I stayed on my knees, pulling out my haul, passing him handfuls to put into the pot until he started laughing.
“Anything else?” he asked.
I fished around in my pockets and pulled out one last leaf. His hand lingered on mine, but he resumed his lounging when the pot bubbled. Ward was completely at ease with the quiet and soon I was, too. We watched the sun set in a glorious display of purples, golds and streaks of red worthy of a Goddess. Our meal was the nice kind of quiet, too. Ward even pulled a slice of chocolate cake from his pack—neatly wrapped, with a note attached to it.
Ward showed me the scrawl:It worked for me!
“What worked?” I asked.
It was Ward’s turn to blush. “The man thinks he’s funny. Try some, Evie. Dane only gets the best.”
This cakewasthe best and watching Ward enjoy it wasn't half bad, either. There was a breathless moment when we finished cleaning up and there was nothing else to do but get ready for bed—or sleeping rolls, as it were—when I thought he might try to convince me to kiss him again. I wasn't sure I would say no.
Instead, he set up his blankets, rolling out his bed and faced away from the fire. I made it look like I knew what I was doing and copied him, realizing as I lay down, he put me closer to the banked fire and away from the terrifying amount of open space before us. Anything might be hiding out there.
My mind spun. The road had proven me almost useless on our first day. I wasn't going to be a baby, just as it was ending. I had never needed a guy’s protection before, but then I'd never been on a collect-them-all relic quest before, either.
“Ward?” I forced my voice to sound casual.
“Yes, viper?”
If only I was as dangerous as the nickname he had graced me with.
“My back is kinda cold.”
I could almost hear the grin he cracked. I wasn’t giving in to the mates thing, just making myself comfortable.
“We wouldn’t want you to be cold. I don’t mind sharing my blankets.” And by blankets, he meant dragging me against his whole body in one scoop. He wasn't lying, though. He was warm, scalding even. I was afraid to move, but when nothing else happened, the blast furnace of his body won and I definitely did not drift off into naughty dreams.
Chapter7
Evie
Morning came too early. Plastered against Ward, I resisted the urge to move against the thick length I had been dreaming about, nestled against my core. That was mate behavior, not strangers behavior. I had a feeling Ward was awake and let me peel off him without pressing the issue. That only made me want to crawl back under the blankets with him.
Ward began fixing a proper breakfast, which was a surprise. I couldn’t picture any of the men at home cooking. His competence was a bit frightening, but also a bit sexy. Our village had progressed since the Gate closed in the human Middle Ages, but some things like gender roles still stuck like burrs. Daily cooking was something most men didn’t bother with, so it was tempting to watch Ward stir our single pot, wipe out our bowls and use some berries I found yesterday to make porridge.
“Eat up,” Ward said as he handed me a steaming bowl.
Food had no right to turn into a special gift from him. Fallon fed me all the time since Maggie was always out doing her thing and I hadn’t met an egg I couldn’t explode or a bit of toast I couldn’t burn. A guy, though? No guy had ever cooked for me. It made me curious.
“Is this another wooing tactic Dane told you about?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
I held up my bowl.
“I learned to cook when I was home alone most of the time. My sister was out running wild and my brother often travelled with my parents,” he said between bites.
“I can relate. My sister was also off running wild, and even though I work for Fallon in her bakery, she’s never been able to impress anything useful on me. I thought maybe you cooked for an ex.”
Ward licked his spoon, and I watched with more interest than I should have. “I could never really be serious about anyone when I knew my mate was out there. My relationships never got to ‘cooking for you stage’.”
I shrugged. “Well, you got the short end of the Mate stick.”
His eyes narrowed, and he placed a giant paw on my knee. “You won’t be mean to my mate. She’s not ready for me to show her how I should worship between her legs every day. So I’ll have to defend her honor in the meantime.”
Heat shot right from my knee throughout my body. Self-depreciation usually got a laugh. He was absolutely serious, though. About the worshiping and the not being mean to myself. The urge to see if he could make a kiss worshipful was so powerful I got up to pack for our day on the road.
