Chapter Fifteen
I was ready to admit that sex with Soyer was great, but the mess after usually wasn’t. Soyer, the mind reading ability he denied having in full effect, had suggested we take a bath together rather than a shower, and I’d caught myself before I could find a reason to tell him no.
“Are you sure I’m not too heavy?” I asked, leaning against him.
I was sitting between his legs, the warm water and bubbles almost up to my chin, his hand on my chest as if he wanted to feel the beating of my heart.
Steam had fogged the bathroom mirror and the glass wall dividing the tub from the shower.
“Worrier. Are you comfortable?”
“I just asked you that.”
He hooked one of his legs over mine, making the bubbles shimmer. “No, you were worrying unnecessarily. Answer my question, Amory.”
I smiled, hiding it in the bubbles even if he couldn’t see me. “I am. This isn’t so bad.”
He snorted. “Not so bad. I’ll keep you in here until you turn into a raisin.”
“Then you’ll be a raisin too.”
“We’ll be raisins together. I don’t mind that.” He kissed my shoulder and nuzzled my neck. I felt his breath against my skin, got goose bumps from it even in the warm water. “I noticed you seemed standoffish with the new manager.”
“Shit. Did I? I didn’t meant to be that obvious.”
“You weren’t, but I pay attention. You don’t like them. Something they did or just you not liking the idea that we need them?”
I frowned. “I guess it’s me. He was just…weird? Like, I didn’t think he wanted to be there or work for us.” I hesitated, not sure whether I should go on. “You’re not going to be mad?”
He sighed. “Not at you. Never at you.”
“But not at them either? I think maybe I did overreact. Just a bit. Because of…you know. The witch and all that. But they weren’t thrilled about us still using pen and paper.
Fair, I guess, but that’s how we do it. They were throwing around names I didn’t know what to do with, and all of it was weird. ”
He tapped his fingers against my chest. “Probably just testing you or trying to get you to react a certain way. People do that sometimes when they want to see how connected you are. I thought you’d really like them. Hmm.”
I played with the bubbles and bit the inside of my cheek. I had no proof at all that Thaeros was anything other than a server—I mean, my co-manager—or that anyone but Soyer was paying them. Then again, if this truly was a flicker of paranoia due to what had happened to me, Soyer should know.
“He wouldn’t be… He’d not be working for Cecilius, right?”
After a pause, Soyer laughed. “Fuck no. Absolutely not. My heart, there is no one at the Moonlight who hasn’t been vetted thoroughly. Thaeros apparently has a reputation for rubbing people up the wrong way, but that’s about it. I didn’t think he’d drip acid around you. I’ll talk to him.”
“No! I mean, that’s not necessary. I guess we talked. It’s just something he said about family… Look, I overreacted. Can you not make that his problem? Please?”
“Ah, this independent streak of yours. Of course. Whatever you want.” He kissed my neck all over again, and for the next half hour or so, we didn’t say another word. We barely even moved, just letting our skin turn wrinkly.
Eventually the water cooled, and we left the bathtub.
“How about we have an early dinner and talk about when I have to leave town?”
Soyer was helping me into my fluffy bathrobe, the steam from the warm water still thick around us, his wet hair nearly falling into his eyes.
“Sure. Can I help you in the kitchen now? You always say you’re doing everything because I was on my feet all day, but I wasn’t today.”
“Nice try, but no. You can set the table, that’s it.”
He hung his towel over the bathroom rack and walked out naked, likely to end the conversation. It worked, too. I found myself looking more at the tail feather of his phoenix than at his naked behind though, and thinking about how Soyer would frown if he knew that made me smile to myself.
I ran a comb through my hair and followed him to get dressed. It was easy, this. Coexisting and sharing our space—what had once been his space. Even though I’d moved in only a few months ago, this place had quickly become home.
We’d split up his room-sized closet space between us—easy enough given that neither he nor I had an abundance of clothing. Not even all the soft sweats he’d bought for me had changed that.
“Stop eyeing my socks.” He closed the drawer filled with his wild collection.
“I wasn’t.”
“Liar. One day, I’ll find these refolded and organized, or some such nonsense. I can see it in your eyes. You’re plotting to steal my sock chaos. Once a thief, always a thief.”
I looked at my ring. “Would you like this back, then?”
