Chapter Fifteen
KHALIL
I do one last coat of wood polish over the newly carved headboard before I drop the oily cloth in the bucket with the other supplies and take a step back to admire my handiwork.
On the large headboard is a scene depicting a meadow.
A bird with its beak open in mid-song sits on a tree branch in bloom while a she-wolf lounges underneath surrounded by flowers and her three pups dancing around her as she stares at the blazing sun.
On the opposite end of the headboard is another tree with a thick trunk and a large bear with its back to it mid-scratch while another slumbers on one of the branches and a third sniffs a flower.
In the middle of the scene, like she’s the center of this alternate universe, is a faceless girl in a dress with a riotous set of curls.
The rest of the bed was easy to construct, but this part had taken me weeks. I’ve never attempted anything as intricate. My own headboard was simple compared to this one.
“All done?” Thorin asks from across the room where he’s applying the top coat on the freshly painted wall that Seth and Bane destroyed. Zeke dragged in the trunk where we kept extra weapons and was currently kneeling in front of it as he neatly folded her clothes and placed them inside.
It isn’t much, but it was all we could give her.
Zeke unsurprisingly hadn’t cared much about losing his bedroom to Aurelia, but Thorin and I knew better than to call him out on the reason why.
Sounds drift down the stairs from the first floor, telling me that Aurelia is finally awake.
After she came back from her run with Zeke a couple of days ago, she’s been spending the night in her loft and lost in her head during the day.
I know she hasn’t been sleeping either because I could hear her up there pacing when she was supposed to be sleeping.
Something had spooked her, and for whatever reason she and Zeke had been hush-hush about it.
“The mattress should have been delivered by now,” I announce as I head for the door. The plastic protecting the floor rustles beneath my feet as I maneuver around all the equipment. “I’m going to take the truck into town and pick it up.”
“Take Aurelia with you, will you?” Thorin suggests while meeting my gaze. “She’s been itching to go back, and we’re running out of excuses for why she can’t.”
Sticking to the script already written, I smirk and reply, “Was going to do that anyway.”
“Cool. Zeke and I will finish up here and clear out the room to get it ready for your return. That cool with you, Zeke?”
It was a performance meant for him so that Thorin and I could divide and conquer and get to the bottom of whatever happened between Aurelia and him on their run. Thorin would talk to Zeke without Aurelia’s presence to deter him while I probed Aurelia without Zeke around.
It’s been three weeks since Zeke woke up, and we’re still running interference. Admittedly, we’d underestimated Zeke’s stubbornness because it was clear he was interested in Aurelia but his fear of her won’t let him fully realize that attraction.
Zeke, who already looked ready to bolt the moment he heard Aurelia upstairs, gritted his teeth and nodded. It’s been like this for two days.
While Aurelia has been lost in her head, Zeke has been avoiding us all.
I leave the room and head upstairs where Aurelia is barefoot in the kitchen singing and dancing to no music while wearing only one of my muscle tees.
It’s the liveliest I’ve seen her since I left her in Zeke’s brief care, and I’ve spent two days wrangling back my possessive urge to fuck him up for upsetting her.
On the other hand, I’ve also had to quell the desire to spank her thoroughly for regressing him.
Hence, the reason we were separating them. At least for a few hours.
She doesn’t hear or see me as I approach her from behind. She has the can of coffee beans in hand, and it looks as if she’s getting ready to start a pot.
I move in behind her and wrap my arms around her waist, enjoying her gasp of surprise when she feels my morning wood digging into her spine.
“How is it that you’ve never danced for me?” I whisper in her ear.
“Khalil,” she greets with a smile. “Good morning to you too.”
I don’t respond as I curve my hand around her thigh in a possessive grip. “Answer me.”
“I-I didn’t know you wanted me to dance for you.”
Slowly, I trail my hand up toward her pussy. I can already feel the heat coming from it, so I’m not surprised to find her wet when I finally tease her lips. They’re no longer as smooth as they were when she first arrived, and I realize quickly it’s the reason for all of her squirming.
“No, don’t. I need to shave,” she whines.
Snorting, I ignore her protests and push two fingers inside her.
“And I promise you, Goldilocks. I don’t give a shit.
There’s no pussy on this planet more perfect than yours.
