Page 41 of Roses Are Dead
“Do too. Besides, Crystal Dawn does it all the time. Not like Roishin’s the first witch I’ve ever known. I grew up my whole life around that sort of thing. More women should go around naked.”
Bear’s face flushed deep red.
“Zoe? Please don’t tease Bear like that,” Kate admonished.
They didn’t fear him.
Normal people would, or at least should.
10
Bear
No one was supposed to know I’d seen Roishin naked. Well, besides the people who needed to be told, and that didn’t include Kate and Zoe. Now that little tidbit would run through the telephone chain up to Jackson.
If Wolf hadn’t told him already.
Lay my ashes on the ground and put a stone marker down, I was screwed. And Jackson’s plan to be “nice” to Roishin? That was backfiring on me something awful. It took three hours of my morning to haggle with the shop keeper at the store. I had no clue what Roishin needed, and that meant the clerk tried to sell me the damn store.
And was it worth it?
You ask me. That anemic hug she gave me wasn’t a thank you. Buying her affection hadn’t worked. And obviously we were not physically compatible because she skittered away from me like a frightened squirrel.
It didn’t matter that her hair smelled like macadamia nut cookies, and was softer than kitten fur, or that her eyes were pools of rich amber brown. Now that everyone knew I’d seen her naked, I couldn’t get that image out of my head. I’d look at her and it was easy to remember that luminous flesh. A man had to be a saint not to want that.
Or give in to the maddening desire to wrap her hair in my fists and trap her close…
Don’t even get me started on her lips.
I wasn’t a fan of kissing. Most of the time I didn’t have to bother because the women who hung around the club were interested in one thing, your position. And if they weren’t patch chasers, they were attracted by the motorcycle. It didn’t matter if it was me or someone else, they just wanted to get that Milwaukee vibrator between their legs. I was a means to an end, not a person to them.
But when Roishin stared up at me, I swore she saw me. Her lips parted, and I wanted to kiss that gasp. That desire must have risen to the surface.
Because I frightened her. I was a monster. First, by my act at Carl’s, and by assuming she’d be here long enough to need an altar. Then, letting my urge to devour her show on my face.
Gods, I was an idiot.
She’d seen right through me. How was I going to keep her?
It took everything I had not to grab her loose hair and pull it to my face again. I wanted to drink her down, eat her essence, and bathe in her softness.
And that was wrong. I’d pitched Jackson’s idea at her and didn’t get her full buy-in, then pushed her. What did that make me?
Worse than a monster. I was in danger of becoming the kind of man I hunted down.
And it was only day two. I had twenty-nine more to go. No matter what anyone thought of me, I wasn’t that strong. I wouldn’t last.
Kate and Zoe left after dinner. I don’t know how Roishin did it, but she managed to make the meager food in my refrigerator into a meal for four.
She wiped down the counter as I washed the last of the plates.
“Thank you for dinner,” I said, trying to keep a wall of politeness between us. Maybe that would work?
“You don’t have to thank me.”
No, I did. I told her as much. “I should go grocery shopping.”
“I noticed you have a lot of protein powders and shake ingredients.”
