Page 45 of My Fae Lady

Giselle snorted smugly. “House won’t feed me either. I assume we can both guess why.”

My brain was still a bit foggy from another night of poor sleep, but I did catch up with her train of thought in the end, recalling how the manor had shoved us together into the tiniest of beds. “Why don’t you come and sit beside me, then?”

“I was here first. Why don’t you come and sit beside me?”

“I’m here now, and I’d rather not.”

We glared at each other. Our plates rattled irritably.

I patted the empty place setting on my left. “Come and sit beside the true Lord of—” Wood groaned and creaked so loudly my words were cut short.

Giselle sighed. “I'm famished. Perhaps a compromise is in order, just for the time being.”

“Hm.” She was famished? But her eyes remained their usual determined shade of indigo, not the lavender or violet that usually came with her hunger and thirst. “What are you suggesting?”

“We each scoot our chairs one setting closer to the other. We do it at the same time. Just enough to appease our . . . captor,” she said carefully.

“I’ll move if you move,” I relented.

Giselle rolled her eyes, but then she stood, pushing back the heavy chair. I rose after her, and together we shuffled one place setting closer, pulling our seats behind us. We were still so far away from each other our fingers wouldn’t touch even if we stretched to reach for one another.

A covered plate was dropped before me. I lifted the cloche with a victorious laugh that immediately died in my throat when I saw the sad lump of cheese and a tiny wrinkled tomato. Not a single speck of meat. The cheese was so hard I’d probably crack a fang on it.

Giselle lifted her own cloche, and her nose wrinkled. “But I hate boiled cabbage. You know how much I hate it, House.”

“I’ve had enough of this!” I leapt to my feet, knocking my chair askew. I reached her in three long strides.

“What are you doing?” Giselle barked as I grabbed hold of the arm of her throne and dragged it so close to mine the chair legs touched.

The plates vanished, to be immediately replaced with heaping servings of bacon and toast and marmalade and a small tower of boiled eggs.

“No ham? No gravy?” I said, brow furrowed. “And where are the sausages?”

Giselle dove right in, spooning marmalade onto her toast and taking large bites that weren’t remotely demure or ladylike.

I grinned at the back of her head. She wouldn’t like what I planned next, but that just made the plot all the sweeter. I lifted her right out of her seat, plopped down into my chair, and sat her on my knee. Her protest was muffled by her mouth being full of toast.

My plan worked. Our plates were whisked away, replaced with steaming mounds of ham, bacon, and sausage.

“That’s better!” I cheered.

Giselle squirmed, but I held her in place.

“Don’t even think about leaving until I’ve had my fill,” I warned her, and her body stilled. “Who knows when House will be in a mood to comply again.”

She relented with a sigh, then dragged her food closer and proceeded to eat like the wolverine she accused me of being. I couldn’t help but take stock of her while she perched on my knee. Skirts hid the fullness of her hips and backside which had been cradled against me all night. She shifted her weight. Her softness tormented me anew, seated on my lap, straddling my thigh.

It would be much too easy to fill my fingers with her hair, turn her to face me, and press my lips to hers. That’s all it would take to reignite the passion that had burned between us during our bargain kiss . . .

I shoved the thought away so hard I dropped my fork.

“Something wrong?” she asked, her next bite inches from her lips.

I grunted in response, retrieving my fork, and shoving all thoughts about the warmth of her weight nestled on my knee straight out of my mind.

I decided to make the best of things. The intruder still needed to be put out, but it wasn’t as though we didn’t have time. We were immortals, after all. Filling the tines of my fork with bacon slathered in gravy, I enjoyed my breakfast, the company, and the view.

When my stomach was full and Giselle was satisfied, I let her leave my lap. She immediately attempted to flee the dining hall, only to be turned right back around again. Her hands made fists at her sides, and she sucked in a long, aggravated breath through her nose.