He gave my shoulder a playful slap with the octopus feet of his socks. “Don’t you dare. Put on some clothes, will you? The bathrobe is too alluring. I’ll be downstairs.”
“Too alluring?”
“Yes, you are.”
He headed down his winding staircase while I hurried to catch up.
I found a pair of those soft sweats, dark blue with an indigo pattern running around the sleeves.
Giddiness rose inside of me, different from the shadow of sleepiness I would’ve felt after working a full shift.
I wanted to set the table, wanted to maybe sneak into the kitchen and see if I could do something to help after all.
I made a mental note to ask Elias about this. Not so much about how working differed from working less—I wasn’t sure he’d ever done anything regular like my job—but about whether it was going to be the same years from now. Decades.
I ran a hand over my very soft sweater, enjoying the feel of it. With a pair of extra fluffy socks on my feet, there was no way I wasn’t going to be comfortable.
So, prepared, I hurried down the stairs. Soyer had a pan already going on his stove. He had veg set out next to him and was busy chopping garlic.
I walked up behind him and looked into the pan. He was slowly heating up some oil, probably olive. “Hey, I know how to dice onions now. Kasey taught me. I could’ve done these for you, and then you could’ve judged my newly acquired skill.”
“Huh. Will I have to follow up with our cook about bringing you to tears?”
“Sous chef, I keep telling you, and leave Kasey alone. I asked him to teach me. Sorry if I scared you with the crying.” I kissed his cheek. “Oh, do you think I was taking advantage of him? Basically, I got a free cooking lesson out of him.”
Soyer sighed, looked up at the ceiling while shaking his head. “Fuck help me, but perhaps you can ask him whether he’d be comfortable coming by for Thanks-fucking-giving as a gesture of your gratitude.”
That made me snort. “I can ask him if he wants to stuff himself with us, but I’m not going to say that.”
“Suit yourself.”
“I’ll ask Elias too.”
“Fuck me.”
“Would he bring his Ben? Probably not if he brings his men, right? Would he bring his men? Soyer, if you’re renting a table, can you also rent a juicer for the vampires?”
“A juicer. Sure. Some virgin blood too.” He tossed the perfectly minced garlic in the pan and let it sizzle for a moment, then stirred with the wooden spoon he liked using so much that it had taken on a dark patina. “What am I going to do with you, Amory?”
I hugged him from behind and leaned my head on his shoulder; the left one, so I wouldn’t bother him too much while he was still chopping things. “Are you trying to tell me that a juicer is maybe not a good idea?”
“No, my heart, it’s a kind idea not many would have considered. I don’t know if Simeon or Valentin enjoy juice, but Elias will make a show of it.”
I tensed with excitement when that sparked another idea. “Maybe he can have a chocolate milkshake? Because of the holiday?”
Soyer started working on a few tomatoes. “I won’t be getting into that, and it might be good for you not to either. But you will do what you think is right. That independent streak.”
“You could give me advice, Soyer.”
The tomatoes went in, filling the pan with the sizzle of their juices exploding and mixing with the garlic. “You can suggest whatever you want to suggest to your lawyer. You won’t cause offense there.”
“See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“I see how it is now. All this feisty energy of yours normally gets taken care of by dealing with the hungry people at the diner, but now it’s still here. And you don’t seem to know what to do with it, so you start considering…philanthropy.”
He said the word like it was the dirtiest, most depraved thing ever, which, oddly, made me want to kiss him again. He was too busy cooking though.
“We could watch a movie later on.”
“Only if we do it in bed.”
That made me feel all warm inside. I’d get to cuddle Soyer that way. “Sounds good.”
“Good. Then how about you find dishes, hmm? This’ll have to simmer for a while, but we can have wine while we wait, and some bread.”
“All right. What are you making?”
“Well, I’m not sure. Lovechild of an eggplant ragu and pasta alla Norma. Eggplant pasta. We’ll see how it goes.”
I nodded. “Deep dishes, then.”
“Yup.”
I got his nice plates from the cabinet, remembering that time when I had, maybe, stolen my ring from the sugar bowl Soyer had hidden it in.
The memory of that day made me smile, and when my mind reader saw, he said nothing, just chuckled, shook his head, and cubed the eggplant.
I kissed him all the same, plates in hand and ready to wait with him until the food was done.