Chapter 4 #2
Niall hadn’t put a shirt on, which was an absolute pleasure for me, because he was fucking gorgeous. His tattoos covered his entire upper body and arms, disappearing into the sweats he had on. It took everything I had not to stare at them the way I so often had when we were together.
He was a painter, so it wasn’t his art, but his artist was incredible too.
I’d never been brave enough to choose art that permanent myself.
Tattoos didn't usually play nicely with bargain marks, anyway. The only tattoo I had was a tiny, fine-line battery shape behind my left ear, and I’d only gotten it to prove to Niall that I wasn’t a chicken, after he’d teased me about it one day.
He had touched it all the time, afterward.
Playfully, when he was making me laugh.
With his tongue, when he wanted to drive me crazy.
With his nose, when we were cuddling.
God, I needed to stop thinking about him.
Being around him was not healthy for me. Not at all.
When Niall brought me a long-sleeve shirt he must’ve pulled out of my closet, I muttered a thank you.
He didn’t say that my tits had been distracting him again, like he would’ve when we were together. Or playfully point out his sort-of issue with me walking around in a sports bra without a shirt over it most of the time.
It was good that he hadn’t.
But I still wished he had.
"You should stay off your feet," he told me instead.
"I should do whatever I want."
He decided against arguing further, for some reason.
I slipped off the countertop and started rummaging through my fridge and pantry, pulling out a few sets of leftovers that looked like they'd be somewhat good together. I threw them in a pan, and tossed some vegetables and a few other things in to make it all work.
The men sat down in the tall, comfortable barstools at my kitchen island. They watched me as I cooked.
"What's she doing?" Larson whispered loudly.
"Fridge cleanout," Niall murmured back. "They always turn out annoyingly delicious."
"Maybe if we ask nicely, she'll share with us."
"She won't," I said flatly.
Mostly because I was starving, hadn't consumed anywhere near enough calories for the day, and Niall was still my ex for very valid reasons.
Well, one very valid reason.
Two if you counted the fact that he wasn't my mate, but I didn't. Not really.
Together, Niall and Larson had almost managed to kill me, which was a very difficult task.
"I'll order takeout," Larson said.
Niall leaned back in his chair, like he had so many times when we were together. "You'd be better off asking if she can add it to whatever she's making."
"The answer's still no." I didn’t look up from my food.
I heard my phone ringing somewhere down the hall, but wasn't willing to hurt my feet any more than they already ached by walking off to find it.
The ringtone started up again when it ended, and Niall left the kitchen.
The only people who would call me twice in a row were my family, so I didn't care if Niall answered it. Jonah would only call twice if I missed one of our scheduled runs, so I had a few hours before I heard from him. It was only 1 PM.
"Hey, man." Dare's friendly greeting to my ex had me rolling my eyes when Niall came back into the room with my phone on speaker. "Give the phone to Liv."
"I'm here," I called out.
"I hear you're cleaning out your fridge."
"That's the word on the block."
"Need backup? I don't currently have any lunch plans."
Translation: Callum was apologizing for meddling by sending Darius to ease the tension between me and my ex. And my ex's brother. The twins and Rob had always gotten along well with my family, and Dare was particularly skilled at putting people at ease.
"Come on over," I told Darius.
"Alright. Be there in ten."
I took my massive bowl to the couch with two forks just as Dare arrived.
He flipped Niall off as he passed him, plucking my phone from his hand.
Larson also received the middle finger.
Darius plopped down on the couch with me, and we turned on an action movie while we ate. He didn't say anything about it, but I noticed he wasn't eating much when I slowed down.
He probably realized I hadn't eaten enough. It was no secret that I was struggling more than usual to make my body keep up with my magic. My family had all been worried about how bad my panic attacks had gotten, even though none of them had come out and said it.
Niall's and Larson’s food was delivered a few minutes later, and they took the far end of the couch. I pointedly ignored them.
Darius and Larson chatted a little, on and off. Niall stared at me.
I ate slowly, in an attempt to make it through the whole movie.
We all knew I wouldn't, but I'd put in a solid effort.
"How are you feeling?" Darius asked me, after the food was gone and I'd started playing with a fidget toy I kept on the arm of the couch.
The movie was only half over.
"Slightly miserable," I said.
"Back to the pool?"
"If you're down to swim, and can prevent Niall from touching me again."
Dare's eyes narrowed on the shapeshifter.
"She was going to drown," Niall grumbled. "She was swimming alone again. Larson was in the hot tub, but he wasn’t in good enough shape to reach her, and she couldn’t keep her head above the water."
Darius turned his accusatory gaze to me.
"I was fine," I insisted.
"You, don’t swim alone," Darius said, then looked back at Niall. "You, don’t touch her again unless she’s dying, or I’ll have to kill you."
"Threatening me should be her mate's job," my ex tossed back.
"Why isn't he here?" Larson asked Darius. "Her feet look like they’ve been through a meat grinder because she’s been running so much. If she was with him, she wouldn’t need to, right?"
Darius looked at me again. "How bad are they?"
"Fine." I lifted the wrecked, bandaged appendages as evidence. They were wrapped in clean socks, and I didn’t wiggle my toes, because that would hurt.
"Mating is a delicate thing for fae," Darius told them, deciding against arguing about my feet. Probably just so he wouldn’t be agreeing with them.
At least it was two against two now, instead of them against me.
"Because choosing a life partner isn't delicate for the rest of us?" Niall drawled.
"Because if we don't end up with our fated mate, our life is hell," Dare said. "And we survive plenty of that before we meet them."
Darius and I headed to the pool, and I sent Jonah a quick message.
Me
Not going to make it to the run tonight
Enjoy your night off
Jonah
Try to get some rest if you can
Me
Yeah right
Jonah
Are you going to the nightclub?
I didn't answer.
It didn't hurt to leave him wondering.
Whether or not he replied would tell me how much he actually cared about me screwing someone else.
After we changed, Darius got in the pool with me. We proceeded to spend the rest of the day thoroughly dodging our similar but also extremely different magic while Niall stared at me from the side of the room, where he slept in his panther form.