8. Sol
CHAPTER 8
Sol
I didn’t sleep easy after the attack with the wolves. Yeah, Orion had patched me up, and yeah, adrenaline sizzled through my veins like battery acid, but I couldn’t get that amazing kiss out of my mind. Maybe I was concussed, but it had been the best kiss of my life. Fireworks had erupted under my skin, making me clench in all the right places, and when Lycan had interrupted, Orion scowled like he was going to murder his brother. And the way he looked at me? Like I hung the moon in the sky—like I was the most beautiful woman in the world? Surely, he’d seen more gorgeous girls than me, being a Royal Bastard and all. But it made me feel precious and lovable. No significant other had ever looked at me like that before.
I wanted more of it.
I’d had to take a tepid shower to cool off afterward, to remind myself we were sworn enemies, that I couldn’t have him and he couldn’t have me and letting myself get carried away was a mistake.
During the wolf attack, I could have sworn I saw his eyes turn sky blue instead of the depths of pitch I’d known them to be. I thought I remembered long claws extending from his fingertips, almost as large and threatening as the wolves themselves. But that didn’t make any sense. It had been dark and I’d hit my head pretty hard when I fell down the hill, so hard it had burst open my wound and made my vision go starry. I had to have imagined it. I had to.
Sometime around dawn, I gave up on sleep and got out of bed, determined to make coffee and be the first one in the barn today. I pulled a fresh pair of Orion’s oversize jeans over my legs and stuffed my tender torso into another one of his shirts, taking a long, deep inhale of his dark, woodsy scent. I didn’t know why it calmed me or made me feel at home, but it did. How could a smell be so pacifying? On my way out, I stopped to check my head in the mirror, wincing at the violet bruises and bloody scab. My long ginger hair frizzled around my face like a halo and thick bags hung under my eyes as if I hadn’t slept in months. I glanced down at my fingernails, which had gotten even more chipped after the days I’d spent with a shovel in my hands.
What I wouldn’t give for a facial and a manicure right about now.
After braiding my hair into a plait down the side of my body, I checked my phone to see that I had a missed call from Percy and another from Liam.
“Isolde,” said Percy in the voicemail. “There is no time for you to relax at the lake house. Marx is already asking for final arrangements. Get home. Now. Don’t make me hunt you down.”
I deleted it without listening to the rest and hovered my finger over the power button. Certainly, they could track me if it was on, and for one impulsive moment, I decided I didn’t want to be tracked, not by him. Not by them. So I turned it off and placed it back on the nightstand, resolving to wait until the storm cleared before explaining what had really happened to me. Dismayed that I hadn’t heard from Guin, I let myself ruminate on how to fix this before relegating that to Future Sol. Present Sol had work to do.
Shaking away the thought of confronting my stupid brother, I rubbed my tender shoulder muscles to try to work out the kinks, ignoring the chill in my bones and the sour twist in my stomach. The crash and the half a week of work had taken its toll on me, not to mention the wolves. I felt worse today than I had since I’d gotten here, but I blamed it on all of the above and wondered where the guys kept their ibuprofen.
When I opened the door, Orion stood on the other side, reaching into the hallway closet for something on the top shelf. He hadn’t yet put on his shirt, wearing only a pair of unzipped jeans that hung low on his hips, and he glanced over his shoulder at my interruption.
I couldn’t help my wandering gaze. It traveled from his angular features and dark beard to his broad shoulders and chiseled pecs. His ab muscles had been cut from marble, strong and defined, beautiful despite the wounds marring them diagonally. The dark trail of hair disappearing under the waistband of his boxers made me want to drag my tongue along that part of his skin to see what it tasted like.
At my perusal, he straightened and curled one side of his mouth into a smirk. “Good morning, Princess.”
“Morning,” I said with a smile. Heat flooded between my legs as the kiss between us in that tiny bathroom came roaring back to life, a thick tether of desire that tangled around my heart, nearly forcing me to beg for him. His mouth had been so soft and inviting. I wanted it on other parts of me. I wanted— Jesus, girl! Get your head out of the gutter.
“Did you sleep okay?”
I cleared my throat and lied. “Sure. How about you?”
He tilted his head to the side and ran his assessing gaze over my face like he could read every emotion in my expression.
“Hmm,” he grunted before turning back into his room. “See you at breakfast.” He shut the door behind him with a quick snick, and I clenched my eyes shut, frustrated by the pounding between my temples that beat in time with the one between my legs.
