She’s stolen a portion of my heart, and I ache to gift her the rest of it.
31
KATARINA
I’VE GOT a couple of bites left of my peanut butter toast when Kalos enters the kitchen.
“Good morning—” he cuts off his greeting and lasers in on my food. “What are you eating?”
Maggie hides her smile behind her book. We’ve already talked about this craving, and the conversation ended with a puzzled shrug from her.
I pull my breakfast closer to me. “Toast.”
He sniffs the air with a frown. “With cayenne pepper on top?”
I shrug. “It doesn’t really change the flavor, just the heat profile.”
And each bite causes a spark of delight that has me doing an excited shimmy. He should be glad it isn’t something like pickles and ice cream.
“Aren’t you supposed to be working?” I ask to distract him. Work is how he’s gotten out of the talk we were supposed to have after our intense night at the bathhouse.
I’d been nervous that he was avoiding me, avoiding the difficult topic, but the first night I woke to him carrying me from my bed to his eased a lot of those worries.
His actions speak louder than words. He wants me to stay.
He just needs time, and as long as there are no more growth spurts from our daughter, we have at least three months left to figure things out.
That thought causes excitement and trepidation to zing through my limbs. I don’t know if I’m ready to be a parent yet, but our little girl is impatient to light the world on fire if the number of kicks she gives me is any indication.
“I have a surprise for you,” he says, moving on from the toast with a playful glimmer in his eyes.
“Is it showing me the caverns like you said you would?” I tease while my mind works at trying to guess what this surprise could possibly be. Most of the surprises in my life have been by accident, stumbling on Kalos in his heat, the baby.
I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone plan something for me.
Kalos frowns. “No, but you’re right. I’ll need to take you down there. I don’t know if today is a good time to do that. I have a meeting, and I don’t know what other things will crop up from it.”
He rubs his hand over his chest.
“So it has been work,” I murmur, but Kalos catches the words and his sly smile does nothing to clue me in on his secrets.
“Not completely, but you’ll see.”
With my curiosity sufficiently piqued, I slide off the stool while finishing my toast. Kalos takes my hand.
“What has been keeping you so busy at work?” I ask. I miss our nightly cuddles. Griffin is a fantastic cuddle buddy, but even my amazing cat can’t take Kalos’s place. A thought that makes the option of Kalos pulling away from me hurt more… but I won’t let him do that quietly.
I believe in the relationship we could have and won’t go down without a fight.
The time I’m giving him to sort himself out is just a pause.
“We’ve initiated the transfer of powers to our new inner circle,” Kalos says, leading me up the stairs and down a hallway I’ve never gone before. “It’s been an exercise in patience and training each person in what they are responsible for now.”
“Did you manage it all yourself beforehand?”
“Yes and no. Ben has always helped, and each of the people promoted handled a portion of what they are in charge of now. This just makes their authority official.”
We stop at a door that looks like all the others. This room is probably right over his office on the lower level.
He turns toward me, and for the first time looks a little unsure.
“I think you should close your eyes,” he says.
“Oh, you think so, do you?” My lips twitch at his uncharacteristic nerves.
Kalos narrows his eyes. “Yes. Close your eyes, little queen.”
A shiver runs up my spine at the dominance in his tone, and his expression heats in response. He takes a step forward and I expect him to release his hunger for me, but he stops.
“Close. Your. Eyes.” There’s no room to argue in his words, and I pout before following the order.
The door opens with a click, and Kalos guides me into the room with a hand on my back, teasingly lowering it to pinch my ass when he has me where he wants me. “Open them.”
I blink them open, and the first thing I register is the light. The room is bright with cool light from the wide windows. The view of the forest and city beyond that is stunning.
The next thing I notice is the easel. It’s a durable build of light wood, and on it sits a canvas.
A large blank canvas. That isn’t all. There’s a drop cloth on the floor, more blank canvases resting against bookshelves, a table with organizational boxes that mimic the setup of my tools downstairs, except the cubbies are filled with new tubes of paint.
I move toward the set up slowly, as if it will disappear if I startle it. The tubes are all the same colors I’m used to working with, but these paints are the highest quality brands. I almost choke at the sight of the paintbrushes. I’ve only had one or two expensive brushes before, kept nice through careful cleaning, more than that would have been wasteful for the type of work I do. Most synthetic brushes work just fine.
Kalos has gotten me a whole set. A variety of sizes, materials, and shapes. Boar bristle and sable rounds, brights, flats, and filberts.
I’ll be the first to attest that nice tools aren’t required to be a skilled painter… but it sure makes it easier.
These are the tools of an artist.
“But I already have a workroom,” I say softly.
Kalos scoffs. “That’s a workroom. This is a studio.”
I stand stunned and start to blink rapidly at the sight of Griffin sitting in a new cat tower in the corner.
He fills in my silence with details. “If there’s anything I’ve missed, just let me know. And if you don’t like this room, you can choose another, but this does have an added benefit I’d like to show you.”
Kalos designed this room just for me.
“It’s perfect,” I say.
His shoulders drop in relief.
“Why? Why do this for me?” I ask.
Kalos stills and doesn’t answer immediately. The silence fills with all the options that my mind deems as possibilities in his smooth voice. Sweet reasons like wanting to foster my art to sexy reasons like wanting me to work closer to him and everything in between.
The one I refuse to hear is “It’s nothing.” Because this, this is something. He didn’t just buy a set of nice paints. He bought the best versions of the colors I already use. He devoted time and care to set everything up how I like it.
He got my cat a tower for fuck’s sake. This is not nothing!
Kalos’s brows furrow like he doesn’t know the right words to say.
“I think it’s time to have that talk,” I whisper.
Kalos nods, taking the change in topics in stride.
“It’s possible for a bond to form between us,” he says.
I blink. “A mating bond?”
Kalos leans back against the table, but the tension in his muscles belies his casual position.
“I consulted with a soul witch, and she says it may take some time, but it’s possible. It will require me opening up more to my dragon, but…” he trails off with a shrug. It’s possible for us to become mates.