Page 20 of Black Widow's Bite

“You want to drive me to work and pick me up every day?” Addy asked incredulously, shifting in her seat. Clearly, she also wasn’t looking forward to spending more one-on-one time with me.

“For a while.” I shrugged. “Then we can pick up groceries too, if we have to.” I took a sip of my coffee as she digested this, chewing on her lip.

“Sure, that would be fine then, if you’re okay with it.” She replied carefully. I just shrugged and grunted at her, scowling when Wyatt smirked into his mug.

This was going to be a nightmare. If Piper had gotten us worried for nothing, I would shave that fortune-telling twerp’s head in his sleep.

Chapter 22

Addison

The rest of the weekend brought no more ominous outbursts from Piper, which everyone was thankful for. At Cain’s request, we all stayed pretty close to home, or if we had to go out, we went in pairs. Wyatt seemed to have an inkling of who or what Cain was so worried about, but neither of them deigned to share any details with the rest of us at the moment. Cain never mentioned driving me after the first time on Saturday morning, so when Monday morning came around, I wasn’t sure exactly what I was supposed to do.

I got dressed and ready for work like I normally did, but I didn’t see Cain when I went up to the kitchen for my coffee. His bedroom door was still shut, and I didn’t want to just barge in there and wake him up. I feel like normal Cain was crabby enough. No need to poke the bear first thing in the morning. I waited until it was close to the time I’d be heading out the door to walk and got my jacket and my bag ready, figuring I’d just hoof it like I usually did.

Just as I was heading out the front door, Cain seemed to appear from out of nowhere and gave me a look that suggested I was insane for not waiting for him. I huffed and adjusted my bag over my shoulder, following my surly driver out to the car. I’d seen it before, parked in the same spot outside the studio, but I’d never ridden in it until today. It was an older black car, some model I didn’t recognize, but it looked well-maintained forits age. I hopped in the passenger seat, setting my bag on my lap, and he got in silently beside me, slamming his door shut.

“Do you need directions?” I asked him after he pulled out and turned onto the road. He gave me a sidelong glance and grabbed my bag out of my lap, stowing it in the back seat without asking. I cocked an eyebrow at him but said nothing of the weirdly mom-like behaviour I’d just witnessed.

“Campus is at the end of the road. Science buildings are on the left.” he told me, and I stared at him while he just looked at me impatiently.

“I’m not stupid. I looked it up before we left.” he told me, and I was so surprised I laughed. He just rolled his eyes and turned back to the road, content with silence, I guess. But fuck him. I didn’t feel like silence. Most of my days were filled with silence until I got back home. I’d like some conversation before I entered my lonely workspace.

“So, you know what building my lab is in?” I asked, seeing just how much research he’d done on my job.

Cain sighed heavily. “Your lab is in the Fossey building, with all the zoology and biology shit,” he told me. “I found the parking lot closest to it, so you don’t need to walk across campus.” Wow, colour me surprised. I smiled at him, which he just ignored as usual.

“What are you up to today?” I asked and saw his jaw clench. This could be a fun game. How many questions could I ask before he physically threw me out of the car?

“Just work, same as you,” he replied with a shrug. Good lord, getting a detailed answer out of this guy was like pulling teeth.

“So, what are you working on today?” I replied cooly, making him purse his lips. I thought for a moment that he’d just ignore me and continue staring at the road, but I guess he was just mulling out the answer.

“I’m working on quarterly numbers for two of my clients, and I’m presenting stock options to a potential client later today,” he finally muttered, rolling his shoulders like it had taken a physical toll to answer me. He was saved from an immediate follow-up question because I was still trying to parse out what the fuck he’d just said to me. Quarterly numbers? Stock options? Before today he’d never given me a hint at what he actually did for a living, other than own a tattoo studio, which I felt probably wasn’t that lucrative in the grand scheme of things. But this sounded legitimate, like an honest-to-goodness career.

“So you’re an... accountant, then?” I hazarded a guess. He just smirked and shot me another quick glance.

“Sorry, were you expecting me to be a drug dealer or something more nefarious?” he asked, arching an eyebrow my way.

“Maybe a bookie, or a loan shark,” I replied teasingly, getting a small chuckle out of him.

“Loan sharks have to have a lot of face-to-face meetings with their clients. I like accounting because I can do it from home and mostly via email,” he replied. “I freelance mostly, and I’ve got a decent number of full-time clients as well as all the extra work that comes in around tax season. It keeps us solvent, in case the other guys can’t work for a bit.” he shrugged. I nodded, a little dumbfounded at the amount of information he’d just given me. I feel like that was the most he’d ever said at one time.

“I guess I’ll have to do my taxes this year, now that I’m living under your roof,” I sighed, and he looked at me with genuine alarm. I kept a straight face for as long as I could before I burst out laughing, and he gave me a dirty look. “Don’t worry, the business students have accounting fairs every year. I usually get one of them to do them for me,” I explained, and he just sighed. “I’m not about to do them myself. The grant stuff is a horrible mess to sort out on my taxes.”

Cain pulled into the small parking lot beside my building, stopping in front of the door. “I’ll be here at 4 p.m. to get you. Will that work?” he asked, grabbing my bag out of the backseat. He set the strap over my shoulder, his fingers brushing my neck as he pulled away, and I was momentarily flustered by the gentleness of it.

“Sounds good. I’ll be here. “ I smiled and climbed out of the car. Cain waited until I was inside the building before driving off. For such a cold and grumpy guy, he had the strangest gentle streak in him. Aside from our one steamy interaction in the kitchen when I’d first moved in, and the somewhat embarrassing afternoon he’d spent as my personal heating pad, he’d shown no genuine interest in me. Which, I guess, was better than the hostility he’d originally been feeling, so that was progress of some sort.

My day passed in a blur of numbers, my research having entered the less exciting data extraction portion of the study. I checked on all of my little spiders, who had recently been moved to a section of the lab closer to my office. The space had formerly belonged to Pete and his scorpions, but now they had been removed by the department head since his project was no longer happening. Now only my spiders and one set of tarantulas remained. The lab was oddly silent now. I’d never noticed how the clicks of the scorpions had filled the space with ambient sound until they’d disappeared.

I kept a closer eye on the clock than usual today since I didn’t want to leave Cain waiting outside for me on our first day of this new arrangement. Sometimes I could get a little carried away when I got involved in something and lose track of time. Cain had my number so he could hypothetically text me if I didn’t come out right away, but so far, none of the guys had shown any interest in using their phones. Probably because they were nevermore than two floors away from the only people they would be texting.

At a quarter to 4, I started to pack up my things and lock up my office. No one else was in today, so I shut the lights off as I left, locking the door behind me. I waited inside the set of doors overlooking the parking lot, scanning to see if Cain had already arrived. I thought I saw him for a moment, leaning against a car smoking, but when I focused in closer, it was just some student, probably getting a nicotine fix between classes. Cain pulled up right at 4, waiting outside the door like he had when he’d dropped me off. I climbed in, shooting him a smile, and again he took my bag from me and set it in the backseat.

“How was your day?” I asked him, and I watched his jaw clench as we took off towards home. “Mine was quiet.” I offered. “I spent most of it translating tables of data into usable results.”

“Same, quiet,” he replied, apparently not elaborating on that. I sighed and closed my eyes, someday I would get this idiot to talk about something willingly.

---