Page 8 of Cruel King
I smile as she hurries away. I wouldn’t leave this chair in front of this roaring fire if someone paid me. I haven’t been this cozy in weeks.
She returns less than a minute later with a fluffy white robe that looks brand new. Handing it to me, she says, “Take those clothes off and wear this.”
I do as she orders but as I do, I ask, “This isn’t new, is it? I don’t want to put you out in any way.”
Eleanor screws her face into a grimace. “First of all, you could never put me out in any way, Ava Sutton. I’ve known you since you were just a little slip of a girl, and you’ve never been anything but the most polite creature that walked God’s green earth. Even more importantly, if Mr. King saw you sitting here in wet clothes and thought I didn’t do anything to help you, he’d reprimand me so bad I might have to find another job. So if you want me to not have to go job hunting right after Christmas, you’ll give me those soaking wet clothes and relax in this robe.”
After handing her my wet jeans, socks, and sweater, I wrap the white robe around me and luxuriate in how wonderful it feels against my skin. It’s heated from being in front of the fire for the past few minutes, so it’s like a blanket of warmth around me.
“You didn’t take off your bra and panties. They must be soaked too, aren’t they?” she asks as she stands in front of me waiting for the rest of my clothes.
Sheepishly, I turn away and take them off too, stuffing them inside my jeans when I give them to her. “I didn’t know if you wanted everything,” I quietly say as I sit down.
“No one wants to sit in wet underwear,” she says with a giggle. “Now let me go handle these, but first, the milk is ready for your hot chocolate.”
She scurries across the kitchen with my wet clothes in her arms to create that delicious treat. It’s the hot milk that makes it better than most people’s hot cocoa, and when she returns with a giant mug filled to the brim, I happily take it. With a big inhale, I bring the sweet scent of the chocolate and milk into my nose. She knows I don’t like the whipped cream Theo and his brothers always wanted on theirs, so mine is simply the best hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted.
“Thank you, Eleanor. I can’t tell you how good this is going to feel,” I say as I wrap both my hands around the mug and lift it to my lips.
As always, her creation is nothing short of heavenly. Standing beside me, she smiles when I hum my utter delight at how good it tastes. “Mmmm…you make the best hot chocolate in the world. Thank you.”
She waves away my compliment but beams an even bigger smile after I finish. “Oh, stop. I’m going to go take care of your clothes. You sit and warm yourself in front of the fire here. I’ll be back soon. None of the boys are here, unfortunately. Well, Matthias is, but he hasn’t come downstairs at all today.”
Alone, I revel in the feel of the warmth and the taste of the chocolate as it hits my tastebuds. I don’t know how she does it, but even steaming hot, her cocoa never burns my tongue. I close my eyes and remember how Theo used to like so many marshmallows in his that you couldn’t even see the hot chocolate anymore. It was just a mug of sugary white goo.
I hear footsteps and turn to say something to Eleanor about how Theo used to love those marshmallows, but instead of her I see his older brother walk into the kitchen and stop dead at the sight of me. Matthias King. The most miserable of the King sons, at least when it comes to me. I have no idea what I ever did to make him hate me, but he never fails to look utterly disgusted any time he lays his eyes on me.
“What are you doing here?” he grunts out in a tone full of revulsion, like I’m some unwanted creature someone should have chased out of the house by now.
“The electricity went out in my house, so we didn’t have any heat,” I explain, giving him a smile he doesn’t deserve that’s mostly for Eleanor’s wonderful hot chocolate.
“So you came here?” he asks, his words practically dripping with disgust.
Just then, Eleanor walks back into the kitchen with a mop and gives me a look that tells me she sees how much he doesn’t want me here. “Matthias, I just made hot chocolate. Would you like a cup? I remember when you were little and you loved it with lots of whipped cream.”
Her voice sounds so hopeful as she kindly offers to make him a treat, but all she gets in return are an angry expression and gruff response. “No. How long is she going to be here?”
I open my mouth to say I’ll be here as long as I need to be and if he has a problem with that, he should talk to his father, who tells me every time he sees me that I’m welcome in his home. However, Eleanor answers him first, saving him from a snappy comment he deserves and more.
“She has no heat down at the carriage house. We can’t send her back to a house with no heat.”
Why she thinks appealing to his sense of decency is going to work is beyond me. She knows Matthias as well as anyone in this house. She’s seen how mean he is. She’s especially seen how cruel he is whenever I’m around. Eleanor should know better than to think he’d be kind just because there’s a chance I’d freeze to death down at my own house.
He gives her a blank stare and then turns to give me a sneer before heading over to the refrigerator on the far wall. She and I watch as he reaches in and gets a bottle of soda before spinning on his heel and marching out without another word to either one of us.
When I’m sure he’s out of earshot, I look over at her and shake my head as she begins to clean up the melted snow on the floor. “Why does he hate me so much? I swear I don’t think I’ve ever done anything to him. I’m best friends with Theo. You’d think that would make him at least be nice to me, but it never fails. Whenever he sees me, he’s as nasty as he can be.”
“I know,” she says like she feels bad for me.
“His father is always so nice to me. He bought me a diamond tennis bracelet for graduation last year, and you should see the gold necklace he bought me for Christmas this year. Marius, Kellen, and Ronan are always nice whenever they see me too. But Matthias hates me, and I have no idea why.”
Eleanor sighs and says, “I don’t understand either. You two have so much in common. You’d think he’d be pleasant, at least.”
She turns to focus on something she needs to do as I try to think of a single thing Matthias King and I share in common. Other than the fact that we’ve both lost our mothers, there’s not one thing he and I have alike. He’s a rude ass. He’s cruel and insensitive, which makes him downright ugly to be around.
Of course, he’s not ugly. You’d think that meanness in him would show on the outside of his body, but it doesn’t. He’s gorgeous, and he knows it. Tall and muscular with nearly black hair cut short, dark brown eyes, and a perfectly straight nose, he looks like a model you see in magazines. Like his other brothers with their chiseled cheekbones and jaws, he’s striking to the point that it’s hard not to look at him.
Not that I have that problem since he’s a dick to me, but I know other people think he’s stunning with a perfect mouth that begs to be kissed. Too bad it’s always turned down in a scowl when it comes to me.