“We shall share. I will embrace you under the covers and show you the best night of your life,” I assure him.
He looks disgusted, so I glower at him for daring to turn me down and flop down onto the bed while I pretend likeIrejectedhim and not the other way around. Has anyone ever rejected me? No… never! I’ve always been surrounded by people who would kill to be my lover. And this man looks like I’ve asked him to sleep with a fish! A disgusting one at that!
“Why is this bed so small? Was it made for a child?” Complaining makes me feel a little better.
“It’s a full! It’s not even a twin! And I could make you sleep on the couch,” he threatens. “Give me a blanket.”
“Now you take my blankets from me as well?” I ask as he grabs one and starts tugging it out from where it’s under my body. He struggles significantly while his glare amps up to impressive levels.
It’s certainly not his strength they’re relying on… unless he’s hiding it.
So what is it about this man?
I rock myself up, and when he jerks on the blanket, he’s not expecting its release and goes flying.
Agility doesn’t seem to be his strong suit, either. The only unusual thing about him is the fact that he wears that strange creature around his neck like a scarf, and it’s always staring at me… scrutinizing me.
Oh, and his attitude.
He huffs his way back to the couch and just throws his body onto it before telling some strange being named “Alexa” to turn out the lights. I look around for who he’s talking to but see no one else in the room as the odd lights turn off.
Does he command the power that allows their lights to work? But if he does… I never felt an influx of magic from him. How peculiar.
There’s something about this man that makes them believe that he’s the best option to stash a foreign god who they’re unsure they can trust.
And I’m going to figure out why.
I manage to sleep for a short while, but my sleep is restless and my mind wanders off too much, leaving me thinking about what I’m doing here.
I get up and the strange creature opens her eyes and watches me closely as I look for something to wear. She doesn’t seem to trust me and appears very protective over her human. But when I pick up a book and sit down to look at the language and pictures, she quickly grows bored and curls tighter around the human before resuming her sleep.
After spending hours perusing the books, I wander over to look at the peculiar items strewn around the home. The sun is up when I find an odd box on the counter. I flip it this way and that and notice there’s a tail coming out of it that is attached to the wall. When I flip it upside down, crumbs fall out and litter the counter, but when I put it back down, I notice there’s a lever on it that I push down.
When I do, the inside of the box begins to glow a reddish orange. I hold my hand over it and realize that it must be some sort of heater box. But after a short period, it makes a popping noise and the glow disappears.
I press it again, and this time I softly touch the tip of my finger against the heat element out of curiosity to see if my finger will heal instantly as it should. Instead, the minor burn stays red.
That’s not good.
The next time the box pops, the human stirs and I decide that pestering him is significantly more fun, but I press down on the box one more time.
Chapter Five
Riley
When I wake, Kit is wrapped around my face, but I can hear movement in the apartment. I slide my fingers into her fur, and she perks up and looks over at the noise maker.
Torin is wearing a pair of my boxer briefs—which is plenty weird—that are stretched to their limit and showing off every inch of what he’s working with down there. It kind of makes me wonder if I should have taken him up on his offer last night. Imani never said I couldn’t bed the man before I returned him.
I also notice that he’s trimmed off his beard, making him look even more handsome.
“Good morning, Riley the Perturbed Peasant. I have spent the morning learning some phrases in this so-called ‘English’ by using your books. They have been quite… informational, and I see now where I went wrong last night.”
No idea what that means, so I just nod and agree. “Uh… huh. I’m going to brush my teeth. Let me find you a toothbrush.” Do gods even have to brush their teeth?
I find him a toothbrush that I’d gotten free from the dentist, and the way he eyes the thing tells me that I’m right. I mean… what god has to go to the dentist?
“Thank you,” he says, and then he starts brushing his hair with it. “Very tiny.”
