Page 128 of A Lesson in Obedience
“I know you’re thinking about it.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Okay, give me your best River and tell me what I’m thinking.”
He finished washing his hands and attempted to go back to tending to his browning chicken thighs. “You are thinking, ‘No Grayson, we should have just ordered in and made our lives easier, but you had to go and try to impress everyone by showing them one of your many skills that also happens to make you incredibly sexy.’”
I giggled, kicking my feet some more. “Oh, yes that was exactly what I was thinking, especially the last part.”
He went over to a cabinet and got a large plate and placed it next to the pot he had the food in. He turned around and wiggled in between my legs, placing his hands on my thighs. His fingertips grazed the bottom of my shorts. “Is that right?”
I held in a smile, nodding. He kissed me, taking my bottom lip between his teeth. I let out a small whimper and his hands squeezed my thighs. I hooked my ankles together behind his back, keeping him close to me. His hands found their way to my waistband and I pulled away a tiny bit.
“I don’t think Asher would be very happy if you had his house smelling like burnt chicken.” I tapped his lips with my index finger.
He groaned, moving away from me. “Not only are your beautiful,aking sinta, but you are also right.”
I picked my book back up. “As per usual.” I plucked another gummy from the bag.
“You’ll ruin your appetite, and you won’t get to know the true deliciousness of chicken adobo. Hand them over.” He pointed to my snacks and held his hand out.
I smirked at him. “No way. You take these away and I’ll tell you what happens at the end of the book.” I waved the book I was reading in his face.
He gave me shocked look. “That is diabolical but fine, you brat.”
“Love you too.” It was odd saying that out loud, but the first time we’d said it to each other was just as natural as this current moment.
Asher was at a late faculty meeting and it had just been me, him and River. We were all tired and sweaty, but no one was ready to get up and take a shower yet. River had whispered he loved me in my ear and wrapped his arm around me, but then Grayson cleared his throat and turned my face so that I could look at him. He’d looked into my eyes and said it. Three words followed by my name and then River grumbled ‘it’s about time’ which caused Grayson to take the pillow behind his head and smack him with it.
A pillow fight that turned into one of the main reasons I’d started stretching every day in the morning.
Grayson started plating the chicken and then adding things to the empty pot. “Did the St. James brothers tell you when they would be back?”
I grabbed my phone from my pocket, checking the time. “Probably in the next thirty minutes or so.”
I was happy to know Asher and River were spending more time together. I coaxed River into thinking about talking to someone about his dad, after therapy was going so well with me and my mom, but his condition was that he would go if Asher went. It took us only a week to break him down, but in the end Asher was always going todo what was in River’s best interest…. not to mention he knew it would make me happy.
They had a session this afternoon and had told me to text them if whatever Grayson ended up making looked suspicious and they should pick something up for dinner. I trusted my shadow wielder, but I’d decided to remain in the kitchen instead of up in River’s room, just in case.
The smell of different seasonings and herbs filled my nostrils and my stomach grumbled.
Grayson winked at me over his shoulder. “Don’t worry. You’ll get fed soon.”
River crushedhis napkin and threw it on his plate. “Now that was a meal.”
Asher placed his silverware on his plate and got up. “I have to admit, you did good, shadow wielder.” He placed our empty plates on top of his and went to the sink.
Grayson smiled proudly. “Please let my mom know I did her proud.”
I leaned over his chair and kissed his cheek. I snuck around Asher to the fridge.
“What are you doing, gorgeous?” River asked, coming up behind me.
I pulled out a yellow cake with buttercream icing, the words happy birthday were written on top in black. I tilted the cake so River could see.
Asher raised an eyebrow at us when we both looked at him. “What the fuck are you two looking at?” Grayson sidled up next to him, his shit-eating grin appearing when he realized I was holding the cake.
I rolled my lips together, walking over to Asher. “Well, you saidthat you didn’t want us to do anything obnoxious for your birthday, so we stayed in and just really didn’t celebrate last week. You actually worked most of the day which was highly annoying. I took it upon myself to get you a belated birthday cake.” I placed the cake on the counter, popping the plastic top off.
Asher slowly moved his eyes to all of us. “And you two knew about this?”
