Page 20 of Midnight Rules
“Just for a moment, honey. I know you’re cold. I know.” She shined the light on Marric’s back.
Iven saw the mark even before Zinnie shut off the light. It was a single dot. No bigger than a pinprick, but the surrounding area was an iridescent white.
“Maggie’s right. It is a curse.”
Zinnie pulled out some herbs and handed them to Iven. “Chew on these, but don’t swallow them. We’re just making a paste with your saliva. It might heal him faster coming from you.” Coming from his mate.
Healing him as soon as possible would be great. He wanted his mate to feel better. Once he did, he’d have a million questions for him, starting with who might have cursed him.
Chapter Eleven
Marric wasn’t sure when he came out of the foggy feverish haze and started sleeping, but when he woke up, he didn’t have the headache he normally had after a fever spell. In fact, he felt well rested and also gross. He was sticky with sweat and smelled like body odor.
He also had no idea where he was. He just knew wherever it was, his mate had been there. It smelled like the sheriff.
“Iven,” he called out after sitting up in bed.
He smelled bacon and heard people talking, but the sound was faint. It was more like ambient noise than anything else.
He didn’t think Iven had heard him, but he didn’t want to call out again.
His clothing lay on a chair, folded and possibly laundered. Someone unclothed him, except for his underwear. Hopefully that had been his mate, because it sounded as though more than one person was in the house. He really didn’t want it to be anyone else.
The room was large and seemed to have an attached bathroom. He saw tiles through the ajar door.
Marric had to pee so badly it almost hurt. He was halfway across the room when Iven walked in. Marric stopped dead in his tracks and turned toward Iven as if he’d caught Marric doing something wrong.
Iven stood on the threshold, blinking at him as if he hadn’t seen him before. And then he licked his lips.
A lightbulb went on in Marric’s brain and he knew why Iven stared at him as though he’d seen nothing better in his life. Marric hadn’t ever thought his body was anything someone would drool over, but Iven was closer than anyone ever had been before.
Marric’s instinct was to take off his underwear to give Iven more of a view, but he still had to pee. He raced into the bathroom and shut the door behind him. He would have locked it, but he had a feeling Iven wouldn’t enter without permission.
Marric did his business and then washed his hands. Then he sat on the closed toilet lid, trying to figure out what he should do next. He’d been so sick he couldn’t get home afterward, and Iven saw. Hell, Iven took care of him. How was he supposed to explain to Iven why he was sick? Did he trust Iven with the truth?
And then something occurred to him. He stood and wrenched open the bathroom door. A part of him thought maybe Iven had left the room. But Iven must have been getting ready to knock given his proximity to the bathroom.
“What did you give me?” Marric winced when he sounded accusatory. He’d never woken up from a fever spell without having a headache and feeling like runover shit.
“What?”
“My head isn’t fuzzy. What did you do? I need to know.” Marric put a hand on his hip and glared at Iven.
Iven smirked. “Good morning to you too, mate.”
Marric had enough good sense to avert his gaze. “Sorry.” He peeked at Iven through his lashes and couldn’t help the smile that came to his lips when he saw the lust in Iven’s gaze.
Iven chuckled. “I see how this is going to go.”
“And how is that?” Marric thought he knew, too.
“You’re going to make demands and I’m going to give in, despite my good sense telling me not to. And all you have to do is look at me like you are right now.” Iven showed his hand, which Marric wasn’t expecting.
Marric bit his bottom lip to keep from smiling. “What look is that?”
Iven leaned against the bathroom’s doorframe and chuckled. “How about we talk about the herbs?”
“Herbs?” What was Iven talking about?
