“How old were you both?” I ask. I don’t know why, but I’m sorely tempted to lean my head on Torin’s arm since we’re both still positioned so that we’re watching out of the window.
“I’m not sure,” he says. “Maybe ten or so.”
So young. Even younger than I was when I was left to fend for myself, and that was hard enough.
“Then one day, I went home and found Jack just sitting there waiting for me. I thought I was done for and that he was bound to bring the city watch down on me, but he didn’t.”
“What was he doing there?” I glance up at him just in time to see his expression soften as his lips twitch again.
“He’d brought a picnic. Insisted we eat it together.” He lets out a low chuckle that I can feel in my chest. “I couldn’t get rid of him after that.”
He glances down at me before gently lifting my hand higher so he can see the book I’m clutching to my chest. “Are you looking for anything in particular?”
“Mate bonds,” I blurt. My gut clenches as soon as the words are out, but Torin doesn’t flinch.
For a moment, I wonder if I was mistaken on that first day on the ship when we made contact and Torin told me I’d marked him.
“Do you still feel Kit?” he asks.
I briefly touch my chest before nodding. “It’s fainter than before, but it’s still there.”
Torin’s eyebrows shoot up and a flash of panic fills his expression, there and gone in a moment.
“I don’t think it’s anything to worry about,” I tell him as I squeeze his arm. “Aster’s is fainter too.”
And, despite the fizzy sensation currently running through my fingertips where they’re touching his arm, I can’t feel the same connection to Torin.
Sure, something about him brings out my teasing side, the side that wants to provoke him and have him wrap his arm around me in equal measure. And for his part, there’s something in his expression that has my face and chest growing warmer by the second.
Hunger.
Not too dissimilar from the way Jack’s mother looked at both him and Aster.
That thought instantly puts a dampener on the direction my thoughts are spiralling in. Although, for me at least, it’s not Torin’s impressive biceps or his rock-hard arse that captures most of my attention. Instead, it’s all of the surprisingly squidgy layers underneath.
The granny glasses, the odd little phrases, the general protectiveness over anyone and everyone. He’s always the first with a blanket when it’s chilly and a hot meal if he thinks you haven’t eaten recently enough.
And I never realised any of those things would be attractive or something I’m into.
But it seems I’m learning about myself every day.
It turns out when all those squidgy layers are wrapped up in a Torin-shaped package, I’m very much into it.
He twists his body around, forcing me to take a step back until I’m pressed up against the nearest bookshelf. Two thick arms reach out and bracket me on either side as he gazes down at me and my breath hitches. Torin’s lips twitch into the barest hint of a smirk and my insides flutter as if they have a direct link to his expression.
It’s unfair really. He really is devastating up close like this and something about the heaviness in his expression has me shifting from foot to foot.
Am I turned on by having him pressing his thick body up close to me like this?
I think I am.
If anything, Torin’s expression darkens further as his nostrils flare. “Feeling all right there? You’re looking a little warm.”
“Mhm.” My brain isn’t working quite right and he lets out another decadent chuckle.
“So, mate bonds,” he rasps. “Let’s see if we can’t find you the right books.”
He steps back, leaving cool air to fill the sudden gap between us. I blink, as it works instantly to cool my ardour.
