All in the Chemistry [The Royal Wolves 4] (Siren Publishing Allure) (11 page)

Nodding he looked into her face and wondered if she had any idea how hard this just might end up being. He knew it was unlikely she did, it wasn’t like a wasting disease in any shape or form, it was like a psychotic break, sudden, violent and deadly.

She stood from his lap and held her hand out to him. “Come and eat with me, Kris? Let’s get us some food into our bodies and while we eat we can chat and then I will meet the wolves.” She was well aware of the severity of what he had told her about the rogue gene, however while she seemed to be flippant about it, she really wasn’t. Her mind was working on what to do next, how to proceed to find the gene and eliminate it.

Standing he took her hand and lifting it kissed her fingers gently. “I love you, Courtney,” he whispered over her skin. Pulling her close he hugged her to him for a moment, his nose in her hair breathing in her soft and soothing scent. “Grab some clothing, love, or I’m never going to actually eat,” he murmured not kidding in the least. Her bare flesh was a temptation he was not strong enough to resist.

Blushing wildly she nodded and moved from his side. “I love you, too, Kris, and I’m raiding your closet.” She grinned happily at him as she danced out of his arms and toward said closet. Reaching in she saw the flannel and pulled it out first, bringing it to her nose and inhaling even as her eyes moved around to look for pants of some sort. Not seeing any that would fit her she stepped out and tugged on the shirt, mooring the buttons as she moved. “Do you have some smaller sweats maybe?”

He didn’t really hear the question, his eyes were on the smooth length of leg peeking from under the hem of the flannel shirt. Licking his lips he blinked and looked to her as her words sank in far enough to tug at him. “Uh, yeah,” he muttered moving past. Reaching in he pulled out a pair of sweats that belonged to one of his brothers’ mates from a stay at his house. “Don’t know whose these are but it’s either Mina or Harker, I doubt they even remember abandoning them here,” he told her as he handed them out and grabbed a pair of jeans and a light sweater for himself, tugging them on as he moved back to the bedroom and for the door.

She watched him leaving and grinned, shaking her head she pulled on the sweats and followed him, closely. “Do I make you nervous, Kris?” Her fingers toyed with the buttons on the flannel she was wearing. “You are running out before you’re even fully dressed.” She looked at the open fly of his jeans to make a point. “Shouldn’t you do that up?”

Tucking in the sweater he shot her a look before he did up the fly. “Needed it open,” he muttered. Unfortunately she was right, she did make him a little nervous especially since he was still so off balance. If it had been before the, what he was now referring to internally as the incident, he’d not have even blinked, likely would have teased her back. But at that moment he was scrambling for purchase on the slippery slope of destruction his body had just introduced him to.

Her smile faltered as she looked at him and sighed. Dropping the edges of the flannel, she approached him. When she touched the center of his chest and he jumped she felt as if he had slapped her. “I’m sorry.” She pulled her hand back. “Are you sure that you want me here, Kris?” She forced the question she didn’t want the answer to out. “I can call a cab if you need me to leave.” Her heart ached, and she was pissed at herself for making the questions.

Reaching out he touched her cheek softly, careful to keep the caress light. “I need you here, Courtney,” he whispered softly. “I’m sorry, love, I’m just…” He shook his head a soft growl coming up at his inability to explain himself and what was going through his head. Pulling her to him with his hand around the back of her neck, he held her to his chest. “I’m sorry,” he whispered against her hair as he closed his eyes. “I don’t mean to hurt you, honey, not ever.”

“I know you didn’t.” She wrapped her arms around him, holding him tightly. “I love you, Kris, it kills me to know you’re hurting so much inside, that you’re so uncertain. That’s why I offered to leave, to give you time to realize that you need me here with you, that you won’t go Rogue and hurt me the way that you’re thinking.” She looked up at him. “I love you, Kris, you love me, in the end, isn’t that all that is needed? Our love for each other?”

Nodding he looked down at her pressing his forehead to hers, “Yeah,” he breathed letting her words reach him completely. “I can’t survive if you leave, Courtney, that I know for sure. Don’t ever leave me even if you think it’s for my own good, please,” he begged softly. He’d lock himself down and die of heartbreak, that he knew for sure. She was his, she was in him, she was his world and to remove herself that way would kill him as surely as the sun would rise come morning.

