Bloodfire: Other Realm, Frost Family Series Book 2

Burn 29

The next morning, waking up groggily, Nisha's sleepy eyes met Jack's. Blinking, she pulled back a little more, registering the pleased grin on his face and the faintly smoldering heat behind his gaze. "Good morning, hjarta mítt," he greeted her around a small yawn. "Sleep well?"

She slowly nodded. "Yeah," she answered. She closed her eyes briefly, drawing on her reserves of inner strength. "What time is it?"
Jack loosened his hold to roll back a bit, tilting his head to read the bedside clock's digital numbers. "Um...Roughly 5:53 in the morning," he answered.

"Okay," Nisha let out a breath. "Nana should be getting the kids ready for school. I should probably get up and go help her though," she murmured. "Breakfast is at 6:30, then we have to...Have to figure out what to do about Bren and hold Cormac's funeral. Oh, and make the arrangements and buy that pass for Megan to get back to the Human world."

Jack reached out and cupped her cheek. "Slow down a little there, Nisha. We'll take it one at a time, okay?" He kissed her forehead, making her grow quiet against him.

When she finally spoke up, her voice was relieved. "You're right. One thing at a time," she reminded herself, nodding her head against Jack's chest. On his part, Jack stayed quiet, running a hand up and down her back, over and over in a soothing motion. Nisha raised her eyes to his, seeing that his own were closed and he had an expression of contentment on his face. It seemed so strange to her in that moment, fighting down her nerves and worries, that she snorted in laughter.

Blue eyes flew open, startled. Jack couldn't help but grin at the goofy smile lifting Nisha's lips. "What's so funny?"

"You," she pursed her lips in a effort to hold in her giggles. "You are and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me...I guess this whole situation, in a macabre way."

He lightly kissed the tip of her nose. "Well, your giggles will have to wait. I need to wake up. Unfortunately, I lack the ability to just lie with you in bed for the rest of the day." Saying so, he slowly and reluctantly began to untangle himself from Nisha.

She forced herself up into a sitting position, propped up by the pillows. "Yeah, I guess you're right," she agreed. Kicking the blanket back, she moved off the bed. Standing, she did a few stretches to wake up her stiff muscles. While she stretched, Jack padded by, in nothing but a pair of dark red pajama pants, into the bathroom. Nisha couldn't help but check out the sculpted muscles along his chest and back as he walked by. If nothing else, Jack was even more fit than he had been eight years ago. She wondered if he lifted weights at all. Or was being something more than human somehow a synonym for always being good-looking?

Sighing, she glanced down at her body and couldn't help but feel more than a little self-conscious. Certainly, she hadn't gained a ton of weight over the years. But having three kids left scars at times. And she happened to be more than a little unlucky in the fact that she was one of the women who hadn't been able to go from being pregnant to getting rid of all her baby weight in just a few months. She had gained about twenty pounds from what she use to weigh back in high school. And no matter what diet or workout she tried, she couldn't loose those extra twenty pounds. And when she compared herself to Jack, who looked just as damn perfect as the first time she met him, it kind of annoyed her.

After Jack was finished in the bathroom, Nisha went. Ten minutes later, Nisha was dressed in one of Jack's smaller shirts and a pair of his shorts. She certainly didn't look prepared for breakfast with the family, but for today, she honestly didn't really care. She knew what all the adults of the family would think, but at this point, what did it matter? Jack started out of the bedroom and she was only three steps behind him.

Out in the hallway, they encountered a servant who had a large basket of clothes in their arms. The servant paused to move into a curtsy as they passed by. Nisha was unable to see anything else, but Jack caught the young woman's startled expression before she hid it behind a polite smile. It didn't take much to guess that the maid had seen the two of them exiting the lord's bedroom together. That, plus Nisha's outfit which obviously wasn't her own left a lot to the imagination. But the maid didn't say a word, keeping her face carefully blank.