Chapter 11 – Cerberus
CERBERUS
Waking up to feed the human blood every few hours was exhausting, but I forced myself to do it. This man deserved my care as much as any injured animal I’ve cared for. No matter how much my body ached and hurt from my fight with the Rotters.
But even so, when I sensed him moving beside me in the early morning hours, it took me a ridiculously long time to shake myself awake. My eyelids felt so damned heavy, and every part of my body screamed in pain.
And yet, when I open my eyes, the strange man is staring at me.
I stiffen.
“Hello,” he says, his deep voice rolling over me like a wave.
“Hi.”
His gaze runs over me, then around my room. “Uh… how did… how did I get here?”
“You don’t remember?” I ask, glancing at the many bandages covering his flesh.
“No.” The word comes out rough, confused. “The last thing I remember…”
I watch him, waiting. The humans who were bit by Hades’s poisoned beasts recalled bits and pieces of their attacks. But nothing of substance.
Would it be the same with him?
“I think—I think I was attacked by dogs.”
I hold myself perfectly still. “I found you outside my apartment. You were injured, so I brought you here and fixed you up.”
He stares down at himself, his gaze lingering on his bandages. “Are you a doctor?”
I wince. “A vet. Well, a vet’s assistant. Mostly, I fix up animals.”
His pale, almost white eyes lock onto me. “Animals?”
“I wasn’t sure if I should’ve brought you to a doctor…” Like a normal person would have.
“No,” he said. “I don’t like doctors. You did the right thing.”
I’m surprised by how relieved I feel at his words. And that he seems to be alive and not suffering the poison’s effects.
“You look like you were hurt too,” he says, reaching out and snagging my hand, then lifting it to examine my bandaged wrist.
I’m surprised by the warmth that spreads from his touch. “I got a few nips from the dogs, but no big deal.”
Glancing down at the rest of my body, I’m glad to see my wounds are healed. The scars left from the dog bites are pinker and fresher than my others, but they still look months old.
His brows draw together. “You sure?”
I snag my hand back. “I’m sure.”
After a minute, a smile twists his lips, and I’m struck by how handsome this strange man is. “Any idea where my clothes went?”
My mouth goes dry. “They were covered in blood…”
“I’m not complaining. I just can’t remember the last time I awoke in a bed with a naked woman. Actually, I wish I wasn’t the only one naked in this bed.”
I feel my cheeks heat. “You might want to slow down, big guy. I’m pretty sure you won’t be doing much with those injuries for a while, including me.”
He leans a little closer. “I’m a fast healer.”
It’s suddenly hard to breathe. “We should get you dressed and home. Someone will need to care for you for the next few days.”
He sits up slowly, and the blankets fall further, displaying more of his chest. And even though the bandages give him a beaten, sad look, it’s also impossible not to notice his sea of muscles. Whoever this man is, he’d be just my type. If he wasn’t ridiculously injured and all.
“I’m Kage,” he introduces himself.
That’s a strange name. “I’m glad to meet you, Kage.”
He smiles again, and I swear my heart beats faster. “So, what do you want to do now?”
My gaze goes down. Is it just me or is this big man a little turned on?
I shake my head and tear my gaze back to his face. There’s no way. No one gets brutally chewed on by dogs and then has a hard-on.
“I guess… get you home.”
He sighs, then leans back, his hands behind his head in a sexy-as-hell way. “Can I—buy you breakfast or something first?”
“With no clothes and no money?”
He laughs. “I could cook you something. I’m a decent cook.”
“Seriously, you need to spend a few days in bed.”
His humor vanishes. “That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
And the way he looks at me, well, there’s no way he’s thinking about sleeping.
I swallow. Hard. “I have some food in the kitchen. I’m a pretty awful cook, but I could fix up something for us.”
He smiles. “I can help.”
When he starts to climb out of bed, my mouth goes dry. “Wait!”
He freezes.
“You’re naked.”
He raises a brow. “Is that a problem?”
I swear my lady bits grow hot. “Just a second.”
Going to my closet, I manage to find a blanket. Then, turning, I throw it at him. “At least tie that around your waist.”
Then, feeling strangely shy, I rush out into the living room. Pulling out my beat up frying pans, I open the fridge and find a package of bacon and eggs. Besides that, I have milk and bread… and that’s it.
Nice going. Starve the sexy guy in your bed, I scold myself.
But then, I couldn’t have exactly planned for this, so I’m not a complete moron. I just need to work a little more and shop a little more… at least if I have any plans of making this a regular thing.
