“Plenty more if you want seconds,” he said.
“Or if there’s anything else you want, just ask,” Kieran added.
Right. They couldn’t know this, but I couldn’t remember the last time a guy said something like that to me and meant it. Should’ve been a relief to hear, right? So why did my fingers spasm around the spoon, gripping it far too tightly as it felt the three of them stared me down? Daria was right. I did complain about the douchey guys I went out with, but there was a weird kind of comfort about them.
Behaviour you can predict, there’s a safety to it, because no one could ever catch you off guard. This? My eyes scanned the table. I was gonna kick Daria’s arse when I saw her next, because for her it was all just a laugh, but I had literally no idea how to deal with this situation she’d dropped me in.
“How about a drink?” I asked. The guys pushed themselves to their feet, but I was marching across the floor before wrenching open the fridge. “A beer?” I glanced back at them, but not for long. “You guys would like a beer, right?”
“A beer would be amazing,” Tor said, settling against the kitchen counter.
Chapter 6
Tor
Our mate was as jumpy as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs, and right now that had me smiling to myself. I didn’t want to ruffle Harper’s feathers, but the tiger? He reminded me of the time we ‘hunted’ down my grandma’s chickens.
They’d cluck, cluck, clucked blithely when I took fur, not even looking our way as we then crouched down, ready to stalk them. Our belly fur had brushed the grass, our movements slow, so as not to startle them as I crept closer and closer… Of course, that’s when my gran came out. A swift bash on the nose with her broom killed off any desire to attack the chickens, but… That feeling of exhilaration, of being able to get closer and closer without alerting the chickens, I felt some of that now.
I was gonna sneak up on Harper, get under her skin, and then?—
“I’ll take those.”
Harper had gotten up to clear the table, but both Kieran and I intercepted her. I shot my sleuthmate a triumphantsmile when I snagged the bowls first, walking them over to the kitchen.
“Great, so if they’re gonna do the dishes, you can show me where the hooks…”
Mack was talking to the wall, assuming Harper would join him, but she tracked us into the kitchen.
“You bought the food,” she protested. “And you’re doing DIY for me.”
“Not right now, I’m not…” Mack muttered.
“I’ll do the dishes,” Harper insisted.
She tried to elbow her way forward, which forced me to act. I picked her up, her eyes going wide as I set her down on the kitchen counter. Kieran ran the water and squirted dish soap into the sink, loading all the dishes in while I went to the fridge and pulled out another beer. I cracked it open then placed it by her hand. “You relax.”
“Or tell me where you want these pictures. No? I’ll just stand here then.”
“Are you guys for real?”
Harper bent over then and she couldn’t know this, but the floral scent of her filled my lungs. I barely resisted huffing her in, trying to play it cool. If this was the pre-Grand Reveal days, we’d just woo Harper, then let her know what we were. Those were the rules, but now everything had changed. People knew what we were and had opinions, so many opinions, about shifterkind.
Then she laid a hand on my cheek.
“Like who are you? You bring around amazing food, dish it up for everyone, do the dishes.” Her thumb slid down my cheek and I barely suppressed a full body shiver. I wanted more, so much more, but I stayed right where I was. Women and chickens, you can’t scare them off by moving too quickly. “Is this something you do for women all across the city?” She tooka sip of the beer, then poked the air. “Like are you some kind of outreach program, helping maidens in distress?”
Kieran stopped washing the dishes, looking back over his shoulder at me. Be careful, that was what he was telling me silently. Be very, very careful.
“Not exactly,” I said, staring into her eyes.
I wanted to press a kiss to her palm, mark her as mine somehow. I wanted to step between those beautiful long legs and then tug her close. I wanted?—
“So what’s your deal, then?” She looked from me to Kieran, then snorted when she caught sight of Mack. “I know Mr. Grumpy over there would rather be anywhere else than here.”
“Got that right.”
Mack barely breathed that out, his jaw firming as I glared at him.