“I won’t. I will stay here and at your side forever, Kris. I’m yours and you’re mine.” She moved closer to him. “I love you, Kris, I need you but first”—she smiled up at him—“we need food and I need to meet the wolves so that they don’t think that I am a new chew toy.” She loved being with him, very much so, however they did need to eat.

Sliding his hands up and down her back he nodded again. “All right,” he said quietly. “And if they use you for a chew toy remind them I’ll use them for rugs,” he told her as he let her pull away. Moving to the fridge he pulled it open and dragged out the pot of stew he’d made the morning before. Pulling out dishes he put some in one before sliding it into the microwave to warm. “If you would like toast, the bread’s in there,” he pointed to the bread box on the counter. “And the toaster’s just in the cupboard to the left of the stove.”

“I don’t eat bread but I can make you some if you want?” she asked and pulled the bread out as she did so. She couldn’t even stand the smell of bread, the yeast in it made her nose hurt. “I hate bread,” she said when he simply gave her a look. “I hate the yeast and wheat that is used in it.” She shrugged. “It makes me sick, massively, so I don’t eat it.”

Lifting a brow at that he blinked as he looked her way. “Are you telling me that you allergic to it or that you have Celiac’s?” he asked moving toward her. Taking the bread he waved her away. “Git woman, I’ll do my own toast,” he murmured in concern even as he ran a hand down her arm.

She was stunned. “How did you know?” Not many people knew the common warning signs of Celiac’s Disease, and for him to know without even pausing, she was stunned. “How could you have known that I have that?” she questioned. “Just because of my saying I don’t do bread?”

“You said that you hated the yeast and wheat, that it made you ‘massively’ sick,” he quoted as he pushed the lever down and then went to collect the hot bowl of stew from the microwave. Sticking a spoon into it he passed it over. “Just because I’m a Wolf doesn’t mean I don’t keep up to date on human illnesses, Courtney. I’m a researcher who’s trying to keep your people alive and healthy, which I’d like to mention is a job and a half,” he pointed out urging her to go and sit. 

She snorted as she took her soup with her to have a seat. “Well I have been trying.” Too bad all of her projects were shut down, and only the ones that her bosses felt would make the most money were kept running. “I really hate my job, Kris,” she admitted. “Aegis was good to me for a time, they really were.” She moved her spoon round and round in the bowl. “And then not so much. They only wanted money, and so the projects I had been working on in diabetes research and stem cell research were shut down, hard.” She sighed. “It sucks, really does.”

Watching her he nodded and moved to collect his toast as he sighed softly. “I’m sorry, love,” he murmured softly to her. Buttering the toast he collected his own bowl and then joined her at the table. Reaching over he touched her cheek. “I’m lucky in the fact my board is pretty much scared of me plus the fact that I keep them from getting all arrested on a weekly basis.” 

“How’s that?” she asked and pushed the celery away to go for the chunk of meat instead. “How are you able to keep them from being arrested and just what would they be doing to warrant needing to be arrested?” she asked and then took a bite. “Oh wow, you made this?” And he could cook, too? He was amazingly handsome, tall, and dark, but he could cook, too? She was a blessed, blessed woman.

“Yeah I made it,” he murmured softly. “I keep their other moronic lab rats from trying to come up with things that are illegal or doing illegal things that could get us all arrested. I make sure that the pot they are growing is for the research and not their own personal stash by ensuring it’s under the legal limit. I make sure that they aren’t playing catch with the Anthrax infested tennis ball we’ve been using for our tests. Stupid things like that,” he muttered. “Personally, I just want to walk out, take my money with me and leave them to kill themselves and all the idiots that work at your company all in one shot.”

She snickered and shook her head. “You should then. Start your own company, Kristof, do the research you want to do, hire the staff that you want to hire and to hell with the others.” She shrugged and watched him carefully. “Your company doesn’t even have to be large, Kris, you could specialize if that was your desire.”

