Page 6 of Guard

The woman’s shoulders sagged. “I could not ask you to wait for him.”

Rixx took in the resigned set of her shoulders and the line that had formed between her brows. How long had she been waiting for him?

“I want to go with Rixx.” Zala’s voice was almost fierce as she dropped her spoon in her stew and droplets splattered onto the table. “I’m tired of waiting.”

Myrria narrowed her gaze at the girl, and Zala’s fiery expression faded as she dropped her gaze to the table. “We will talk of this later. Now, we are eating dinner.”

Rixx recognized the signs of heartbreak in the woman’s beautiful, tortured face. He had never experienced it himself, but he had seen his Dothvek brothers tormented when they had believed they had lost their mates. Myrria was clearly heartbroken over her husband’s long absence and must be counting the days until he returned to her.

Rixx lowered his gaze to his stew. As much as he loved females and relished in pursuing them, he would never pursue a happily mated woman. Especially not one who had opened her home to him, even when many would have considered it scandalous.

No, he would ignore the flutter of desire that tripped in his chest every time she smiled. He would push aside the quickening of his pulse when he watched her move. He would stifle the desire to flirt with her and see her cheeks flush a pretty shade of pink.

All he had to do was keep his traitorous thoughts in check until he could find a way back to his ship. All the while sleeping in the woman’s bed. He groaned, glancing up when he realized how loud he’d been.

“The stew.” He motioned to his bowl. “It’s the best I’ve ever had.”

Zala cocked her small head at him. “But you haven’t taken a bite.”

Curse the godesses. The girl was going to be harder to fool than his own heart. He started to explain, but his stuttering words were interrupted by a heavy thump on the door.

Everyone swung their gaze to the door and held their breath.

Chapter

Six

Myrria was the first to move, standing and running her hands down her apron to hide the fact that her palms were sweating. She hesitated as she stared at the heavy, wooden door. There hadn’t been another thump, and if Rixx and Zala hadn’t also been gaping at the door, she might have doubted that she heard a sound at all.

“Maybe it was the wind,” Zala said, in a voice so quiet it was barely audible.

But Myrria knew that the wind didn’t thump on doors like that, and it also didn’t whip down their narrow alley.

Rixx had stood and pivoted toward the door. “Whoever made the sound did not stay to make another.” But even his voice was a hush that would not be heard through the wood planks.

“You should stand behind the curtain.” Myrria waved for him to step from the line of sight as she took tentative steps toward the door.

He complied, but he did not seem happy about it.

Myrria shook off her nerves, reminding herself that it was most likely a neighbor or her landlord or even a messenger from one of the pleasure houses bringing her a new order. With that knowledge fresh in her mind, she glanced over her shoulder to lock eyes with Zala. “There is no need to look worried, child. It is probably no one.”

Zala, who’d been half out of her stool, sat back down and plastered a smile on her face. One thing her daughter was skilled at was pretending that everything was fine even if it wasn’t. She’d had too much experience perfecting that for Myrria’s liking, but what could she do when it was just her and Zala?

Her gaze slid to Rixx. Well, now they were three again, and she suspected she was going to find out soon if that was a good or bad thing.

Myrria reached the door and put her eye to the peephole. She saw nothing, but that meant little. Anyone who wished to be unseen would merely need to squat below the view of the eyehole or to one side. She put a trembling hand on the bolt, sliding it back and swallowing hard before pulling the door back far enough for her to peek out the sliver in the door.

Nothing. She opened the door wider. There was no one on her doorstep. She swiveled her head from side to side. No one in the alley either.

“Foolish kids,” she muttered to herself, realizing that it was probably some bored children running down streets and banging on doors. She allowed herself to exhale fully, closing the door again, when a flash of white caught her eye.

She stopped closing the door long enough to see that there was something stuck to the outside of it. A squat metal tack kept thesheet of paper from falling, and Myrria suspected the thump was someone giving the tack a hard whack to fix the flyer to the door.

She didn’t bother to remove the tack, instead ripping down the paper and stepping back inside. She slid the bolt home again and allowed herself another relieved breath. “We were right. It was no one. Just this paper.”

She walked back to the table and Rixx joined her, the tension in the room breaking as they met each other’s eyes. Myrria found herself grinning, feeling silly for reacting so strongly. Of course, it wasn’t Zevrians looking for Rixx. For one, they wouldn’t knock once, and for another, they had no clue where he was.

Rixx returned her smile as he sat back down and picked up his spoon. “Do you often get papers nailed to your door?”

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