Page 147 of Verses

I got out of bed and stretched before heading into his bathroom. Jesus. I looked horrible because of the way my eye makeup had smeared, so I grabbed a washcloth out of the small cupboard and ran it under warm water before removing as much of the smeared eyeliner and mascara as possible.

By then, I was thoroughly freezing, but most of my clothes were scattered around his house.

I walked back in the bedroom where most of the lower half of my clothes were and decided to put on my jeans and socks—butnot the panties. Those things needed a good washing. I left them with my boot before deciding to put on one of Wolf’s t-shirts.

I looked at his dresser, trying to figure out which drawer would have his shirts and just decided to start with the top one. After pulling it open, I found nothing but underwear. Then I opened the second one and scored. There weren’t just t-shirts. There were also undershirts and wifebeaters in the mix. I grabbed what I thought was a plain black one and pulled it over my head.

Much better.

It wasn’t until I walked out of the bedroom that I realized it was a Wickeds t-shirt, complete with their skull logo.

Wandering out into the rest of the house, I almost paused in the living room, because Wolf had a fire roaring in the fireplace and my bones relished the sensation. But my stomach was growling: breakfast was calling.

As I passed the couch on my way to the dining room, I noticed that Wolf had folded my clothing—not just what was indoors but also in the garage—and placed it on a cushion next to my other boot. My cheeks almost flushed as I passed the dining room table. Would I ever be able to look at it the same again?

Wolf stood at the stove, removing slices of crisp bacon from a skillet with tongs onto a plate lined with paper towels. “Good morning,” I said, walking closer.

“Morning, songbird. How’d you sleep?”

“Great! Your bed is way better than mine. What about you?”

“Can’t complain. Help yourself to some coffee.”

“Thanks.” I took a mug out of the cupboard and started pouring myself a cup, breathing in the amazing aromas.

Wolf started cracking an egg. “Where’d you get that shirt?”

“Oh, uh…from one of your drawers. I hope you don’t mind.”

The way he just nodded his head and cracked another egg told me maybe hedidmind—but he didn’t say anything, and Iwasn’t sure if I should push the issue. After stirring sugar and cream into my coffee, I simply said, “Thanks.”

“Yep.”

“Can I, um…do anything to help?”

“You can make the toast if you want.”

And so I did. We worked in silence until we were seated at the dining room table. Ordinarily, being quiet around Wolf wouldn’t have bothered me at all—but I’d made a misstep somehow and, instead of moving forward, I felt like I needed to address it.

As I picked up my fork, I asked, “Did I make you angry by borrowing a shirt?”

“No. It’s fine. Your things were out here.”

“Okay.”

But even the way he said it felt…clipped. Terse. Maybe there was something in his drawers that he hadn’t wanted me to see. And that was fine, I supposed. We all had secrets—and Wolf and I hadn’t been together that long. There was plenty of my history I hadn’t divulged to him, so why should I expect him to be any different?

So maybe it had bothered him a little but he knew he was being irrational and just had to get over it—meaning I would change the subject and stop worrying about it. “So what all do you have planned for the day?”

“Besides work, I’ll just be tinkering with my bike. The weather’ll be warming up soon, and when it does, that’s all I’ll be driving.”

Nodding, I finished the bite of eggs in my mouth. “Is it hard to learn to drive a motorcycle?”

“Did you ever learn to ride a bike?”

“Yeah, but I haven’t done that since I was a kid.”

Wolf nodded, picking up his coffee mug. “That’s something you don’t forget—how to balance it and move forward. That’s half the battle. There’s a lot you have to learn, but it’s probablynot as hard as you think.” He took a long swallow of his coffee. “Why? You think you might want to ride?”

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