Page 36 of Sleeping Redemption
“I can manage,” I spoke with confidence. However, Sylas was clearly not looking for my input as he kept his attention on Kinley.
She dropped her hands down to her sides, “Goddamnit, Sylas. I said I’m okay.”
There was one more stern glance cast my way from the uptight archangel before he disappeared before our eyes.
Keeping my feet secured in the spot where I stood, my fingers fidgeted inside my jeans’ pockets. My eyes settled on Kinley, watching and waiting for her to say something. The air between us hung stagnant, and she avoided my gaze, looking at anything and everything else. She inspected her nails, readjusted the sash around her waist, and observed the hallway light fixture.
Unable to take the silence any longer, I decided to leap straight into the awkward feelings. “So, do you remember that we were… together?”
“Yeah.” That was all there was to her response. She didn’t bother to acknowledge any of her feelings about the meaningful relationship we once shared. I didn’t expect her to profess it had been an all-encompassing love, but I had hoped that maybe a part of her still felt the connection we used to have.
“Oh.” I rocked back on my heels, wondering what else I could say to get through this web of uncharted territory between us.
Before any genius icebreaker questions came to mind, Kinley unceremoniously made an announcement. “I’m going to go get dressed.” She spun on her feet and walked back into her room, not bothering to shut the door.
She shed her robe, dropping it to the floor where it looked like a wild flamingo carcass in contrast to the pure shades of white that swept over every other inch of her room. My eyes followed the lean lines of her legs, the pale skin a familiar memory. By the time my eyes reached the top of her thighs and the delicious curve of the bottom of her ass cheeks, my brain came back up from its vacation in my cock to knock some sense into me.
Quickly, I spun to give Kinley her privacy. It wasn’t anything of hers that I hadn’t seen before, but the way things currently stood, I wasn’t convinced I’d get the privilege to see the most intimate parts of her again.
I swore I heard a light giggle come from her, one that tempted me to take a look over my shoulder to see what brought a smile to her face. Denying myself the chance, I bit into my lower lip as I tried to focus on the dark brown boots on my feet.
A moment later, Kinley spoke from directly behind me as she passed by me, heading towards the stairs. “I guess you really didget fully converted to the light side where the good boys behave themselves.”
Chapter Sixteen
On the way downstairs, I adjusted the oversized scarlet sweater on my small frame, allowing the neckline to fall to the side, exposing my bare shoulder. It was too bad that Atlas hadn’t kept watching as I got dressed, he would have gotten quite the show as I bent over to shimmy into my black leggings. Instead, he chose what I’m sure he considered the honorable route by averting his gaze.
I’m unsure what got him and Sylas all riled up before I discovered them trading blows in the hallway. But one thing I was sure of was that the self-care session between myself and that vibrator had been desperately needed. Unfortunately, their inability to play nicely together interrupted my efforts to get off. If they had been good little angels, I would have invited them both in to play.
Now, I was stuck alone in my house with someone who was a stranger whom I used to be intimately familiar with. My brain still reeled from the discussion with Sylas and the explanation he had given me that in fact, the man in my home was the very sameAtlassian I had watched murdered on that snowy mountain. No tricks or deceptive measures were being played.
Most humans found it awkward to run into an ex-flame a couple of years after a split. Imagine that magnified by hundreds of years. He may have looked the same, but he wasn’t the same—a cambion who got his angel wings. It was absurd. Shit, I wasn’t even the same woman he used to know. If he thought for one moment that I was, he was going to be leaving full of nothing but disappointment.
My bare foot hit the bottom step, and I realized that I needed a way to pass the time until Sylas returned that didn’t involve staring at Atlas while he twiddled his thumbs. I was ready to call out for Christina to entertain me until I recalled that Rook and Sy had dismissed all my human staff. Assholes.
Going into the kitchen, I rummaged through my pantry until I found a box of brownie mix. I snagged it from the shelf and prepared a space on the center island. Just as I pulled out an old metal paint tray from under the sink to bake them in, Atlas walked into the kitchen pulling his shoulder-length locks back into a neat ponytail.
Suppressing the dramatic sigh forming in my chest, I pressed on with the task at hand. This would be so much easier with one of my toys helping me. I dumped the powdery contents of the mix into a bowl. Atlas leaned a shoulder against the side of the fridge, crossing his arms in front of his chest, and watched me intently as I retrieved two eggs.
Not saying a word, I went back to the bowl and dropped both eggs, shell and all, into the mix. Reading the directions, it wanted two-thirds of a cup of vegetable oil. Who the fuck carried this shit and had it readily on hand? I opened a few drawers looking for the essential oils that Christina often raved about having healing properties. Finding the box of them, I pulled outa small vial of carrot seed oil. Not knowing what size cup to use, I dumped the entirety of the contents into the bowl just to be safe.
Interrupting my concentration on making a sweet treat, Atlas spoke up, “I missed you.”
Briefly, I paused in my steps, giving him the barest of glances before adding the three spoonfuls of water to my brownie mix. Using the very same spoon, I jabbed at the eggs and began mixing everything together. It seemed rather dry, but I was determined in my efforts to get it all combined.
Atlas left his spot by the fridge and came up behind me, peering over my shoulder as I worked.
“You know what I miss? Having help around here,” I bluntly stated.
He chuckled and reached around me, his hands easing the spoon and bowl from mine. “Here, let me help.” Atlas walked over to the trashcan and dumped my hard work into it.
“What are you doing?!” I shrieked as I ran over to him, my hand ripping the bowl out of his hand before shoving him.
A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “There’s a reason why I used to do all the cooking. It seems your culinary skills haven’t improved any.”
Fuming that I would have to start all over, I marched over to the sink and tossed the bowl into it. A loud clatter rang out as the metal bowl hit the bottom of the stainless-steel sink. “Stop doing that.”
He raised a brow. “Stop doing what?”
