Page 65 of Forever Touched

And the second half.

Belatedly realizing that I was the only one eating, heat crept into my cheeks. Not much embarrassed me anymore, but I felt like a strange creature in a circus show at the moment. I swirled my fork in the air, trying to keep the unease from my voice as I asked, “Do you all only drink blood for breakfast?”

Way to be the odd man out.

When Kade barked a laugh, Isla quickly elbowed him in the side. “Shush! We’re making her uncomfortable. To answer your question, Kenna and the twins usually eat food once a day, but the rest of us don’t need it like they do. Anddefinitelynot like you. Wow, girl, you sure can wolf down food. How do you keep your figure? If I ate like that during my time as a human, it would go straight to my thighs and butt.”

“More to grab on to,” Kade purred, reaching behind her to do just that.

She yelped and batted his hand away. “Behave. We have a guest.”

He looked over at me with a wink. “Adalyn isn’t a guest. She’s family now.”

I suddenly found it hard to breathe. Did he really mean that, or was I not supposed to take it seriously? Either way, I hadn’t been part of a family inyears. The thought of being included in this one made my heart ache, but not in a bad way.

I snuck a glance at Everett again and found him closely watching me.Tooclosely. The bastard was trying to read mymindagain.

Needing a distraction, I answered Isla’s earlier question. “I do a lot of dancing, which definitely helps keep me in shape.”

“Oh!” Her eyes lit up. “Kade told me you were a dancer. So what made you choose that profession?”

I inwardly grimaced, wondering whatelsehe’d told his wife. Islaseemed genuinely interested, though, so I decided to answer her honestly.

“It’s sort of in my blood, actually. My mom was originally a prima ballerina from Japan. She and my dad met and fell in love while she was at an international ballet competition here in the states, so she decided to relocate here after they got married. She started to teach me how to dance when I was only two, but she died in a car crash a couple years later.”

Isla’s expression flooded with sympathy. “I’m so sorry. I lost my mom too. I bet she’d be so proud of you for following in her footsteps.”

I huffed a wry laugh. “Thanks, but I doubt she would approve of my type of dancing.”

Um, yeah, my social skills were definitely stunted. Who admitted that kind of stuff to perfect strangers? Now I’d just made everything awkward again.

“Your dancing is beautiful,” a voice smoothly cut through the awkwardness, and my eyes jumped back to Everett’s.

He was still watching me closely but not like before. His expression was soft now andopen. So open that I knew he’d meant what he said. He truly thought my dancing was beautiful. Overwhelmed by how that made me feel, I dropped my gaze to my plate.

“Thank you,” I managed to whisper.

He really needed to stop coming to my rescue and saying stuff like that. Stuff that made me feel things.Confusingthings. Things that flipped my world upside down and had me questioning everything.

Like how I could possibly return to my old life after this. Like how I could keep pretending that he wasn’t worming his way under my skin.

The insufferable bastard had claimed me without my permission, but I could no longer deny my feelings. I cared about him.Cared.

And that was bad. Really, really bad.

I might as well stick my knife into my own chest. Nothing good would come of these feelings. Foreitherof us.

20

EVERETT

As we left the lakehouse, I was still reeling from all that I’d learned about Adalyn this morning.

She had a mouse familiar named Pepper, and her social skills were adorably awkward. Shefitinto the family. Rather seamlessly, actually, like a glove. If I wasn’t so pleased by that fact, I’d almost be jealous.

But I was also troubled by her addiction to venom and the way she devoured food. Her build was naturally petite, but I could see it in her eyes now. The hunger. The desperation.

She was in survival mode.

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