Page 34 of Love Bites Extra Hard

He finally took a bite of his food, chewed, and swallowed. “And we haven’t slept together.”

There was a growl in his voice.

My face warmed.

Right.

He’d just… gotten me off.

And the way he’d growled told me he must’ve been annoyed that I suggested us sleeping together.

Was he not attracted to me? He had felt attracted to me when I drank from him, but maybe my magic didn’t affect him like that anymore. Or maybe he wasn’t interested in me because of it.

Maybe he thought it was unnatural or something. My ex had thought so. He despised it when I used my magic on him, even when he forced me to.

I made myself refocus on my breakfast.

I didn’t want Talon anyway.

Or Iwouldn’twant him, if we actually screwed. I never wanted the same guy twice.

And he obviously didn’t want to be fated to me, so hopefully, we would be safe from that.

We finished eating in silence, and he took my plate again as I stopped in the bathroom to brush my teeth the same way I had the day before.

He was gone when I came back out. After I pulled his hoodie over my head, I couldn’t stop myself from tiptoeing over to the basket of scales and peeking in.

There were so many.

I took my bottom lip between my teeth and glanced at the door.

The dresser would look so much better with them on it. And I might have enough time to arrange them.

My teeth dug into my lip harder.

After a moment of silent debate, I crossed the room and quickly locked the door. Then, I went back to the basket, and pulled out an armload of scales.

The weird, obsessive part of me was thick with satisfaction as I spread my scales over the dresser, taking care to make sure each of them was situated just right.

Talon knocked on the door while I was adjusting the position of the last one. My basket still had more in it, and I was itching to put them on the bookshelf.

“Avery?” He sounded calmer than he had earlier.

“Just a minute,” I called out, grabbing my basket by the handles and carrying it over to the shelf. I liked books—but I liked scales more.

Which was literally insane.

But somehow still true.

I pulled all the books off the top shelf and arranged my scales there, before stepping back and studying it.

Perfect.

Talon knocked again. “Is everything okay?”

Maybe it had been a few minutes.

Or ten.

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