Chapter 11 – Ava Jade
AVA JADE
M y stomach rumbled as I rolled to the edge of Rook’s bed and forced myself to sit up with a sigh.
I glanced back at the disheveled fur covers and silky black sheets and pillows, but he wasn’t there.
My thighs clenched, cunt aching as I recalled vivid images of him between my thighs last night. Of his thick, warm cock in my mouth.
I traced the line of the small two inch cut running crossways below my hip bone, and shivered, all my little hairs standing on end.
I shifted against the soft sheets and searched the floor for my clothes, but couldn’t find them even with the light from the hall filtering in through the half open door.
The smell of cooking bacon that woke me made my mouth water as I stole a swath of black fabric from the floor. It appeared to be a top sheet that I’m assuming a housekeeper put on his bed only for him to kick-off the first night it was there.
A house full of boys didn’t stay this clean without a little help, though in all the times I’d spied on them here or listened in, I’d never heard or seen a cleaning person anywhere near the Nest.
I folded the sheet lengthwise and wrapped it around my back, crossing the ends in front to tie at the back of my neck.
It was the ugliest toga you ever did see, but it was soft as fuck and would have to do for now.
I’d go down naked to get the bacon if I had to, but the morning brought with it a chill and the makeshift dress did just enough to stave it off.
The Nest grew warmer the further outside of Rook’s den I got, and I wondered if he kept it purposefully colder in there than the rest of the house.
If he actually slept with those heavy furs covering him all night, he must’ve because there was no way I could sleep beneath them without sweating my ass off otherwise.
And I had slept beneath them, like a fucking baby.
The best sleep I’d had in weeks.
I couldn’t even remember the feel of him lying next to me, which made me question whether he even had slept next to me. Or if after I slipped into his bed, still damp from the shower, and he laid the heavy covers on me, he’d just left?
I followed my nose down the stairs, salivating as the smell of breakfast grew stronger with each step. I paused on the landing, finding Corvus swirling and tossing a pan of small-cut potatoes shimmering with oil.
He expertly switched between three different pans and checked the bacon in the oven, pulling it out to place it atop a cooling rack on the counter.
His back stiffened slightly before he turned, feeling my eyes on him maybe. His lips parted as they took in the swath of silky black fabric covering my naked body, before he turned back, the tension never leaving his shoulders.
“Morning,” he said curtly.
“Uh...morning.”
I went to the sink, searching through the cupboards for a cup to fill with water before planting myself at a stool at the kitchen island, the furthest one from Corvus.
“Hungry?”
“Starving.”
I peered around the edge of the doorway leading to the living room, but couldn’t see the others. Where did they go?
“ So, ” I said, playing with the condensation on my glass. “You’re not still angry about last night, then?”
A derisive laugh told me everything I needed to know, but he replied anyway. “Oh, I’m angry, but I told Rook I’d skin him alive if he ever pulled something like that again.”
I pursed my lips, noticing for the first time how clean the kitchen was. I’d passed the fuck out after my shower so who…
“Did you…” I trailed off. “Did you clean up the, um, the mess?”
“Fuck no. It was spotless by the time I got back.”
Rook, then. I smirked. I owed him one for that.
“You don’t give him enough credit, you know. He isn’t the loose cannon you think he is.”
“You don’t know him that well.”
“ ...well enough ,” I muttered to myself, squirming in my seat right next to the spot on the kitchen island where we’d…
Best not to think about it or I’d sully his pretty sheets.
Corvus grunted, going back to focusing on the stove.
He flipped the eggs before taking down two plates and beginning to fill them with crisp bacon, sautéed spinach, hash browns, and eggs.
Maybe the others weren’t here, then, or maybe it was presumptive of me to assume I was going to be offered a hot breakfast.
Once he’d finished arranging everything how he wanted it, he turned, pushing a plate down the length of the marble counter to me.
I must’ve had a look on my face because he frowned. “Thought you said you were hungry?”
“I am,” I admitted, swallowing to clear my mouth of saliva.
“Eat,” he ordered. “You’ve dropped at least five pounds in the last week. You need to keep your strength.”
