic
Me: I’m nice.
Maeve: You didn’t laugh at my lamb joke.
“Hey, you working or texting?” Fenris put his hands on his hips and nodded toward the herd up ahead. “We only have a few more hours of sunlight left, and there’s a shit ton to do to move them.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I mumbled, firing off one more text before locking my phone and putting it in my back pocket.
Me: Maybe a few more selfies would lighten my mood.
I was being facetious, but she sent one every thirty minutes for the rest of the day, practically taunting me with those baby blues and soft, delectable lips.
My inner beast wanted to bite them, to tear her apart to see what she was made of. I didn’t understand that urge. I’d never felt anything like it, not with anyone I’d been interested in before.
Wait…am I interested in Maeve?
The dreams I’d been having…the possessive way I wanted to protect her…the stutter in my chest when I saw her at the wedding.
Aw, hell.
No. No, I refused that possibility.
She was off-limits, so pure and full of light, and I was a pitch dark void. I’d just drag her down. I blamed the time of the month for my wolf’s wanton baser instincts. The full moon was closing in on us, and its magic brought out my feral side. It was no wonder Columba had gone head-to-head with me this morning. We were all more primal, our shifter sides closer to the surface.
“When we’re done tagging the cattle, we’ll move on to the sheep,” I said.
Poe and Aquila nodded.
“Travers says most of the mommas are taking to their kids,” Holden added. “Only a few need bottle feeding.”
That was good. Sheep were notorious assholes when it came to twins or triplets. Sometimes, the mother would accept only one offspring and abandon the others. If we caught it fast enough, we could try to trick one of the other mothers into accepting it, but we didn’t always get there in time.
After the day was done, I said good night to the guys and headed into the house, taking off my boots before crossing the foyer.
“Maeve?” I called out.
“In here,” she said from the dining room to the left. I followed the sound of her voice but stopped in the entryway. The table had been set for two, candles glowing from the center with half-full wineglasses on either side. “I hope you’re hungry.”
My mouth watered, but cow shit seeped out of my pores in a rank plume, indicating my day spent in the pastures.
“I helped Ellen with most of it,” she said with a slight wince. “I never learned how to cook. It’s actually kind of fun.”
Her adorable grin almost had me saying things I didn’t mean, things that could never be forgotten between us. The intoxicating scent of her caramel pheromones wafted over, drowning out the chicken and roasted vegetables. It had been delicate and light at the wedding, but now it grew stronger, more potent. It dragged me under its spell, yanking me down into an uncontrollable fit of desperation. I swallowed against my dry, aching throat, one that no amount of water or wine could sate.
“It smells amazing,” I said, grimacing as my wolf agreed. I meant the food. He meant the hormones signaling an available female. “I just need to take a quick shower.” I pointed in the general direction of upstairs.
“Oh, of course.” She smiled and shook her head. “Duh. Go ahead. I’ll wait right here.”
I tried not to scramble up the stairs like my ass was on fire, but the sooner I got away from her, the sooner I could convince myself this attraction had more to do with the proximity of my upcoming shift rather than anything unprofessional.
CHAPTER 10
Maeve
I rubbed my temples while I waited for Mill to return, my headache worsening throughout the day. It escalated into full-body chills by the time I asked Ellen to help with dinner. But it didn’t wear me out the way the flu or a cold would. If anything, I wanted to do more. I had the sudden urge to straighten the place up, gather every pillow I could, and make a fort in the parlor, some place quiet and hidden and comfortable.
Maybe I could convince Vermillion to stay there with me tonight.
I sipped my wine, but it tasted like garbage. Perhaps it had turned, and despite how good the chicken smelled, the thought of eating it made me want to vomit. My stomach churned, and I scowled at the food.
