Wake-Up Call
I sleep alone.It’s peaceful, and I’m used to it. I enjoy it. Especially in a bed the size of a small country.
It’s wonderful to fall asleep that way really.
Until my eyes open slowly to find a man gazing down on me with unseeing eyes.
“Why’s Zilo acting nice?” Avian asks with total suspicion clouding his silver orbs.
My lips twitch, but the smile doesn’t fully form.
Nice. Hmmm. Who would have thought niceness actually existed in that man?
“I have no idea.” The words tumble out on a yawn accompanied by a long and possibly stalling stretch that gives me the chance to avoid those sightless, prying eyes.
I feel him studying me. He’s picking apart my silence, my body movement, my fucking breathing, heartbeat and probably the fall of my lashes with every blink I take.
But I’m innocent.
I give him nothing.
When I’m done dragging out my morning leg, ankle, and toe stretches, I lazily look back at him. Narrowed attention is still held intently on me.
His hair’s shaved along the sides, and the thick single braid that pulls back against his head is perfectly put together. He’s flawlessly shaved the dark stubble along his square jaw. Not a hair is out of place.
And I know he’s as aware of everyone around him as much as he is of himself.
I just don’t understand his intuition whatsoever.
It’s shocking to say the least.
“You came on to him and tricked him into this forced weird niceness,” he speculates.
And holy fuck.
Fucking shocking.
How does he know that?
Why does it sound creepy when he says it like that?
“I did not!” As soon as I speak, I wish I could take back the outrage in my voice and spew it back out into a sound of honest composure instead of a yapping dog whose tail just got stepped on.
“Oh, you did.” He nods like it’s all clear and coming together now.
He leans in closer on the messy bedspread to really analyze—whatever the fuck it is that gives him the sixth, seventh, and eighth senses.
Is he a guilt whisperer? A shame senser? A sex seeker?
Side note: if he’s looking for that last one, I’m offering.
Focus, Cersia!
I blink the mystery of his knowledge away and lean up in bed to really talk to him like an adult and not a pouting child caught in her lies.
“I told Zilo to stop the punishments.” I lift my chin high without remorse.
I did a good fucking deed.
