Page 19 of Born of Ice

“Can I help you?” I find my voice again, arching one eyebrow.

“Oh, yes,” he draws out, sounding all too-patronizing, and then stepping around me, the giant walks into the house.

Did he just…?

“What…where are you going? Hey!” I yell, slamming the door shut and wheel myself after him as fast as I can manage. And let’s just say, I had no idea I could actually go this fast.

“You got any food in here? Or better yet, alcohol? I’m starving,” he says nonchalantly as he strolls into my kitchen, dropping his heavy bag on my wood-looking tile floor on his way there.

“You’re starving for alcohol? Who the hell are you? This is not an AA house.”

He turns around with a “you are an idiot” facial expression and one eyebrow raised at me. “Just how hard did you hurt your little head? The fuck for would I come to an AA house and ask for a drink, dummy?” Andddd he manages to insult me in my own house when I don’t even know what he’s doing here in the first place.

“Okay, this has been lots of fun.” I finally manage to wheel myself around the kitchen island and slam the fridge door shut. “But if you don’t leave right this moment, I’m calling the cops.”

“Go ahead,” he says and opens it again.

I slam it shut again, making the contents inside of it rattle. “Go ahead?” I repeat quizzically.

“Mm-hmm.” He, of course, opens the fridge again and this time I’m too stupefied to keep the game going. “The only police station I saw on my way here was the one downtown.” He peeks out of my fridge. “That’s like half an hour away from here. So, by the time they get here for no reason at all, I will at least meet them on a full stomach.” He shuts the door himself this time, lifting the lasagna leftovers I had in there.

Shock moment over with.

I grit my teeth, pull out the wooden spatula from a drawer next to me and drive it into the side of his stomach hard enough for him to squeal, jump, cry out in pain and double over.

“What the fuck?” he roars, those whiskey eyes wide and furious. “Are you insane?”

I grab the dish he set down, holding it protectively in my lap. Are these the most insane fifteen minutes of my life?

Yep.

But at least my lasagna is safe.

And as of recently, I’m not really living in fear for my life. It can go whenever it pleases. And I am not hungry, but he can’t have it either.

“Say thank you it wasn’t my filleting knife. Now get your stuff and get the hell out of my house!” I point the spatula to the door, but if I thought he’ll do as told, I was wrong.

Dead wrong.

Oh no, the bronze in his eyes solidifies and within seconds he charges at me, his somewhat woodsy yet distinctively aquatic scent wraps around me, making my head grow fuzzy—God, why does he smell like that?—and before I know it, he’s yanking onmylasagna dish and pops the lid open.

“Give that back,” I say through clenched teeth.

“What are you gonna do, cripple?” he says, stuffing a mouthful of my fucking lasagna into his mouth. “Chase me?” The idiot taunts me as he walks backward.

And just like that, all humor—however pissed off it was—is gone from my face. The previously intoxicating scent of him, now toxic and choking as the icicle pinpricks run over my useless legs.

My fingers are itching to dig into them, to scratch and claw until that ice is gone, but it won’t help. I know it won’t help because the last time I did it, the only thing I accomplished was seeing that the blood in my legs still runs red…

He sees the sudden change of expression on my face right away because I watch him stop chewing, setting the dish down and cursing softly underneath his breath. “Look, sorry, I didn’t mean that!”

“Don’t lie to me.” My words are like a hot whip, and I don’t know what makes me say it. I don’t know why all of a sudden, I don’t want to have this weird, beautiful, infuriating stranger lie to me.

Not when everyone else in my life is.

He huffs out a heavy breath and goes back to eating like nothing happened. “Fine, I totally meant that. But, like, come on, whatare yougoing to do about it?” He lifts a questioning brow my way and when no answer comes from me, he just nods and stuffs another forkful into his big, stupid mouth. “That’s what I thought.”

I’m way past finding out who this intruder is and just want him gone. He’s too…unsetting and I don’t like my reaction to him. Just a moment before he showed up I considered eating as too much effort, now look at me.

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