“Morina, don’t be ridiculous,” I ground out. “Eat your food.”
She turned her head on the table and opened one eye. “I’m not being ridiculous, Bastian. How can you eat anything but this all day long?”
“I like variety.” I knew my cooking was as good as my mother’s. She would spend hours in the kitchen and had recipes from Italy that no one else would be able to match. We put love into our food and that took pride, patience, and a learned touch.
“What will I do when our six months is up?”
The pain in her voice and how she completely embraced the fact she’d be sad when we left one another had me agreeing to something I never thought I would. “I can teach you, love.”
She sat up. “Seriously?”
“Sure.” I pointed a fork at her. “You can teach me to make a smoothie too, huh?”
That smile shot across her face and straight into my chest. I didn’t like the way I was starting to care for her or the way she smiled at me like I could do her no harm.
Our worlds were different. And you didn’t mix a man born in filth with a mermaid, not tainted yet by the pollution of my cities.
25
Morina
Bastian was talking to me over his food about the gala. Three days until then. More acting or faking. At this point, it was him faking and me getting completely and utterly confused.
And even so, I couldn’t seem to focus on his words.
The man made pasta.
With his big, bare hands. He’d smiled at me when I said I wanted to learn and he’d asked about the recipes for my smoothies.
Then his phone rang and he didn’t bother getting it. He silenced it instead, like I was more than his business.
I got up put the dishes in the dishwasher, but he followed and helped rinse them off before stacking them into the machine. His body was close when he asked if I wanted to watch a movie.
I pressed the dishwasher button and when I turned to look at him, his eyes were all ooey gooey chocolate colored and his lips begged for me to lean in.
I could have run down a list of reasons why I shouldn’t, but I didn’t think about the negatives or hesitate in life. I just went for it.
Quick decisions.
I took his lips in my mouth and pulled him closer by the collar of his shirt.
Maybe I expected him to pick me up and lay me out on the counter and ravage me. I definitely expected him to at least wrap his arms around me.
He did neither.
After a moment of him letting me kiss him, I pulled back.
“You kissed me.” He said it almost like a question with a slight hitch in his voice. But somehow it was also a statement.
Normally, I didn’t turn red, my blush would be hard to see under my sun-kissed skin but I knew he could see it now. It rose from my chest to my cheeks, burning with embarrassment.
“I… I’m sorry. I just thought…”
He rubbed at his lips and his frown led me to my own conclusions.
I rushed out an explanation. “It’s just you’ve been here these past couple days. I mean, I went to a theme park with you. We kissed.”
He nodded. “We kissed for the cameras, Morina.”