Which he wasn’t sure why he cared, but he did, and until he figured it out, he couldn’t really let her leave.
“As far as she knows, it’s her fault I’m injured.” He pointed to his head. “Until this heals, I feel she should probably help me with whatever I need.”
Sever folded his arms and stood, leaning on the door. “So that’s gonna be your excuse for keeping her around?”
Adrien nodded, then shook his head. “No. It’s not an excuse. She owes me. And if I say she should stay, then she should. Besides, it’s not like she has anywhere else to be.”
There was a knock on the door behind Sever.
“If you’re going to keep me around, perhaps you could consider feeding me,” a feminine voice said from behind the door.
Adrien’s heart skipped a beat, and he hated himself for it. He was nervous to see her, dammit. And why should he be? She was only a human.
“Come in, then,” he said sharply, folding his arms.
Four
Kelsey was nervous to see the men from the previous night, but she was also feeling better than she had in a long time, thanks to the good night’s sleep she’d had and the warm shower.
She’d changed into her last clean set of clothes, a worn pair of jeans with a tee shirt, a zip-up sweatshirt over the top, and gone in search of food.
She’d heard the men next door talking loudly and decided if they were going to talk about her future, they might as well provide food so she didn’t pass out first.
When one of them called for her to come in, she put a hand on the doorknob and slowly opened the door, stepping inside the apartment.
It was beautiful, at least three times the size of hers, and she wondered if they all shared it together.
That was a little odd.
They were all just as good-looking as she remembered, and she quickly scanned them, reacquainting herself with their faces.
“Good to see you this morning,” Citrine said cheerfully, standing up with a wave. “I’ll see what we have in the fridge.” He opened the door and began rummaging inside, leaving her face to face with Sever and Adrien.
She’d reminded herself of their names this morning, just so she didn’t look like a fool by not remembering.
“Good morning,” she said quietly to them both, and Sever nodded. Adrien, on the other hand, pinned her with a dark glare, silver eyes flashing as always, dark hair going in every direction around a large, white bandage that wrapped his head.
“I assume you’re feeling better?”
“No,” he said sharply. “I’m not, thanks to you. And I assume that given your odd habit of eavesdropping, you also heard I expect you to stay around long enough to make it up to me.”
She bit her lip, stifling a grin. After last night, after he’d fought for her, and after a good night’s sleep, she wasn’t afraid of him. “No one can tell me what to do.”
He sat up a little straighter, ready to argue. He sounded older than his boyish face looked. Maybe in his mid-twenties. But his body was all man. She took another look at him.
The other men were beautiful, but this one drew her in the most. For what reason, she didn’t know.
It’d been a long time since she had the luxury of looking at a man and simply thinking him beautiful.
“What are you looking at?” he snapped, and she looked up to see he was blushing slightly on his pale cheeks. Gosh, his cheekbones were high. “Don’t you know it’s rude to stare?”
She nodded. “I’m sorry.” She walked to the counter, where Citrine was setting out little pastries on plates. “Is this for me?”
Citrine nodded.
“I don’t know what I did to deserve this,” she said, picking up one and taking a bite. Raspberry. She grinned as she chewed it. She should probably wonder about all this, about how lucky she was, but she simply hadn’t experienced kindness in so long that she didn’t have the energy to question it.
Besides, they were right. They ran a business here, and they could afford a breakfast for her. They couldn’t afford bad publicity. She still had a phone and could call the police in an emergency.
But she also trusted her gut, and for now, she felt safe here.
She felt eyes on her and looked over her shoulder to see Adrien watching her curiously. She held her plate up. “Want some?”
He looked away sharply, ignoring her.
She went back to eating. She needed to make plans. Get to the agency, figure out a temp job. Maybe the guys here would rent her the apartment for a few days, under the guise of making it up to Adrien. She didn’t know. But she’d had a bed and a lock, and she didn’t want to lose it.
And none of them had made any untoward advances or seemed interested at all, which was a first.