Page 13 of Mated to the Enemy
6
She awoke quickly, in a cold sweat as panic filled her body.
Jessica remembered where she was. High House Ursa. Ursidae Manor. She was among theenemy. Looking around wildly, she flung the covers back, only to realize that firstly, she was naked underneath, and secondly, she wasn’t alone in the room.
“Hey!” she yelped, snatching the covers back up to cover her chest from his roving gaze.
Klaue though, wasn’t looking at her as she’d assumed. Not really, at least, though he did occasionally glance her direction as he moved through a slow series of poses and actions.
He was shirtless, clad only in a pair of trunks that, while probably loose fitting on any other man, were still just a little too tight on him, giving her an eyeful of his thick legs, and also his junk.
“Can you put a shirt and some better fitting shorts on?” she muttered as he continued his routine.
“No,” he said with a soft exhale. “I like the freedom.”
“Right.” She stared at him, filling in the gaps from her memory from the night before.
He was just as big as she remembered him, which was to say, gargantuan. Klaue was bigger in every way than the men of House Canis. Taller, broader in the shoulder, bigger arms, the list went on. As she watched him move, every muscle seemed to pop into stark relief against the rest of his body, a testament to the peak physical form he was in.
There couldn’t be an ounce of fat on his body, despite the sheer bulk of his size. As he turned lightly on his feet, her eyes counted four distinct pairs of abs and a very solid v-line that disappeared into his too-tight shorts—or were they boxers?
Everything about the man screamed military, from his demeanor, to the clipped tones when he spoke, to the standard-issue crew cut. On a lot of men, she thought it was just too much. But it suited Klaue as if he was born for that sort of life. Hell, maybe he was. For all Jessica knew, House Ursa dictated where people would work.
“Did you sleep okay?” he asked, balancing on one foot, leg slightly bent. His other leg was pulled to his chest, his arms out wide. Slowly, he rotated, then twisted at the hips, his leg extending out to the side while his arms stretched back to counterbalance his weight as he went into full extension. It was interesting—and more than a little enjoyable—to watch such a large man use such precise and measured movement.
“Yes,” she said eventually. “I did, actually.”
She’d slept like a rock. Jessica didn’t remember leaving the kitchen. She didn’t remember the bed. She… “Hey, did you undress me?” she said abruptly.
Klaue exhaled slowly. She thought it was part of his routine, but also detected an undercurrent of exasperation.
“No,” he said at last. “You did that yourself at some point. When I put you to bed, you were fully clothed.” His head turned slightly so she could see him glaring. “I’m not some sort of monster or pervert. I’ve seen boobs before.”
Then he resumed his motions. Was this his normal morning warm-up?
“What are you doing?” she asked, figuring it to be as good a way as any of keeping the conversation going.
“Warming up. Getting ready.”
It was a purposefully vague answer. Jessica grit her teeth but didn’t give in to the temptation to snap at him.
“Do you have something coming up today?”
“Yes.”
Great. It’s going to be like that, is it?Dealing with Klaue was obviously going to try her patience.
“And what do you have coming up that you’re getting warmed up for?” she asked, putting as much cheer into her voice as she could.
“The fight.” Klaue crouched low, arms wide, then swept them back in as he stood, his voice even and steady when he responded, matching his body movement. It was infuriating, and there was nothing she could do about it.
“The fight?”
Klaue didn’t respond, but she knew he’d heard her question. They were the only two people in the room—rooms, she corrected, seeing several doors leading to other places—and he was no more than twenty feet away. It would have been impossible not to hear.
Fine. Be that way.She slid to one side of the bed, finding her clothing all piled there in a heap. It was a bit of an experiment getting dressed under the covers so Klaue couldn’t see her, but she managed.
“By chance, is there anywhere here I can find clothing that, you know,isn’thuge, baggy, and brown?” she asked, forced to roll the sleeves back upon themselves nearly to the armpits just to get them above her wrist. The pants fit a little better thankfully, courtesy of what she’d been told were her “childbearing hips”. That, combined with two drawstrings on the sweatpants meant they stayed—mostly—in place. She wouldn’t be running in them anytime soon though.
