Page 32 of Eldritch
“Then, you admit. You are distracted.”
“I’m not—” As I brought the knife down for another chop, it struck my finger. “Ouch! Damn it!” Dropping the blade, I lifted my hand, examining the bead of blood forming where I’d cut it. A queasy sensation stirred in my stomach.
“Let me see.” Gentle hands lowered my wrist, and he tilted his head, examining the cut.
I hadn’t even heard the creak of him descending the ladder.
He shook his head with a sharp click of his tongue. “That’s a nasty one.” Swiping up a rag from beside us, he dabbed the blood away.
“It’ll heal. They always do. If you weren’t so insistent on tormenting me all the time, I might’ve avoided the injury.”
“Apologies.” With his eyes on mine, he pressed a kiss to the wound, and my mind drifted to thoughts of him slipping it into his mouth, the way he’d sucked my arousal off his own fingers the night we were last intimate.
How badly I wanted to return to that moment, to feel those lips across my throat and between my thighs. A wave of dizziness swept over me, and I shook it off, drawing back my hand.
“Where in your past did you learn to repair a roof? Or craft a ladder?” I tossed the rest of the root into the bowl, ignoring the unsteady thump of my heart and lingering burn across my finger. Denying him wasn’t entirely by choice, after all, but borne of a need to protect my heart. And him.
“I’ve always been good with my hands,” the hint of amusement in his voice withered when he asked, “What was it you were saying?”
“Hmm?”
“A moment ago. You said perhaps you can go …”
“Oh! Yes. Perhaps I can go with you? Just…a short walk.”
“You long for some fresh air.”
“Desperately. I feel…confined. Every minute I’m not at her side, I wonder if she’s moved. Or spoken. I was reading yesterday, and I couldn’t discern if it was her voice or my own narrating the words inside my head.”
“A walk might be just the relief you need. We can pick up the training that we missed this morning, as well.” He popped openthe cork on a bottle of wine he’d found in the pantry and poured some into two cups.
Again, I found myself glancing at his rough, brawny form. Clearing my throat, I lifted both bowls and crossed the room, setting them down onto the table. “I’d like that. I could certainly stand to learn more self-control.” I took my seat, and Zevander sank into the chair across from me, his body a wall of hardened flesh I couldn’t see past.
Stop staring.
Not even the vapid flavor of the food could distract my mind from him.
Or perhaps it did a little. Goodness, was it ever bland.
I lifted the tin cup of wine and smiled as I brought it to my lips.
With his attention on me, he tipped his head, brow flickering in a way that seemed to ask what had me amused.
“Grandfather would roll over in his grave from seeing me drinking wine out of a tin cup.” I tipped back a small sip of it, closing my eyes to the distant memories of Aleysia and I sneaking tastes in the cellar. I let the warm, bitter flavor of morumberries dance across my tongue, lulling me back to those days that seemed so much simpler.
When I opened my eyes again, Zevander stared back at me over the top of his cup, his gaze as unyielding as a firm hand closing around my neck. And while he remained silent, a strange tension filled the space between us, warmth moving through my veins.
Clearing my throat, I broke eye contact and set the cup aside for the bowl. Spooning a bite of it, I wrinkled my nose at the awful taste, like dirt on my tongue. My throat bobbed hard as I swallowed past it.
The quiet that lingered between us only heightened the anxiety coursing through me. “I’ll need to force feed Aleysia ifshe doesn’t wake soon. Knowing her, though, she’d probably regurgitate it all over me and make me regret the effort.” My chuckle died with the clang of a spoon hitting the floor, a startling sound, and I looked up to see Zevander’s hand curled to a fist.
At first, I didn’t think anything of it, until he bent forward for the fallen utensil, and I caught a tremble in his fingers when he lifted it. Wordlessly, he set the spoon beside the bowl, before resting his palms flat on either side of it.
“My apologies…if my comment was a bit unseemly.”
He exhaled a forced breath and settled back in his chair. “Your apology is unnecessary. I took no offense to it.”
Offense?
