She tilts her head curiously like I’m something to be examined and studied. “Why would you want to do that? You don’t even like me.”
My brow furrows when I realize she has a point. Except… “I don’t hate you, Aurelia.”
She watches me for a moment, and she doesn’t just look sad. She looks vulnerable when our gazes connect. “No?” she whispers hopefully.
When I shake my head, Aurelia pushes away from the sink and stalks around the island, plucking a shiny red apple from the bowl as she goes. I will my feet to stay planted because I know she’s testing me. And for some fucking reason, I want to pass. I stop breathing when Aurelia stops in front of me—so close I can smell the shampoo in her hair and Thorin on her skin.
“Prove it.”
She holds out the harmless apple in offering.
My scoff is so sharp, she flinches.
It’s a tiny movement that’s barely perceptible, but it’s there.
And like me, she’s too stubborn to retreat. Aurelia stays put even if it means getting slammed with the full force of my ire.
“I don’t hate you,” I amend, “but I don’t trust you either. I think you should know that. I don’t know what the hell you did to my brothers and Seth, but I’m going to find out.”
Aurelia’s gaze is assessing before her wary expression morphs into a taunting one at my warning. “Then you might not want to run from the room every time I enter it,” she says mockingly. Aurelia shoves the apple into my chest, and my fingers tangle with her softer ones as I move to catch it without thinking. “Start there, and if you’re lucky, you’ll find outexactlywhat I did to them.”
What the—
My body is vibrating with the need to put distance between us even now, but I ignore it because being around Aurelia is the only time I can feel Seth. He’s using his memories to push me toward Aurelia, and his scheming just might get me the answers I need.
I know the moment she’s gone, he’ll retreat to whatever dark pit he’s crouching in, so I crack a smile that’s as sharp as her tone. “I can’t think of a better way to keep an eye on you,princess.”
She pauses at the pet name, her eyes flaring with surprise.
Lifting the apple to my lips as I stalk from the kitchen, I sink my teeth into the forbidden fruit.
The next morning, I’m slouched in my seat at the kitchen table when Aurelia unceremoniously drops an empty plate in front of me. It clatters noisily on the table and wobbles like a spinning top until it finally settles. The plate is so clean I can see my reflection and the annoyed expression on my face.
Aurelia’s already gliding away, completely in her element like a dance she’s rehearsed. I watch through narrowed gaze as she lovingly sets Thorin’s and Khalil’s plates in front of them while dodging their groping hands with a wily grin. The table is a smorgasbord of breakfast foods that she spent half the morning making.
Thorin and Khalil wait for her to sit between them before heaping as much food on their plates as they can.
I don’t get it.
I thought she was a terrible cook?
The food doesn’t look bad at first glance, but the longer I study the dishes, I notice that the eggs are runny, the bacon is overcooked, the pancakes are miraculously flat and lumpy at the same time, and the toast is burnt.
I don’t understand it until I see the look on Aurelia’s face. She’s not even eating because she’s too busy swiveling her head back and forth to watch my brothers devour everything in sight.
She lookspleasedand it makes herradiant.
As if they can’t help themselves, Thorin and Khalil are sneaking glances at her too as they eat—as if her pleasure is all the sustenance they need to get through the day.
I’m going to fucking vomit.
Ignoring my growling stomach, I cross my arms and stubbornly sit there with an empty plate like I always do. I wouldn’t even be at the table giving credence to this farce of a relationship, but Khalil threatened to knock my teeth out if I kept snubbing their girl, so here I sit. I also promised AureliaI wouldn’t run at the mere sight of her, and I can’t have her winning this battle of wills between us.
I don’t care how many bones Khalil or Thorin threaten to break though. I am not going to eat her fucking food.
It feels too…intimate.
I don’t even know her.Theybarely even know her.
