“Thank you,” I said, biting into it so fast that the filling went everywhere. The first touch of spiced beef and vegetables on my tongue had an almost inaudible groan leaving my mouth. “So damn good,” I mumbled. “This is one of my favorite meals.”
Asher wasn’t eating, he was watching me. “My favorite too,” he said, and the look on his face ... I was suddenly hungry for a lot more than dinner. “Later,” he promised quietly.
“I live here now,” I said, blinking at the realization. I mean, I knew that already, of course, but it really hit home in that moment.
I lived in the Atlantean mansion.
“For at least the next year,” Rone added, already finished his eight tacos. He ate neatly and left almost no mess. He didn’t even have sauce on his shirt, and I wasn’t sure how that was possible.
Mental pressure slammed into me … of my own making. “What if I don’t graduate this year?”
“Then we’ll all be here for another year,” Calen said.
“You’ll graduate early,” Axl added. “You’re already ahead in all your classes, and we’ve got the teachers pushing fourth year work on you. You’re handling it, no worries.”
Not a hundred percent accurate, but I was somewhat keeping up.
Going back to my taco, I took my second bite just as the front door slammed open and in marched Jesse. Well, it was more like a wobbly lurch, if I was going for accuracy.
He ground to a halt when he saw all of us around the table, his brilliant eyes dimming as they ran across all of us. One by one. Until finally … he finished on me.
My taco was forgotten as the two of us remained locked in each other’s gaze. Fuck. I had forgotten how green his eyes got when he was upset, almost unnaturally green. The contrast to his dark skin was startling, but in the best kind of way.
Everything about Jesse was striking, and he was also such a fun, nice guy. Usually.
The perfect package.
Just not for me.
A scowl crossed his lips. “You started without me. Huge fucking surprise.” He slurred some of the words and I was getting the picture of just how wasted he was. It was hard for shifters to get drunk—he must have been working at it all day.
“Jess,” Asher said softly. “Don’t do this, brother.”
The stark pain on Jesse’s face in that second almost broke my heart; all of my righteous anger against him faded into nothing. All I wanted to do was hug him until everything was okay. But maybe a hug from me was the exact opposite of what would make it okay.
“I gotta swim,” Jesse muttered, spinning and hurrying out of the room as fast as his drunk ass could move.
“I’ll go after him,” Calen said.
“No,” I said, standing. “This is about me. I need to deal with it.”
Pushing the chair back, I stepped away from the table, only stopping when Asher wrapped a hand around my forearm. “Maddi,” he said, warning in his voice, “I don’t think you should be alone with him. He’s not … acting himself. He hurt you last time.”
Leaning down, I slid my free hand around Asher’s neck, pulling him closer to me. “It’s going to be okay. He didn’t hurt me, and I need to deal with it. I promise not to push him too hard, but if I don’t confront him, we’ll never move past this.”
Asher didn’t want to let me go. I could see the indecision on his face, the tumult in his darkening eyes. But he wasn’t one to pretend women needed their white knight to save them. He let me be the savior sometimes too, and I appreciated that about him, because he was alpha as fuck and it was hard for him to let go.
But he still did it.
“It’s just Jess,” I reminded him. “He’s not going to really hurt me.”
“Ten minutes,” Asher finally conceded. “Tell him to pull his head out of his ass or we’re about to have more than words pass between us.”
Pressing my lips to his, I kept the kiss short. “I’ll be back soon,” I promised.
He held my arm until the last second, not wanting to let me go, but he did. He loved Jesse too. No doubt he hoped I’d be able to bring our family dynamics back.
Chapter 10
