“Move away,” I demanded, my hands going to his wrists and pushing.
“No, now that I’ve put up with this rubbish, you earn your food and clothes and, I’m warning you, now I’m hungrier than I was before so I’ll not tolerate anymore of this absurdity.”
“I’m not being absurd!” My voice was rising. “I’m telling you the truth!”
He kept my gaze even as he shook his head. “Make no mistake, Cora, I’ll eat in front of you and you’ll wear that nightgown until it falls off, if it comes to that.”
“Fine!” I snapped. “Great!” I fairly shouted. “Do what you will. I’ll not earn one more thing from you!”
He nodded his head once, muttered, “Your choice,” let me go and moved away.
And that, apparently, was that.
Jerk!
I stood against the stone, realized I was breathing heavily and watched him go.
Well, that didn’t work.
“You know what?” I asked him as he crouched by one of the sacks and started pulling stuff out. He turned his head to me and I kept going. “When your Cora comes back, and I hope to God she does, not only so I can go home but also so I can get away from you, you’re going to feel just like the ass**le, jerk, scumbag you are!”
He looked back into the sack, mumbling, “I’ll take that chance.”
Argh!
Chapter Seven
Only Stupid People Get Bored
I woke the next morning half on and totally wrapped around Noctorno again.
Great. Just great.
Why couldn’t my unconscious self hate him as much as my conscious self, I ask you?
I rolled away, landing on my back and he rolled with me, landing mostly on my body.
Fabulous.
I opened my eyes and looked into his.
Jeez, it totally sucked he was so freaking gorgeous.
“Good morning, love,” he murmured.
I glared at him thinking there was not one damned thing good about it. First, I had a headache. Second, I was starving. Third, I needed a bath, with soap. Fourth, I was sick and damned tired of wearing this nightgown. Fifth, I was tired and damned sick of this cave. Sixth, I had to go to the bathroom and that meant he had to go with me which was humiliating. Seventh, he was there and I hated him no matter how gorgeous he was. And last, I was still not home.
Needless to say, yesterday did not go well. He took me to answer nature’s call twice more and when I was back in the cave he left (taking the jugs and sacks with him, the king of all ultimate jerks) and came back after filling the one with water which he informed me I could partake of at will. This was good for I could dehydrate faster than starve but it was bad because drinking water made nature call.
Other than that, he spent most of the day somewhere else (but close, I could hear him doing such things as murmuring to his horse, chopping wood and what I guessed was sharpening weapons) and I spent most of the day alone, getting hungrier and hungrier by the minute, bored out of my skull at the same time scared beyond reason.
I wanted to go home.
“I need coffee,” I informed him because I did. I knew my headache wasn’t because I was hungry. I knew it was because my system desperately needed caffeine.
“Coffee sounds good,” he whispered, his eyes moving to my mouth.
Oh God. Here we go.