Oh, for Christ’s sake, girl. You are an intelligent woman. You cannot lust after a grumpy Royal Bastard that doesn’t even like you. It was just a kiss. A silly, stupid kiss that meant nothing. Get your wits together.
Yes, he was gorgeous in a dark mysterious sort of way, like a monster in a fairy tale that chose to protect the heroine rather than devour her whole. But that didn’t mean I had license to fawn over him.
I rubbed at my aching head and went downstairs, successful in my attempt to beat the rest of them there. I made coffee and started breakfast, and after the others joined me, we ate together before going outside. It was another long day of feeding the animals and taking care of the pregnant sheep. Orion and I didn’t get a moment alone, so I couldn’t ask him about the kiss we’d shared or how he felt about doing it again…if he even wanted to do it again. Instead, we passed the morning in amicable company, the guys only teasing me a few times about taking off into the woods on my own.
“Next time, come get us, all right?” Lycan said with a toothy grin. “This is Montana, not some snooty rich person boarding school.”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed another bundle of hay to move it from storage to the barn. “Yes, yes. I made a mistake. I’m sorry. Thank you for coming for me.”
Poe shook his head and Orion ignored us altogether, but Lycan wrapped an arm over my shoulder. “I’m glad you made it out okay.”
“And you saved a sheep while you were at it.” Poe gestured to our flock. “Good job.”
I accepted the compliment, recognizing he didn’t hand them out easily. At least they didn’t hate me and kick me out. At least, my screw-up hadn’t cost me their approval. The conversation shifted to someone they knew in their motorcycle club. Poe and Lycan argued back and forth for a while as Orion and I worked.
“I’m not easy to fool,” Lycan said, dropping a pile of hay near the door. “I know a fucking liar when I see one, and that dude has never told the truth once in his life.”
Without missing a beat, I plopped another bundle next to his and rolled my eyes, blowing a wisp of hair out of my face. “Oh yeah? Is that why Poe keeps kicking your ass at poker every night?”
Lycan’s features froze while he straightened and stared at me, but Poe cracked up laughing, slapping his hand on his knee while I resisted the urge to gloat.
“Listen here, your worshipfulness,” Lycan said, narrowing his baby blues. “Poe kicks my ass because I let him.”
“Oh, okay,” I said, giggling as I grabbed the wheelbarrow so I could load it with feed. “I guess you’ve never played a real poker player, huh?” I hauled it over to Nemesis’s stall, smiling when the horse came closer and whinnied at me.
“Are you saying you’re a real poker player?” Lycan put his hands on his hips and raised his eyebrows.
“Careful with Nem—” Orion started to say.
But I rubbed my hand along Nemesis’s nose and scratched at an itch behind her ear, making the horse chuff in contentment.
“I’ll be damned,” Poe whispered, glancing at Orion with wide eyes.
“What?” I asked, looking back and forth between the three of them. “What’s wrong?”
“Nemesis doesn’t like anyone except Ry,” Lycan said. “What’d you do to get her on your side?”
“Oh.” I shook my head and opened the stall so I could go inside and fill the feeder with hay. “She’s just got a wild soul.” I smirked and ran a hand down Nemesis’s flank. “Don’t ya? I can relate.”
Lycan looked at Orion. “Looks like someone stole your girl.”
Orion smiled and took a step toward us, watching as I refilled her feed bin before giving her another loving pet.
“I thought you didn’t have experience with horses?” Orion raised his eyebrows and leaned against the side of the stall.
“I said I didn’t have experience working a ranch, not that I didn’t with horses.” I shrugged and closed the door as I left the stall, walking over to the next one to do the same thing with Lycan’s horse. “I had a few growing up, one that even looked like Nemesis. Her name was Heather, and she only liked me.”
The thought of my childhood horse made my heart shatter, and I regretted that I only had so much time to spend with her before she passed. At that time in my life, she was my best friend, and in many ways, my only friend aside from my siblings. Growing up a Vanderbilt meant that most people only saw dollar signs, so I had built strong boundaries when I was younger. Animals were simpler in that way. They didn’t care about things like last names or titles. They loved pure with their whole hearts.
“What happened to Heather?” Orion asked, taking another step toward me, almost like we were drawn together without realizing it.
“She passed a few years ago,” I said. “But Nemesis reminds me of her.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Orion murmured, his eyes shimmering with genuine concern that radiated down to my toes and back up again.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Hey,” Lycan cut in, stealing my attention back to him and Poe at the front of the barn. “Speaking of good liars, do you know what tonight is?”
He raised his eyebrows suggestively, and even though I had no idea what he was talking about, I had a feeling I’d find out very soon.