Thankfully, Khalil and Thorin never press the issue, and neither does Aurelia. She always just gives me an empty plate, in case I want to help myself, and walks away without a word.
It infuriates me.
Everything about this girl just pisses me off.
None more than the way she sets my fucking blood on fire.
My brothers are constantly following her every step with their dicks in hand and tongues hanging. They’re so pussy-whipped, they can’t see her for what she is. Well, I’ll be keeping a closer eye on them after today.
From now on, where they go with her,Igo.
Anything to keep them from slipping even further under her spell.
“You can eat the food, Ezekiel. I promise it’s not poisoned,” Aurelia teases as she plucks a piece of bacon from the platter. My eyes lower to watch her wrap her lips around the tip. Aurelia has this habit of sucking on her bacon for the flavor rather than biting it right away, and it drives me fucking crazy.
And by crazy, I meanhard.
I shift uncomfortably in my seat, my eyelids growing heavy as I zero in on her mouth. I don’t even feel my hand creeping toward the bulge in my boxer shorts until Aurelia suddenly bites down on the bacon. It snaps me out of my trance.
She suddenly looks victorious, and I feel like flipping over the table.
I jerk my hand away, and it’s all I can do not to abandon the table when I see her staring at me openly while chewing her bacon with a thoughtful look in her eyes.
I live in the wilds where death waits around every corner. I’ve been at the mercy of a psychopath and his cult. I have people living inside my head, neither of which I’m in complete control of and both of whom are willing to commit atrocities to protect me.
And still Aurelia George is the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen.
Terrifying…and beautiful.
AURELIA
Seriously, I can’t win with this guy.
Somehow, I make it through breakfast with Zeke scowling at me the entire time. He looks like he wants to bolt, but he doesn’t. Was it because I dared him not to or did Thorin and Khalil threaten him? Both possibilities seem likely.
The moment they stand, Zeke does too, and I prepare myself to enjoy the solitude as they all go their separate ways. Thorin grabs his rifle by the door and leaves the cabin, Khalil goes downstairs to work on the repairs to Zeke’s bedroom, and Zeke opens the sliding door to the upper deck and walks out.
The door closes behind him with a firm shut, as if to say,keep away. I pick up the book I brought to the table and open it up for some light reading before I clean up. An hour later, I’m halfway through the fifth chapter of the thriller when the sliding door opens again.
It’s an effort not to look up.
I listen to the glass door slide closed again and his footsteps carry him around the living room. It feels like we’re alone in the cabin even though I can hear Khalil hammering away downstairs. I’m so distracted by Zeke’s quiet presence that I end up reading the same sentence over and over.
He stops by the shelves, and I cut my gaze toward the living room to see him perusing the books. My gaze flies back to my own when he turns toward the shelves that have him facing me now. He picks up a book, sets it down, and then picks up another. He does this again and again until he finally selects one.
My gaze becomes unfocused as he travels into the kitchen next. I listen as he opens a drawer, but I don’t see whatever he grabs before he shuts it. He opens a cabinet next, and I hear the scrape of glass over the wood and the swish of liquid in a bottle.
Zeke starts walking again, and I assume he’ll go back out onto the deck, but instead, he walks over to the table and slides into the seat in front of me.
In Seth’s seat.
It’s all I can do not to acknowledge his presence—to act as indifferent toward him as he is toward me. I turn the page even though I have no idea what is happening and try to focus on the words. Zeke sets the items he collected on the table, and I use the excuse of all the noise he’s causing to finally look up and scowl at him.
“Do you mind? I’m trying to read.”
“What’s it about?”
God, I have no idea.
