“Sorry about the place. It’s just me here and I don’t stay home much.” He watched me walk around the living room, even following me into the kitchen and dining room. The kitchen was a dream. Spacious and so much to work with, but something told me his fridge and cabinets were empty.
“Why not?” I asked, opening the fridge. I gasped. Every shelve was packed to capacity. Two gallons of milk, an entire chocolate cake to itself on one. Veggies and fruits at the top. Every sauce and condiment neatly lined in the door. “For someone that doesn’t stay home a lot, you sure have a lot of food.”
“It’s for my sister.” He laughed. “If she runs out of stuff to eat, she’ll come over here and eat. Actually, I think we all keep our houses stocked just because of her. She’s the only one out of us that cannot make food materialize at will.”
That was strange. How much could one person eat? I didn’t comment though. Not even about the fact that he could get random objects to materialize for him. Instead, I realized what I was doing. I went through his fridge and walked around his home like it was mine. If my parents instilled anything in me—with hardtraining—it was manners. Flushing with newfound demeanor, I closed the fridge quickly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to just barge in and—”
My words were lost when he propped himself against the counter, crossed his arms, and smirked at me like he was amused. “You’ll be staying here with me, so do whatever you want.”
His carefree attitude was slightly annoying. Everyone liked their privacy. I crossed my arms. “So, if I go into your bedroom and start snooping, you won’t care?” I tested him.
He shrugged his shoulders. “Go ahead, I don’t care.”
Huh. He really was happy-go-lucky, wasn’t he? “I wouldn’t do that,” I answered, feeling bad that I kept trying to rile him up. His easy behavior made me suspicious. When would the curtain drop? “I was just trying to get a reaction from you. Does nothing faze you?”
“Of course.” He was still smiling. “Why do you want to know what sets me off?”
“Just wanting to know what I’m dealing with,” I replied honestly. “I already have enough problems. I don’t want this to be another one by coming here with you.”
“You have your portal chip if I get bad, don’t you?” Him sayingbadhad me thinking of what he might consider bad, and if it might involve an exchange of bodily fluids and intertwined body parts. My thoughts brought the darkness raging to the surface. It knew Sebastian was right there, so,soclose for the taking.
Twitchy fingers. Twitchy fingers.
Damn, it made sense for him to be a powerful entity. That was why my darkness wanted it so much. All that power…
“What are you doing?” he asked.
My hand was reaching out between us. I smacked it against the fridge and placed my other on my hip, gripping it painfully. “Bug.”
His forehead wrinkled. “There are no bugs here.”
I sniffed and looked him in the eyes then focused on the fridge. “Must have just been a speck.” I met his gaze again. If looks could devour, that’s what his was doing to me. What the hell was going on here? Why was there some kind magnetic pull between us? If I used my brain, I would have known not to come here. This was a disaster in the making. He wanted to touch, my darkness wanted to touch and take him, and, and, I was sure that I was going to eventually want him underneath me.
Probably wasn’t a good idea to be thinking of anything other than keeping myself away from Julius.
“Hmm.”
I stiffened. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“No, you said ‘hmm’. Hmm always means something.”
He grinned at me. “Does it now?” Ugh, he was so infuriating, and I didn’t even think he tried to be that way. “I’m a hundred and fifty-three years older than you, in case you're wondering.”
I was thirty-five… So that made him a hundred and eighty-eight? “I wasn’t curious. Why would I be?” He was old, yet he didn’t look a day over thirty which wasn’t a surprise since he was an entity. I didn’t look a day over twenty-one myself, but I had my witch and Asian heritages to thank for that.
“Since I knew your age, I shared mine,” he said simply. “Wanna know anything else?”
“What are you doing?”
“Getting to know each other. That’s what friends—”
“Don’t pretend our friendship isn’t anything but a ruse for you to get handsy. Your paws aren’t going anywhere near my skin, we don’t even know what’s happening.”
“I don’t have paws.”
“Sebastian…”
