Presley made a pointed effort to scowl a little harder at Kol before turning around. Difficult, that one, almost as bad as his sister. Kol reached out and plucked the pen away from Piper, taking her free hand in his.
“What are you doing?” she hissed, brown eyes finally snapping up to him.
“Holding your hand. Isn’t that what couples do?” When she came to a full stop in the middle of the sidewalk, his guts went mushy. “It is, uh…itiswhat couples do, right?”
“Yeah, holding hands is whatcouplesdo.”
Relieved, Kol started down the sidewalk again, and she was forced to keep up, only stumbling a little as she snapped her planner shut. “Your brother keeps giving me dirty looks, so I don’t think this will hurt.”
“He can probably just sense the animosity.” She kept her voice low, but Presley still shot another I-don’t-like-you-and-I-want-you-to-know-it glance over his shoulder.
“What animosity?” Kol asked through teeth grit in an idiotic grin as he tugged Piper right up against him. Though he didn’t think he’d pulled her that hard, she still tripped. “Whoa, careful there, Pipsqueak.”
Piper steadied herself on his arm then quickly corrected, putting space between them again, but at least she didn’t let go. Hand-in-hand, they continued down the sidewalk, and it might have felt normal if Kol knew what normally holding someone’s hand felt like, but instead it just felt…tingly? That couldn’t be right, but elucidai elves didn’t do very much touching outside of the bedroom, so he wasn’t sure how public intimacy was meant to go.
It wasn’t like when she’d kissed him and instinct took over. Kol was good with his mouth, and he was supposed to be good with his hands too, but this? With the tiniest bit of effort, he could give her palm a squeeze that somehow registered as much more intimate than squeezing any of her other parts.
He didn’t have to worry for long, though, as Piper maneuvered them into a shop and broke away. Kol was left to follow along, hands stuffed back in his pockets until after she made a few purchases and he was designated her official pack mule.
With Kol’s hands occupied, he could only nudge her with an elbow in warning when she came dangerously close to wandering into another lamppost, and she didn’t even have her planner out that time. “You want to maybe take a break?”
“Lunchtime counts as a break and it’s not scheduled for another two and a half hours—stopping would slow me down now,” she said, voice sounding far away as she guided them into another store. “This is the best time I’ve ever made with someone else to carry all the stuff.” Even with her features weary, she shot him a satisfied smirk, and then she bumped into a blowup snowman and apologized to it.
After a few more shops, Piper was checking off her list as she drove them ever onward when her boot caught on the curb. Kol dropped everything in favor of catching her around the waist before she went headfirst into a mailbox. “What in the nether, Pipsqueak? You’re clumsier than a newborn fehszar today.”
“I’m fine,” she insisted, but she didn’t immediately push away from him like before. Piper leaned into his hold and pressed a hand to her stomach, and he noted how much darker her eyes appeared, pupils huge.
“You’re not fine.” Kol glanced up and down the road, but none of her family was about. Grumbling, he hauled her to the nearest bench and plopped her down. She was so stunned, she didn’t move, and he was quick enough to pile the bags around her, hemming her in before she could pop back up to her feet and demand the things she had to do were more important than her own wellbeing. “Stay.”
Piper’s face squashed up with indignation. “I’m not Doc.”
“Stay,” he growled, and the look was wiped off her face. Kol stalked off to the bakery just behind her bench, and when he returned, was pleasantly surprised to find her unmoved. It was a little less pleasant that she was drooping backward, eyes half closed, but the moment she noticed he was shoving something into her face, she sat up.
“What’s this?” Piper took the wrapped cinnamon bun from him like she was afraid it might explode.
“Gods, are you really so woozy you don’t recognize food?”
“I know it’s food.” Her brow furrowed, which was another small relief if only for its familiarity, and she pulled back the sticky paper. “But it’s for me?”
Kol gestured vaguely to the nobody else around. “Obviously.”
“Why?”
“Because youdidn’t eat,” he barked then cleared his throat. “And if you get too run down, I can only imagine the tree will start to feel it too.”
Piper stared back, bewilderment run through her features.
“Eat.”
She stuffed the bun into her mouth like he’d crammed it there himself. The whole thing didn’t fit, but she filled up her cheeks with a massive bite. A brief thought of what else she could fit in her mouth passed through his mind at the sight of icing smeared on her nose and chin, and then he busied himself with gathering up all the bags again.
“I’m taking these to the truck. You stay here until I get back.”
Piper’s mouth was too full to protest, but he was confident in how focused she’d suddenly become on the pastry that it would keep her in place. It wasn’t a long trek to the truck, and when he returned, she was dutifully still seated. All the hostility had gone from her face, but so had the wooziness, and as she gazed out at the people passing on the street, she actually did look, for the briefest of moments, relaxed.
I guess I really can satisfy her.
Kol slowed his steps, knowing the moment she noticed him, she’d lose that faraway, thoughtful look, the one he’d caught a glimpse of in the kitchen when she was making pancakes. She swallowed the last bit of cinnamon roll and stuck a finger in her mouth. Watching her absently lick at the icing, Kol could feel her lips all over again and lamented he hadn’t gotten the feel of her tongue—the tongue that was now lapping at her thumb.
