“Allow me to prove you otherwise.” He spared a second to touch Zion’s cheek before disappearing into the bedroom.
Squeezing past Zion blocking the doorway, I huffed at him looking me up and down. I needed some clothes, or he was going to follow me like a puppy anywhere I went.
Opening the closet door, I glared at my meager wardrobe. There was nothing I wished to wear in it. I wanted the hoodie I’d stolen from Gedeon last night and had flung across the bathroom this morning.
Resigning to suffering through the day with non-Gedeon clothing, I pulled on some underwear, shuffled into a pair of black cotton leggings, and wiggled into Zion’s pale-blue hoodie I’d found in the laundry hamper. The fabric still smelled like him.
Perfect coziness.
“It’s pretty.”
I leaped out of my skin.
Twisting around, my pulse roaring, I found Zion observing me. He had the ability to sneak up on someone undetected, and I longed for the day I could do the same to him.
“The length suits you.” Zion tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. “Short enough to get all messy from the wind, but long enough for me to fist it.”
It was probably the strangest compliment I’d ever heard, but I still blushed.
He leaned in, running his nose along my temple, and it lulled some hidden part of me. “Cherry,” he said approvingly, and my smile erupted to match his.
“Here.” Gedeon spoke up from the bed. He’d coaxed Shadow into laying on his back, the kitten’s claws high in the air as he tried to catch Gedeon’s hand. “Look.”
As I padded over to them, thick socks muffled my steps. “At what?”
Gedeon wiggled his fingers above our cat. “What do you see low on Shadow’s belly?”
Fur. Dark fur. One that had managed to coat every single item of our clothing. “Nothing.”
“Precisely. No tiny balls, no pinkie-sized dick. He’sagirl.”
Was Gedeon right about Shadow? Yes, he was.
Did it irk me? Also, yes.
Would I have to ignore my pride and admit it? Unfortunately, another yes.
So, as the most logical choice, I strode to Zion leaning against the gray dresser and laid the blame on him. “It’s your fault.”
“Are you saying you want to punish me?” He tugged me closer by the neckline of my hoodie. “Because I’m totally down for it.”
I huffed and snorted at the same time. Foolishness had to have taken hold of me. I couldn’t have expected a proper response from him otherwise.
Laughing, he pulled me into his arms, and my own flew around his neck. More than half a year had ticked by since heand Gedeon had forcefully extracted me from Ilasall, but I still hadn’t grown tired of their affection.
I needed it like air.
I needed it as strongly as I craved the truth.
Stroking Zion’s nape, I asked what was bothering me. “Why didn’t you tell me about Gedeon?”
Like a light switch, all fun and games abandoned him. Seriousness took their place. “At first, because I’d promised Gedeon. Later…I had figured it’d be easier. I—” He crushed me in his embrace. I relaxed, allowing him to mold me to him however he wished. It soothed him. “After I’d dropped Gedeon at the doc’s house, I ran away. I couldn’t watch them operate.”
My eyebrows pinched. “You didn’t stay?”
“No. I made the doc swear not to tell me the outcome. Because if the answer would’ve been the one I feared, I—” Zion’s voice cracked. “I don’t know if I would’ve been able to stand by your side while you stepped into Gedeon’s position. I thought if I didn’t know, there was a chance he was alive. But if I did…”
“It could’ve meant he was dead,” I finished for him.
