Page 46 of Blood Magic (Ariel Kimber 3)

I knew she didn’t have much in the way of belongings. I had seen the room she’d lived in while staying at Marcus’s and the room where she’d lived before moving to Marcus’s house. I think she was lucky to ever even have clothes to cover her body with.

I frowned. She would need more of those as well. Damien was just the man for that particular job, but he would need me to go along with him. Ariel had this cute gothic punk thing going for her, only it wasn’t exactly either of those. Her style was hard to explain and pinpoint, but it certainly was cute.

Damien wouldn’t get it. He liked preppy clothes. He liked designer clothes, the more expensive the better. The things he would buy Ariel if left to his own devices she would probably toss in the garbage.

I frowned.

No, that wasn’t right. The twins had told us all about how she felt about wastefulness and why she felt the way she did.

Damien could absolutely not be left alone to buy Ariel new clothes. No way, no how. It was kind of sad, really, because he loved to shop, and he loved to buy new clothes.

I would need to do some research beforehand. I moved Ariel’s brush and hair bands to the top of her dresser. I picked up the dirty, fuzzy socks and walked them to the bathroom where I dropped them into the hamper where they belonged. Dash would wash them for her. He needed a purpose and I was almost certain that taking care of Ariel would soon become his main purpose.

Right then, I had my own purpose.

I removed the comforter from her bed. She’d only slept under it twice, that I knew of. I balled it up in my arms and walked out of her room. I thought about going downstairs and putting it into the washer but decided against it. I stuffed it into the hamper in the closet in the bathroom on top of Ariel’s dirty socks. Dash could wash that as well. I didn’t feel bad about it. He got to live with her, he could suck it up.

I went back into Ariel’s room. I checked her pillows and the sheets, making sure she hadn’t gotten anything on them. They were fine, clean, and didn’t smell like anything but Tide.

After smoothing out the sheet, I picked up the comforter that had come from Marcus’s house and spread it out over the bed. I smoothed the comforter out, making it look nice. After, I pulled the top sheet back with the comforter so I wouldn’t have to do it when I brought her up here. This way, I’d be able to put her in her bed and cover her up without hassle.

When I had that done, I got to work on the important stuff. Research.

I went to the dresser and pulled open the top drawer and immediately pushed it shut again. We wouldn’t be buying her underwear. No way, no how. Damien would like that way too much for my liking.

I pulled open drawer after drawer and frowned. They were all empty. The closet was empty as well.

I looked around the room, taking in the boxes on the floor. This was all that she had? I thought Marcus would have done right by her, but by the looks of it, I was wrong.

I didn’t want to go snooping through her boxes, but I would have to now in order to find her sizes.

I looked through the opened boxes until I found a tank top and a pair of shorts that told me what size she wore. I made sure to put everything back how I’d found it before I touched anything.

She had one lone pair of flip flops on the floor in the closet. I picked the right one up and read the size on that, too.

I made sure to memorize the sizes for everything. I didn’t want to forget and get it wrong later.

I knew it was petty, but it felt good to know something about her that I was sure Ty didn’t know about her. On the way downstairs, I couldn’t help wanting to kick my own ass for thinking that way.

Tomorrow I would have to find Tyson and apologize to him for being such an asshole. He would accept my apology and we’d both go about pretending to forget it ever happened. Neither of us would forget anything. It would fester between us until his temper got the better of him and he snapped. It would likely end in another bout of violence with him hitting me first. Then, we’d be even.

Ariel hadn’t moved from where I’d left her on the couch. She was dead to the world and I hoped it meant she wouldn’t wake up when I moved her.

Very gently, I rolled her over to her side with her back to me. I slid my arms under her knees and around her back. I stood up with her in my arms and cradled her high against my chest.

She weighed less than she had the first time I’d lifted her up in my arms. The first time, theonlytime, I’d seen her naked it hadn’t registered to me what I’d actually seen until hours later. Then the vision of her had been burned into my brain for days. My dick got hard every time I thought about it and I’d hated myself for it. Any other time but then and it wouldn’t have bothered me.

I held her tight to my chest as I made my way up the stairs and back to her room.

I heard Dash snoring quietly from behind his bedroom door and I shook my head. He almost never snored and had always been a light sleeper. Those pain meds must have knocked him out on his ass. Good, I thought. He needed the rest.

Ariel mumbled softly under her breath when I laid her down in her bed. I had no idea what she’d said but it sure was cute. I tucked her feet in and pulled the top sheet and blanket over her. I tucked her in tightly and forced myself not to look at her. I wouldn’t look at her. If I did I would want to lay down beside her and sleep with her in my arms all night long. She hadn’t invited me to sleep in her bed with her and I wouldn’t do it until I was invited.

I went down the stairs with empty arms and a longing I didn’t enjoy feeling because it brought on memories I had no desire to revisit. I hated Annabell but I missed the physical relationship we’d had. She’d been the only female I had ever touched in any way and it had been my favorite part of our short-lived affair.

I knew there would be no touching Ariel in that way anytime soon and I was more than okay with that. I knew she’d kissed Ty and Quint because Quint had told me. But she had a deeper connection with the two of them than she did anyone else. I wanted that connection for myself a hell of a lot more than I wanted to have sex with her. That’s not to say I didn’t want to have sex with her because I did. Lots and lots of sex. But I had done things backwards with Annabell and skipped the connection part with her and went straight for the sticking my dick in her part. And the whole thing had blown up in my face. It had blown up in all of our faces and we’d almost been torn apart because of it.

I was determined to do things the right way with Ariel and I would get the connection I craved with her. I knew she wasn’t anything like the other one but if we had that soul deep connection then she wouldn’t go anywhere, and I wouldn’t have to worry about losing any part of her. I shouldn’t have worried about her going anywhere but I did. The women in my life didn’t stick around for very long. My mother had died young and took my heart with her. Annabell was gone and good riddance. But she’d made sure to shred my heart in the process. It had sucked worse than normal because I had just managed to grow the damn thing back and it hadn’t even been full sized yet when she got ahold of it.

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