Looking to her he frowned slightly as the idea took root. “I don’t know, Courtney,” he murmured looking back to his bowl. “I guess I could, I have the certification to do that, but I guess I’d have to have people I could trust.” Poking at a carrot he sighed. “And unless you came to work there I’d pretty much have no one I actually trusted working there,” he said shrugging.

Her spoon hovered just between her mouth and the bowl. “Are you asking me to come and work for you, Kris?” It was something she had always dreamed of, to have someone she loved and cared for working side by side with her. “Don’t ask that if you aren’t sure.” She placed the spoon back into the bowl and watched him, curious what was going to happen next.

“Only if you want to,” he said quietly very, very unsure of himself. “I don’t want you to feel pushed into it, but I’ve had more than enough with my company. I’m getting out, if I don’t I’ll likely kill someone and since the majority of them are human, that won’t bode well for me.” Looking over he reached out and lightly touched her cheek. “I want you to be happy Courtney, if you think you could be working with me day in and out…” he trailed off as he watched her hoping she’d agree and he could stop shoving his foot into his mouth.

She was up and out of her seat so fast that her spoon was still spinning in her bowl. In his lap in a flash, she cupped his cheeks and kissed him with everything that she had inside of her, all of the love she felt for him pouring into that kiss, the hope for their future and her appreciation of him. When she pulled back she smiled. “Some women would be over the moon being asked to get married, but I’m more than happy to come and work for you, Kris, only if I get special treatment though,” she added and watched him.

“Well I was going to save the marriage proposal for a time, see if you could actually live with me,” he said, looking stunned from her kiss. Licking his lips he blinked at her. “I’ll always give you special treatment, Courtney, you’re my mate. We’ll do whatever makes you happy and if you think you can be happy working with me then that’s what we’ll do.”

“I will be happy with all of it. Ask me though, that question I need to hear and not just reference to,” she whispered and petted him, yes, petted him. “Ask me to be yours forever, Kris, in work, play and in life, Kristof, please.”

“Now?” he asked. At her nod, he frowned. “I was going to wait though,” he pointed out until the fierce look came down on her face. “All righty then,” he swallowed hard. Clearing his throat he shifted slightly. “Will you marry me, Courtney?” he asked softly, simply all because he really wasn’t sure he could be more creative than that with the lump that was in his throat.

She nodded, laughed, and smiled. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, I will marry you.” Hugging him tightly she bit her lip. “I love you, Kris, I want this from you, with you.” She nuzzled at his neck. “Thank you for giving these things to me,” she whispered. “I love you, Kris, I need you.” It was in the end that simple.

“I love you, too, honey,” he whispered, softly rubbing his hand up and down her back. Closing his eyes he rubbed his cheek to her hair gently, his hand moving up to her hair and holding her close. Sliding his fingers through the silky strands, he rocked back and forth gently as he breathed her in and just held her.

She grinned and pulled back to look at him. “So we are not only going to live together, but work together and get married?” she asked hopefully with happiness abounding inside of her. “I can’t even begin to tell you how happy I am, so happy, Kris.”

Nodding, he smiled softly. “I’m glad, honey,” he said softly wondering if he was making a mistake. If he married her, changed her, then she really would have no escape from him and the anomaly. “I love you, baby,” he breathed leaning in and kissing her gently, his lips moving slowly over hers.

Smiling against his lips she kissed him back. “I love you, too, Kris.” She nipped at his lips roughly. “I want to be like you are, Kris, I want to be able to be with you forever, Kristof, please don’t argue with me either, all right?”

Snapping his mouth shut he stared at her as he ground his teeth together. He wanted to protest but he knew that if she was in this frame of mind it would do no good at the moment. “You are a very frustrating female,” he said to her in a grudging tone.

“I am, yes,” she agreed proudly. “I am stubborn and when I have made a choice there is no budging me from my choice.” She grinned. “But I think that the real question in all of this is, do you want me to be like you are?”

Nodding slowly he looked at her. “I do but I’m also terrified for you,” he admitted quietly. “It’s not an easy process for the human to go through.” Or their mate. “But I do want to have as many years as I can with you, Courtney, and I know that your human life just won’t be enough.”