Zarek glanced out the kitchen window where the snow continued to fall. Sooner or later, Astrid would sleep and then he would leave.
Then she couldn't stop him.
Astrid started to go after Zarek, but stopped herself. She wanted to see what he would do. What he intended.
Sasha, what is he doing?
She held herself still and used Sasha's sight. Zarek was unbuttoning his coat. Her breath caught at the sight of his bare chest. Every muscle on his body rippled as he removed the coat and draped it over the back of her ladder-back chair.
The man was simply gorgeous. His tawny, bare back and wide shoulders inviting. Delectable.
But what stunned her was his right arm and shoulder, which were a total mess from Sasha's attack.
Astrid gasped at the sight of what her companion had done. Zarek on the other hand didn't seem to be the least bit bothered by his vicious wounds. He went about his business as if nothing had happened.
"Do I have to look at this?" Sasha whined in her head. "I'm going to go blind looking at a naked man."
"You're not going to go blind and he's not naked." Unfortunately.
Astrid was a bit taken aback by that uncharacteristic thought. She'd never ogled a man before, but she found herself transfixed by Zarek.
"Yes I am, and yes he is. Naked enough to make me lose my lunch anyway." Sasha started out of the kitchen.
"Sasha, stay."
"I'm not a dog, Astrid, and I don't care for that commanding tone. I stay with you by my choice, not by yours."
"I know, Sasha. I'm sorry. Please, stay for me." Growling in a manner very reminiscent of Zarek, Sasha loped back into the kitchen and sat down to watch him.
Zarek paid no attention to Sasha while he moved about the kitchen looking for something.
She frowned at him pulling out a small pan. As he moved toward her fridge, her breath caught at the sight of a stylized dragon tattooed onto the small of his back. And right above it was the fierce-looking wound where someone had shot him.
She cringed in unexpected sympathy. For the first time in a long while she actually felt sorry for someone. It looked vicious and painful.
Zarek moved as if he barely noticed it.
He went to the fridge and pulled out her milk and the big Hershey candy bar she'd bought on impulse. He poured the milk into the saucepan and then added pieces of the chocolate to it.
How strange. He'd bit her head off and intimidated her, then tended her, and now he was making hot chocolate.
"It's not for you," Sasha said to her.
"Hush, Sasha."
"It's not. Wanna bet he tries to poison me with the chocolate?"
"Well, then don't eat it."
Zarek turned around and leveled a sinister sneer at Sasha. "Here, Lassie, want to go find Timmy in the well? C'mon, girl, I'll even open the door for you and toss you a biscuit."
"Here psycho-Hunter, wanna find my teeth in your-"
"Sasha!"
"I can't help it. He bothers me. A lot."
Zarek looked over at the water and food bowls that Astrid had placed on a small tray that was about four inches off the floor for Sasha.