” She doesn’t reply, but I can tell she’s still uneasy, so I use my free hand to shove my shirt that she’s wearing up her body until it’s bunched under her chin.
She’s naked underneath, causing her nipples to harden to pinpoints from the cool air meeting her flushed skin.
“And these tits,” I continue as I palm one. “I love your fucking tits. Beautiful.”
“What else?” she urges, enjoying the praise but not truly needing it. Aurelia knows she’s the shit.
“This ass of yours keeps my head on a swivel. Some days I just want to take a bite out of it.”
“That’s not quite how I imagined it going, Khalil Poverly.”
“Oh, you want me to eat your ass, Goldilocks?”
“I wouldn’t say no.”
“Maybe later,” I say as if it’s not a certainty. There was no time for that now, and with that reminder I reluctantly freed my fingers from her pussy and slapped her ass, making her yelp. “Come on. We gotta go.”
She pulls her shirt down and turns to face me with a frown. “Go? Go where?”
“To town. Unless you changed your mind,” I add, knowing she hasn’t.
Her smile makes her brown eyes brighten. “Really? I was beginning to think you guys were keeping me cooped up here on purpose.”
We were. “Of course not. You better hurry though. It’s supposed to rain later.”
Aurelia squeals and runs out of the kitchen to get dressed. I take over making a pot of coffee, and by the time she returns, I already have a thermos filled up for her. She accepts it gratefully, and I grab my own before we head out.
“Oooh! There’s a spot.” Aurelia points to the third empty parking space she’s spotted since we drove into town.
The depot where the mattress is being held is on the outer limits of town, so I ignored the last two spots she’s pointed out.
Even though it’s not where we’re going, I can’t bring myself to deny her unspoken request a third time, so I pull in.
It’s clear my baby is eager to sightsee, and who am I to not turn that frown upside down?
Aurelia is practically bouncing in her seat by the time I shut off the engine.
She reaches for the door, and I stop her. I can feel her confusion when I step out and her gaze following me as I round the hood and open her door.
“Come on, baby.” I hold out my hand, and she blushes as I help her down. Thorin insisted on having the truck lifted when we bought it a few years back, so it’s a long way down.
Once she’s out, I lock the truck, and she grabs my hand and pulls me onto the sidewalk. Aurelia starts walking with no clear destination in mind, and I let her guide us while I scope out the faces of the people we pass, watching for anyone who stares in her direction too long.
Aurelia isn’t wearing her disguise like she did the first time we brought her into town.
There’s really no need for that now that the sheriff knows who she is, but it still makes me nervous. There’s always a chance someone will recognize her and blow our spot up.
Aurelia is still talking excitedly about where to go first when we pass the ice cream parlor.
I squeeze her hand, but she doesn’t notice because she’s too busy contemplating which store to go to first, so I stop walking, but I don’t let her go, and it finally gets her attention when she’s met with resistance.
“I—What?”
“What about here?” I suggest with a nod to the shop.
She turns and reads the pale blue and pink lettering on the window. “Ice cream? As in…sugar? But you hate junk food. Something to do with your deeply unhappy childhood.”
“I didn’t have a deeply unhappy childhood.”
Aurelia’s brows snap down. “Then there’s no excuse for torturing yourself like this, Khalil Poverly.”
Grinning, I pull her back toward the door, and she eagerly follows. “Prepare yourself, Goldilocks. You won’t believe the flavors they have.”
The store is cold when we walk in, but Aurelia doesn’t seem to notice as she looks around in awe.
You’d think she’d stepped through a portal into another world.
She doesn’t notice either when I let her hand fall from mine and come to a standstill as I fight off the guilt that suddenly hits me like a train.
It’s not the first time it’s happened, but it takes a little longer this time to overcome.
Sam and Molly, the couple that owns this joint, hadn’t changed a thing since I’d last been inside.
The ceiling is still cracked. The paint is still peeling.
The floor is still its usual dingy black-and-white tile, and the catchy pop music plays over a crackly speaker.
And the velvet barrel-backed chairs are still tearing at the seams and in danger of losing all of their foam.
Through Aurelia’s eyes, it is a wonderland.
There are a few people inside sitting at the tables or standing along the walls, but thankfully most of them pay us no mind as they enjoy their sundaes and milkshakes.