Page 116 of Dark Cravings

He was also the only one I trusted both with my life and with my heart, which had always been harder for me to give.

"Wow," he breathed, gazing up at me.

I couldn't help but smile. "Yeah. Wow."

“I guess that break is going to be a little longer than we thought," he said sheepishly.

I snorted. "A very creative way of getting what you wanted, I'll give you that."

And whatIwanted, but that went without saying.

He sighed happily, wrapping his arms around my neck to pull me close. I would've been content to lay with him all day, but when I heard someone in the hallway outside the training room, I realized that wasn't going to happen. I expected them to knock, so when the door opened and Baker walked in, I was at once annoyed and startled.

"Oh, shit, sorry," he said, freezing in his tracks. He quickly clapped a hand over his eyes even though he was still looking through his fingers. "I thought you were…"

"What is it?" I asked through my teeth, glaring at the hunter. Eddie looked like he was dissociating from embarrassment.

Baker cleared his throat. "It's Father Marius. He's awake," he explained. "He wants to talk to you. Both of you. Should I tell him you're, uh...?"

"Tell him we'll be there shortly," I muttered. "Now get out."

"Right," he said sheepishly. "I'll just leave you two to your… weird sex thing."

"Out," I snarled.

He fled the room without another word, and I turned back to Eddie, sighing. His hand was covering his mouth like he was trying not to laugh.

"I'm never going to be able to look Baker in the eye again," he said with a groan.

"That's reasonable, but not because of this," I said dryly. Of all the things I’d ever been ashamed of, fucking my mate wasn’t about to be one of them. "He's done more embarrassing things than this in the last twenty-four hours."

"Guess you should try to think non-horny thoughts so your knot goes down faster," Eddie suggested.

I raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure that's how it works."

"Taxes," he said, ignoring me. "Knitting. Public-access television. Rainbow kittens."

I tilted my head. "What the fuck are rainbow kittens?"

He shrugged and seemed to be contemplating something. "I’ve got one," he finally announced. "Father Marius fucking Arrow."

I grimaced as the mental image assaulted me. "Okay, yup, that’ll do it. Pretty sure it would be the other way around, though, just FYI."

Eddie cackled until I pulled out of him carefully. That made him growl, which seemed like more of an automatic response than anything.

I kissed him in consolation and got up, offering a hand to help him. Once we were both dressed, we headed down the hall to the patriarch's room.

I couldn't help but be relieved he was awake and feeling well enough for company, but I was also curious what he wanted with us. Probably to ream us both out for the recent fiasco, and I couldn't say I blamed him.

I knocked like a civilized person, even though I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be walking in on anything salacious. Not that the colorful mental image Eddie had so graciously painted for me was leaving my head anytime soon. That was in there to stay.

Father Marius was still in bed, but he was sitting up against the headboard, and he looked a hell of a lot better than he had the last time I'd seen him. He was always pale, but the dark circles around his eyes weren't as prominent, and the smile he gave us both seemed genuine enough.

Arrow was by his side, of course, leaning against the wall with his arms folded and one foot propped back against the stone.

"It's good to see you both," Father Marius said in a warm tone. I was just about to be grateful that Baker seemingly hadn’t filled him in on the circumstances in which we had been found when he added, "And it's good of you to come on such short notice, tied up as you were."

Eddie groaned, burying his face in his hands. "Please kill me."