The man, Kage, emerges from my bedroom, looking strangely comfortable with just a blanket tied around his waist. “So, was that a yes on me helping you cook?”
I barely hear his words. Damn. This man is hot. How did I not realize just how hot he was?
Again I feel uncertain. I’ve had plenty of men in my bed. Yet, I don’t know what to do right now. This is yet another situation where a man isn’t just climbing on me in the dark wanting sex. This man wants to make me breakfast.
And for some reason, I seem to be unable to do anything except gape at his mostly naked body. “Yes! I mean, sure, you can help me cook.”
He smiles, a soft smile, and struts into my kitchen like he walks around half-naked in front of women all the time. Which, well, for all I know, he does.
The thought makes my smile falter. Maybe he does do this all the time.
That shouldn’t matter, but it does.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, taking the frying pan from me and setting it on the stove.
I glance up at him and find him watching me. “It just kind of feels like you do this all the time.”
He regards me strangely. “You think I get attacked by dogs every night and wake up naked in a beautiful woman’s bed?”
I feel my cheeks heat. “Something like that.”
He moves even closer, and suddenly his massive body seems to surround me. “I have never woken up naked in a beautiful woman’s bed.”
I raise my gaze to meet his, my breathing coming in and out fast. “Never?”
“Never.”
When he leans down and brushes a kiss against my lips, I’m shocked. My entire body seems to be humming with desire as he turns and begins to make the eggs and bacon on my shitty stove.
It seems to me I’m frozen in place for a painfully long time before I shake myself and go to help him. Even though I don’t have a clue what to do. I didn’t exactly do a lot of cooking in the Underworld.
After a minute, he smiles at me. “Why don’t you sit down and let me take care of this? You did save my life, after all.”
Nodding, I go around the counter and sit on the barstool.
He whistles softly under his breath as he cooks for me, and I gape, hoping this isn’t a dream.
But no matter how much time passes, the half-naked man continues to cook for me.
He’s standing in the kitchen like a fantasy.
His long hair framing a shockingly handsome face.
His chest a rock hard sea of muscles. And lower, where the blanket is tied loosely at his hips, I find myself transfixed.
If there is a trickster god anywhere around me, I pray to him or her that this man’s blanket slips right off.
But when he finishes cooking and puts our food on two plates before scooting one to me and the other on the barstool next to me, his treacherous blanket remains in place. Then he sits beside me, and I turn slightly so I can continue gaping at him.
“Not hungry?” He’s watching me again, that hunger back in his eyes.
I realize I haven’t touched the food in front of me, then force myself to focus on my plate and eat, even though it’s hard to concentrate with the man beside me. For a time, we eat in silence. And then he begins to slow in his eating.
“Did you see any of the dogs last night?”
I stiffen. “Just the one that bit me.”
“Was there… a really big one with dark fur?”
Me. He’s asking if I saw me. Which means he remembers. But how much? “No.”
He frowns.
“Why?”
“I thought I remembered a big dog. But what I remember, it doesn’t make sense.”
“How so?” I ask.
“The beast… kind of helped me.”
My food tastes like ash on my tongue. “Helped you? Why is that so strange? Dogs help people all the time.”
“Not this one,” he says, and his voice is gruff. “This one was something wild and dangerous. Probably the same vicious thing that attacked that man the other night.”
If I was in my hellhound form, my hackles would be up. “So, you think a giant dog helped you, but in the same breath you call it vicious and dangerous? Sounds like an asshole thing to say.”
His entire body stiffens. “I didn’t mean to offend—“
“You didn’t.”
A strained silence descends between us.
“Sorry,” he says at last. “I forgot you work with animals. You must be protective of them.”
I rise, suddenly irrationally angry. “I’m not angry because I work with animals. I’m angry because it seems like you’re more interested in believing what you heard about this dog rather than what you saw.”
“I didn’t say—“
“Yes, you did!”
He stares at me for a minute.
At last, I reluctantly sit back down.
After a long minute, he sighs. “Just so you know, I’m always a person who believes what he sees rather than what he hears. But this thing… it’s just different. I can’t explain it.”
I realize he’s trying to make a peace offering. And as much as I want to refuse him, I know I’ll look like a nut job if I keep this up. Hell, I might already be labeled a nut job by him.
“Forget it,” I say. Then, before the silence can get too awkward, I change the subject. “So what brings you to town?”
He’s slow to answer. “Business. I’m thinking of purchasing some property here.”