FULL NOVELXO Chapter SEBASTIAN - Take Her With Me?
WaterRose, Meadow Mountain, Grier Country
SEBASTIAN
Sebastian sat down to another impossibly quiet meal with Elsabet. She hasn’t been speaking to me since she found out I was injured saving Mardichi.
Did she want me to just let him die? A little voice in his head defended.
Not daring to get out the metal cutlery, he armed her with only a thick wooden fork to tackle the butter gravied chicken and bread, on her trencher.
She’ll stab me with anything sturdier.
But to his surprise she dived into the meal with uncharacteristic fervor.
Elengard did outdo herself. It smells amazing. A half smile turned his lips at the sight of her happily eating.
She glanced at him from under lowered lids. Seeing his attention, she set the fork down and met his look levelly. “What?”
“It’s nice to see a woman partake of real fare, in a real manner.”
“All women do.”
Incorrect.
“Rarely that I’ve ever seen.”
“Seen many lately, have you?” She asked. Face unreadable a moment before she collected her fork and resumed her meal.
Mardichi was wounded. You can’t possibly think I garnered pleasure from some wild woman taking bites out of me?
“No.”
“So, you prefer to frequent your time around the manner of women who feign small appetites and eat very little in men’s company because they think it more tantalizing…delicate, to him?”
Clearly. Unless I’m the meal and they’re ripping off my flesh.
You know better. He gave her a dark look.
“I don’t find other women tantalizing. No matter how delicate.” He said in a low voice as he stared at her across the dark table. Lounged back in his chair, casually. But his annoyance was obvious in the grip he held on the armrests. Tilting his head to observe her. “I find you tantalizing…”
She grunted as she refocused on her food.
Fine. Don’t believe me.
You use all these accusations of other women as armor to protect yourself from falling in love with me.
She sent him another furtive glance from beneath the sweep of dark lashes.
Go ahead and pretend like I don’t know.
“You speak as a woman who once ate small bits so a man would find you…delicate.” His head tilted like an intrigued hound.
The room was currently only lit by a few meager torches since neither of them truly required any light to see. But they flared at his question.
Her anxiousness.
“We’re not going there.” She dismissed. Applying another forkful of chicken to her mouth.
Of course. Nothing gets past your walls, right Little Bird? Ire made his lips twitch and his eyes flash gold.
“I thought not.” He commented. Shifting to one side in his chair.
“Why are you not eating?” She lifted her head to give him a quizzical look.
“I crave something fresher.”
Meat. I haven’t had a meal in the woods since I was injured.
It’ll help me heal.
“Ah.” She nodded in understanding as she went back to eating.
“It’s amusing to me that you understand my need yet are unafraid or disgusted.”
She looked at him, confused. “Why would I? I’d always prefer something fresher.”