Page 16 of Burned By My Mate

It’s not, but I can’t tell her that. Not yet.

Instead, I take a step back, forcing my body to relax. “You should eat.”

She blinks. “What?”

I nod toward the kitchen. “I’ll make something. You need to eat.”

Her mouth opens like she wants to argue, but then she sighs.

“Fine.”

She follows me into the kitchen, and as I move around, pulling ingredients from the fridge, I canfeelher watching me.

“Do you cook all the time?” she asks, sliding onto a stool.

I shrug. “Yeah. Gotta eat.”

She huffs a laugh. “You said that last time.”

I smirk but don’t respond as I crack eggs into a pan.

For a while, we sit incomfortable silence—me cooking, her watching. The tension from earlier slowly fades, replaced by somethingwarmer. When I set a plate in front of her, she gives me a look.

“You do realize I can cook, right?”

“I’m sure you can.”

She narrows her eyes. “So why are you feeding me like a stray?”

I grin. “You gonna complain or eat?”

She grumbles but digs in. I watch, satisfied, as she takes the first bite, her shouldersrelaxing slightly.

Good.

She might not realize it yet, but as long as she’s here,I’ll take care of her. Even if she fights me the whole damn time.

An hour later, I sit across from Emerson, my fingers tapping against my thigh as I consider my next move. I need to tell her. Not everything, not yet, but she needs to know enough to understand that this isn’t justrandom. That whoever did this might come back. That she needs to stay here.

I exhale slowly. “Emerson.”

She looks up, her green eyes questioning.

I hold her gaze. “We need to talk.”

She stiffens. “That phrase never leads anywhere good.”

I smirk. “Probably not.”

She smiles slightly, leaning back. “Okay. Talk.”

I hesitate for a split second before deciding there’s nogood wayto ease into this.

“I don’t think your house fire was random.”

She swallows. “You think it was Red Fog?”

I nod. “The footprints. The way they’re testing the boundaries of town.” My jaw tightens. “The fact that they showed uphere.”

---