Page 19 of Shattered Salvation
“You did. I was very gracious about it.”
“You were asleep on me.”
“I was asleep, so I can’t be held responsible for my choices.” I set his plate at the small table and put coffee beside it. “Sit down before your back starts a lawsuit.”
He stands carefully, stiff from the couch but refusing to show it more than necessary. His shirt is wrinkled where my hand must have been curled into it, and I look away fast enough that he almost doesn’t catch me.Almost.
“I made coffee too,” I point at the mug at the edge of the counter, his mouth curving into a small smile. His look is softer in the morning, and it makes him feel dangerous in a completely unreasonable way. He reaches for the fork, pauses for half a second like the motion has taken more effort than it should, and my hand moves before I know what I’m doing.
I pick up his fork, scoop a bite of eggs, and hold it out. “Here.”
Skylar goes still. Heat climbs my neck, but I just hang there, refusing to break the moment. He stayed. He came when I called. He spent the night on my couch because I needed him here and never made me say it like that. Feeding him one bite shouldn’t feel like anything more than food, but my pulse doesn’t seem to care about should.
His eyes lift to mine, and after one suspended second, he leans forward and takes the bite.
The satisfaction that moves through me is nearly overwhelming, my Omega purring at the quiet pleasure of feeding someone who needed it and let me. Skylar chews slowly, watching me with an expression that tries to be normal and fails at the edges.
“Good?” I ask.
“Good,” he says, voice rough from sleep.
I give him one more bite. After that, he takes the fork gently from my hand, careful not to brush my fingers. “I can manage.”
“I was checking.”
“For poison?”
“For whether you were awake enough to operate cutlery.”
His smile deepens by a fraction. “Fair concern.”
Silence moves between us as we eat together, Skylar across from me with his shoulders slowly loosening. He picks up the coffee, takes a sip, his eyes moving to my cheek. “How’s your head and the bruise?”
“Better. Still hurts if I move too fast.” I touch the edge of the bruise and stop when his eyes follow my hand. “I’m not dizzy right now.” I huff a small laugh and pick at my toast. “I used you as a mattress, so that probably helped.”
“You slept. I wasn’t going to argue with the method.”
His voice is gentle enough that I look down at my plate before my face starts giving away my emotions. Warmth reaches my face, spreading down my neck. If I don’t keep that under wraps, my scent will start betraying me and I can’t let Skylar think these little moments mean anything more than they do.
Skylar takes a few more bites before filling the silence. “I put in a request for the entrance and street footage from last night. If he was there, I want him on camera.”
My fingers tighten around my own mug. “If?”
“I believe you saw him.” His eyes stay on mine. “The camera is for everyone who needs more than that.”
“I keep thinking maybe I made him up,” I push out, my stomach doing a little flip.
“You didn’t make up the first attack. You didn’t make up him knowing your name.” Skylar looks at the table for a second, then back at me. “There’s something else. We reviewed traffic footage from a block over from the first night. It caught a figure close to the description you gave. Same jacket, same build, moving away from the building after the call came in.”
My toast goes cold in my hand. “So he was real.”
“Yes,” Skylar says. “He was real.”
I breathe in and it catches halfway, not quite a sob, not quite relief. “I hate that I need to hear that. What about Kade?”
Skylar’s expression shifts inward, toward the part of the case he is still trying to pry open. “I’m going to find out where the order stands today. I can’t promise you something I don’t have yet, but I can ask why it’s still being held the way it is when the file keeps moving away from him.”
I mumble a thanks and finish my breakfast. When breakfast is done, Skylar carries his plate to the sink. I let him get that far before I move in front of it.