I ignored the way it sounded like a command because in truth, I planned to fucking annihilate everything on this plate and lick it clean. Even the spinach, and I didn’t even like spinach. But he did something to it to make it smell like green gold.
The eggs were perfectly cooked. Buttery soft with slightly runny yolks. The toast was some freshly baked ancient grain blend that tasted like it came straight from 1892.
Unable to help myself, I moaned as I bit into a piece of bacon and caught Corvus watching me as he stood at the other end of the counter, eating his own breakfast slowly.
The tiniest smirk tugged at the edge of his lips, and I schooled my face back to its usual hostile wariness, making myself slow down so my stomach wouldn’t be aching when I was finished.
I couldn’t remember the last time someone made me a meal. I must’ve been very young. A child.
“So, who’s with me today?” I asked when I was nearing the end of my breakfast, resisting the tempting urge to run my fingers over the juices on my plate and lick them clean.
I didn’t want to give him any more satisfaction than I already had.
That prank last night was far less than he deserved after all the shit he’d pulled over the past weeks.
“I have an essay to write and want to change my clothes. I need a run, too.”
Corvus mulled over my request, chewing his food painfully slow as he considered.
I jumped as a man’s garbled electronic voice screeched from the front entryway.
“ Door!” It yelled. “ Door! ”
“Is that your fucking doorbell sound?” I asked, my heart pounding.
He was really smirking now, and trying to hide it.
“Rook chose it,” he said by way of explanation before leaving the kitchen to answer it, wiping his hands on the tea towel slung over his shoulder.
I took the opportunity while he left the room to hop down and grab two more pieces of bacon from the tray on the counter, stuffing them quickly in my mouth before going to sit back down and chew furiously, eyes rolling at how good it tasted.
He must have done something to it to make it taste so good.
I overheard a muffled conversation at the door and let myself relax. I half expected it to be an intruder. Maybe my would-be stalker. Or a Saint come to give me another trial.
The door shut and Corvus came back into the kitchen just as I finished swallowing the wad of bacon in my mouth.
“What was that about?”
That’s when I noticed the long, slim black box in his hand. I lifted a brow at it.
“It’s, uh ...It’s for you actually.”
What the fuck did he just say?
Corvus repositioned himself, leaning against the counter near his half-eaten meal and slid the box down the length of the marble countertop, making me have to stop it from careening off the edge.
The box knocked against my palm and something inside of it shifted. Something heavier than anything that size ought to be.
“I’m good,” I replied tensely. “Whatever it is, I don’t want it.”
“You’ll want this one. Besides. It’s not a gift, so don’t look so damn uncomfortable.”
Was it that obvious?
“It’s payment for what’s owed.”
I held the box between my fingertips, a muscle beneath my eye twitching.
“Go on,” Corvus prodded. “Open it.”
I sighed but did as he asked, lifting the top off the box...and gasped.
“You like it?”
It was a blade. Similar to mine, black with gleaming metal edges honed to perfection.
Though that’s where the similarities ended.
A silver crow in flight emblazoned the tang, etched into the black coated metal so that it gleamed silver in the light.
A tiny blue gemstone set into the place where it’s eye ought to be.
I didn’t have to ask to know it was a sapphire.
“I know it isn’t the same, but…”
I lifted the blade out of the box, carefully running a finger along its edge. Turning it in my palm to feel the even weight distribution. Finding the crow’s wings wrapped all the way around the tang to the other side.
It was beautiful craftsmanship.
But what did it mean?
An unnamed emotion roiled in my gut like a tightening fist. Was he trying to tell me I, too, was a Crow?
Or was this meant to assert that I belonged to them. A weapon to be honed in their image, to be wielded once Diesel owned me.
I clenched my teeth at the warring possibilities. Trying to pretend I hated both of those options, but the hopeful ache in my gut told me the truth my rational mind tried to deny.
I set the blade back into the box and glanced up, finding no evidence of either in Corvus’ stony blue eyes.
“Do you like it?”
I swallowed hard before replying, to ensure my voice came out without any indication of what was going on within. “It’ll do.”
He nodded.
I cleared my throat. “So, about who’s supposed to be watching me today?—”
“Go whenever you like. I’ll come get you later.”
I cocked my head at him.