Page 17 of Monster Bully
“You did?” Her mouth fell open for a second and then closed. “Wow, ugh, thank you.”
“I also made myself a plate and I thought we could eat together.”
He saw the smile on her face and she nodded. “You know, I’d like that.”
Grim nodded to the bed and she rushed toward it, sliding beneath the blankets, and he waited for her to put the sheets over her before placing the tray on her lap.
“This looks so good,” she said. “Waffles. See, I told you those instructions would work well.”
“Yes, you were right. They were easy to follow.”
He took his plate off the tray, along with a knife and fork. He was hungry and wasn’t used to waiting so long for breakfast. Before Eve came into his life, he was more a baked-pastry-and-coffee kind of man.
Eve had spoiled him, and now he wanted to do the same for her.
He watched as she cut through the fluffy waffle and then placed it in her mouth. There was a small moan of appreciation.
“Oh, wow, that is so good. So good.”
Nodding his head, he dived into his own plate of food and ate. Every now and then, he lifted his head to watch Eve, to see that she was enjoying the food. He wanted to ask her questions about last night’s revelations, but he didn’t. For now, it was safer to just eat their food and not talk. Talking was where they seemed to go wrong, but he loved to hear her voice. From the moment they met, Eve talking was like sweet music to his ears, and he loved to hear her talk about anything.
“Have you gone back to the shelters?” he asked.
“The shelters?”
“The animal one and the care home, and no, don’t for a second think I’m calling the care home a shelter. I know you deal with more than one animal shelter.”
When he first met her, Eve had taken him on a little tour of both shelters during their time together. He’d also found many opportunities to hold her as one sad case after another had come into the shelters. Grim hadn’t thought he cared about animals or pets, cats, dogs, and rabbits, along with many other different beasts, until Eve. Hearing the tales she told, seeing her reaction to some of the tragic lives that had been lost, made Grim expand his moral compass to include animals. Any abusers caught within his domain were dealt with swiftly.
“No, I haven’t,” Eve said.
“I bet the animals are missing you. If you get dressed, I’ll take you to the shelters to help.”
“Don’t you have more important things to do?” Eve asked and nibbled her lip.
“No, taking you wherever you need to go is all I have to do.” And it was a start. So far, they had gotten through breakfast without arguing.
Grim was determined for her to see that nothing had changed between them. Yes, he didn’t go by the name Graham, and he wasn’t a businessman. Other than his name, he’d allowed her to assume everything else, and he wasn’t responsible for not being what she made up in her mind.
****
One Month Later
Everything felt like it had returned to normal. Well, their new normal. She attended the animal shelters every day. Grim was there to take her, and when he wasn’t, one of his men was given the job. His men didn’t seem to like the task, so she tried to make it as painless as possible.
She had gotten used to this during her time with Grim before she knew the real him. He’d admitted to her that while his men kept their distance, they had always been there when he couldn’t, to protect her. Eve could only imagine how many enemies he must have to feel the need to constantly keep an eye on her. It must be exhausting to Grim, and yet he did it without a single complaint.
At the care home, she got the men to help, carrying teas, or listening to the residents talk. When they got to the shelters, that was a different experience entirely. Most of the men who opted to be her guard tried to remain stoic and distant, but they all got the responsibility of walking the dogs or grooming them. She didn’t like them standing around just watching her, so she tried to get them involved in every area.
Slowly, day by day, week by week, it had started to feel good again. Even when she was around Grim. If he couldn’t be with her during the day, he was always there at night. They shared breakfast and dinner together. Each night, it was getting harder to leave Grim. They would sit, enjoying each other’s company, talking about everything and nothing. Sometimes they’d move to his office, where he’d enjoy a glass of whiskey. She wasn’t much of a drinker, and always stuck with either water or hot chocolate, depending on what she fancied.
If they were not in his office, then in the sitting room, enjoying some mundane show on television. They never stuck to one thing.
Each night was getting harder. Eve would try to leave before Grim, but every time she did, he was more than willing to escort her upstairs to her room. He never invited her back to his bedroom. Nor did he kiss her.
She had lost count of the number of times she stood there at her door, waiting, wishing the seconds would slow down, so in some way she could convince him to kiss her. It never happened, other than perhaps a brush of the lips on her forehead or her cheek, and that had only been in the last few days. To Eve, that wasn’t a real kiss.
It was a nightmare.