Page 22 of Orlando
He gently pushed the door open wider and stepped through.Orlando was in the kitchen, his back to Liam.He was staring at a cauliflower as if he expected the thing to jump off the counter and attack him.He had a knife in his hand and used it to poke at the cauliflower, and his expression was so confused and almost offended that the cauliflower didn’t do anything that Liam had to smile.
“Please tell me you know how to cook that thing,” he said.
Orlando blinked.“Of course I know.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Orlando’s shoulders slumped.“Okay, maybe I don’t.”
“Why did you buy it?”
“Because I didn’t know what you wanted to eat, and I wanted you to think I was a functional adult.”
“Functional adults eat cauliflower?”
Orlando shrugged.“Functional adults eat vegetables.Of course, they also know how to cook, which isn’t my case, but I wanted to try.”
He shouldn’t be so adorable and endearing.Liam shouldn’t be thinking about how nice Orlando was, either.He should be freaking out, and he was, but it was nice to stop obsessing over what would happen to him over the next few days for a while.
He stepped forward and noticed the way Orlando was watching him.He was a little tense, almost as if he expected Liam to explode.It was a possibility if Liam didn’t stop thinking about all of this, so he told himself not to and continued moving toward Orlando.When he reached him, he held out a hand, and Orlando handed over the knife with a smile.
“I realize you’re no doubt better trained with a knife than I am, but it’s a different set of skills,” he said.
Orlando looked puzzled, which made sense.Liam had been trying to avoid thinking of the fight that he’d been trained to kill people with knives and other weapons.Now, he was joking about it.He wasn’t even sure what he was thinking.
This had to be confusing for Orlando, too.Hell, it was probably even more confusing for him.He had a mate, and he hadn’t even been able to bask in that knowledge.Instead, he was having to protect Liam.
Liam turned toward the counter.He didn’t know what Orlando had been thinking when he’d bought the cauliflower, but thankfully,hecould cook.
He started chopping the cauliflower.He could feel Orlando’s gaze on him, and he waited for his mate to say something, but Orlando didn’t.It was like he was waiting for Liam, which, on the one hand, was good because it gave Liam space, but on the other, it made Liam even more nervous.
This was the man he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with.He wanted to get to know him, even though the circumstances were far from ideal.He and Orlando were going to spend a lot of time together in the next few days, so Liam should relax, but how could he?It wasn’t even Orlando.It was everything else.
“So, what do you think happened?Is this a case of mistaken identity?”he asked just to say something.Orlando had already mentioned that was what he thought, but Liam didn’t know what else to say.
“There’s no way to know for sure, but since I got confirmation that they’re looking for someone named Liam Portman, I think it’s safe to say that it is.”
“I can’t believe they’d make that kind of mistake.”
“Neither can I.I know how the assassins are trained, and this doesn’t feel like something the council or anyone who works for them would do.It’s unacceptable.”
It was unacceptable to kill people, but it was especially unacceptable to kill someone who was innocent and had no idea what was going on.Every time Liam thought about it, he wanted to scream.
He didn’t.It was clear his mate was freaking out enough already.Liam suspected he wasn’t making things any easier.
He wasn’t surehowto make this easier on both of them.
“Can you tell me about the assassins?”he asked, even though he was slightly afraid of the answer.
“I can’t tell you a lot.I signed documents and forms that forbid me to do so.”
“I’m your mate.”
“I don’t think it changes anything.”
Liam glanced sideways at Orlando.“They’rehuntingme.”
Orlando sighed.“Fine.I can tell you everything you want to know, but you have to promise me you won’t ever tell anyone.You can talk to the others who trained with me if you want because they already know, and with the trainers, but anyone outside of that can’t know.”
