Chapter 24
Bastian pulled himself out of bed and spent a few minutes charging up his metals, dumping as much as he could into them before going about his morning routine.
Entering the kitchen, he set about pulling things from the fridge and cupboards.
He stared at the ingredients, trying to decide what to cook.
Eleanor had been upset last night, angry that he’d been selfish.
He’d given her the truth. If he slept with her, there’d be no going back.
Unlike the majority of women in his past, for which casual had always been an effortless thing, there was nothing casually effortless about Eleanor.
She demanded his attention, pulled at a primal part of his brain that filled him with need, a desire to protect, to claim, even own.
In mere days of knowing her, she brought out the worst of his goblin side and the best of his fae side.
Of course the one species he'd avoided for centuries had to be the one that fucked with his head.
Waffles—he’d make waffles.
His phone went off with an incoming text.
He frowned as he read it, sent an answering reply, then got to work.
He would’ve made Eleanor breakfast no matter what had happened the night before, but his guilt drove him to make it extra special.
It’s exactly how he’d felt the other morning, too. Seemed to be an ongoing theme.
How many more guilty breakfasts would he feel obligated to cook? Not that he didn’t enjoy it. He loved cooking. Loved even more seeing her obvious pleasure at eating the food he created. So, fuck it. If he had to make her apology breakfasts for the duration of her stay here, so be it.
Shuffling around in the cabinets, he picked out his favorite dark chocolate coffee, the one she’d had the first morning. It would pair perfectly with the flavors of their breakfast. He got it going.
He was pulling the first waffle out of the iron when the sound of a bedroom door opened, footsteps padding down the hallway.
His senses came alert. Her smell hit him first, soft and floral, with hints of the vanilla moisturizer she used, and something else he hadn’t been able to place.
A lingering undertone of…coffee, perhaps?
Whatever it was, drove him wild, and might possibly be the reason he felt more attracted to her than expected.
Speaking of coffee, he kept his back turned and grabbed a mug, preparing it exactly how she liked.
“Morning,” she grumbled.
His eyes snapped in her direction at the sound of her sleepy voice. Heat instantly shot through him. “Nice shirt,” he said over his shoulder to hide the things it did to him, seeing her in it.
“Oh? This old thing? Some goblin guy gave it to me the other day.”
He chuckled, not bothering to hide his smile. She must have laundered it the other day and worn it to bed. Fuck, that made him feel even guiltier for last night.
“Apology waffles?” Eleanor asked, lifting an eyebrow before pulling up a chair at the island.
“Something like that,” he grumbled, caught red-handed.
He set her coffee before her.
“For me?” Her face lit up, the sight of which made his stomach swoop. She took a sip and hummed in pleasure as a small smile formed on her lips around the rim of the mug. “It’s so good.”
He returned to his task, quietly working for a few minutes before he set a plate in front of her.
Waffles, topped with powdered sugar and strawberries, syrup, and a side of sausage.
Her eyes went round. “Wow, apology accepted,” she said, lifting her gaze to meet his.
“You’re not looking for a permanent roommate are you?
Vivi would totally understand. She’s a sucker for food too. ”
Heat swelled between them, mostly because of her expression.
He cleared his throat, then turned away to build himself a plate, avoiding her question—it’d been rhetorical anyway, right?
They hadn’t touched after last night, after the tension had grown between them.
They’d simply swam around, finished the bottle of wine, then gone to bed.
He hated that she had shut him out, without so much as a peck on the lips when they parted ways, especially when he couldn’t get rid of the lingering taste of her in his mouth.
It was better this way, wasn’t it? They could use the tension to build a wall between them, to set boundaries. There need not be anything else physical. There was a job to be done, and as soon as he did something about that scumbag Luke, she was free to return home.
His chest tightened. Why did he hate the sound of that? Why did he feel a rising panic at the thought of her leaving? Was it already too late? Had his goblin already added another treasure to his hoard?
His palms grew sweaty against the fork in his hand. She wasn’t a possession, an object to be hoarded. She’d made that clear last night, and he agreed entirely, because she was so, so much more. But he couldn’t help the way his goblin side felt about that—about her.
They ate in silence. He waited for her to finish the majority of her plate before saying, “Christian texted a little while ago. He said the WU library reported some missing items and wanted me to come take a look.”
“Oh?” Her fork paused mid-bite.
“Apparently the staff noticed several items missing from one of the display collections. They didn’t think much of it at first. They thought the items were checked out for cleaning or restoration.
It wasn’t until they couldn’t find the extraction records that they filed the report with campus authorities. ”
Eleanor turned to face him, a crease pulling between her brows. His fingers twitched, desperate to smooth it away, to reach for her. He clenched his hand into a fist and held himself still.
“Also, Professor Miller’s badge was scanned for entry after-hours,” he added, getting to the crux of the matter, “right around the time the items went missing.”
Her shoulders fell as she exhaled. “Do you think she went and picked them up? Before she died, I mean?”
“Nope. The time of the scan was after her death.”
“Oh… No one thought to see if her security badge was in her purse when you searched the house?”
“I wasn’t the one who did the searching, sugar.
But I’m guessing the folks with WBI either missed it or didn’t think it was all that important.
Christian is looking into it. In the meantime, since I’ve got some free time this morning, thought we’d pop over and see the list, get an idea for what was taken, and perhaps put some clues together. ”
Eleanor pulled her lips between her teeth, looking thoughtful. “Most of the items on display in the library were historical artifacts.”
“Of the magical variety?” he wondered.
“Yes.”
“Interesting. Well then, we’d better look into it, don’t you think?”
“I…” She sank lower into her chair. “Yes, I suppose we should.”
He frowned. “What? What is it?”
“I haven’t been back since…”
Ah. Of course. “Will you be able to handle it? I can check on it myself—”
“No. I need to be there. I agreed to help you.”
He hesitated, studying her. “We’ll try and make it quick.”
“It’ll be okay,” she said. He wasn’t sure if it was for his benefit, or hers.
Given that she’d abandoned her dreams. The fact that she was willing to go was admirable. But after what she’d been through, he knew she was a fighter, that she could handle this. A flare of pride wedged a nail into his heart, making cracks. If he wasn’t careful, she’d break it wide open.