Mila. > Recent Status Updates

“Fine!” Sarah shouted back. “We’ll just eat outside of your town!” She turned to Matt and switched effortlessly to honeyed tones. “Will that horse of yours carry the two of us outside of the town limits?”

“What are you doing?” “You’re supposed to be asleep!” “I’m used to you holding on to me while I sleep, so when you snuck off I missed you.”

“Sure I did, and I’m not a bit of sorry. I’ve never seen anything half so fine.” He touched the end of her nose and left a bit of shaving soap there. “Now let’s get these clothes washed up, and they can dry while we sleep.”

Then she took a guilty peek over her shoulder. Matt was sitting in the water, soaping an arm. He caught her looking and winked at her. Chagrined, she jerked back around as guiltily as she had after that first wink weeks ago.

Alex is such a condescending prick, if he calls her an airhead one more time I’m actually going to SCREAM.

He flicked the reins, and she stepped back quickly, then gave a hiss of dismay as what was left of her cigarette burst into flames. “Will you stop that!” she screeched, batting at her clothes and stomping out the burning embers that had fallen to the ground. He looked back at her, and one corner of his mouth lifted.

“You surely have a grasp of the rudiments.”

“Rudiments? Leave this room, and I’ll settle the matter by lookin’ in yon bedcovers for an egg, mark me words.”

“You wouldn’t’!”

“I would.”

Having warned Maddy, the maids, and Frederick in advance, Alex knew that none of them would seek out the source of the sound. Only one person would come ... if she could hear the noise.

Ping! Ping! Plunk!It was, without question, a godawful ruckus that he was raising, and he felt absolutely ridiculous. A grown man banging on a pot? He only prayed it would work.

If that mouse gained a few more inches, well, it didn’t bear thinking about. Alex could almost feel its small teeth sinking into his ballocks.
Forgetting about everything, Annie, propriety, decency,he dropped his pants. Its tiny claws hooked to his drawers, the mouse was hanging on for dear life. Seizing it by the tail, Alex jerked it loose and held it at arm’s length. A squirming little body. Shrill squeaking.

“Naah-ohh!” she cried.

No?Alex was so shocked to hear her make a sound that he forgot the damned mouse.

“Naah-ohh!” she cried again.

The word was distorted. An awful and not quite human sound. But to Alex, it was the most wonderful thing he’d ever heard. No. A simple expression, one that children learned at an early age and never forgot because adults said it to them so frequently.

A mouse. Up his trouser leg. Horror filled Alex. He started to dance again, alone this time and to a tune called hysteria. A goddamned mouse. And the little fiend was scrabbling for purchase, making a beeline for his crotch. Not in this lifetime.

Lucien fell silent, considering. “I suppose you humans are such hateful cowards that you would have wet yourself, curled up, and waited to die if you’d known beyond a doubt what Andras truly was.” Insufferable. Lucien sighed as he looked me over. “Do you ever stop being so serious and dull?”

“Do you ever stop being such a prick?” I snapped back.

She frowned at the rope dangling from the light fixture.

“What in the bottomless depths of the Cauldron is—”

There was a screech and a thud, and I bolted upright to find Alis in a heap on the floor. The length of rope I’d made from the curtain trimmings now hung loosely from where I’d rigged it to snap into anyone’s face. It had been the best I could do with what I had.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” I blurted, leaping from the bed, but Alis was already up, hissing at me as she brushed off her apron.

“And finally, each morning for the rest of your life, I will kiss every scar to show you that nothing in this world could make you any less beautiful in my eyes. Or less of a fighter.”

“Can you pick out people?  Like identify them in a crowd?”  “Crowds are harder. Lots of different scents mix together to make it confusing.”  He glanced over at me before adding, “I could track you anywhere though.”

We sat in silence for a few minutes as I continued to pet him.  He would occasionally sigh in contentment and his eyes were closed.

I let my hands fall down to my side, but Cade wasn’t done quite yet.  He head bunted my stomach which made me step back to catch myself

I watched as he dropped it to the ground.  Then his hands went for his jeans.  My eyes widened.  “What are you doing?”  I turned around quickly as I heard a zipper slide.  “You said that we shouldn’t do anything different.  That you’d adjust.  So I’m shifting in front of you.”  “Yeah, but a little warning next time.”  I huffed, still turned away.  He chuckled behind me.