Gray's Blade by Elizabeth Stevens

Author:Elizabeth Stevens
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780648264828
Publisher: Sleeping Dragon Books
Published: 2018-08-02T14:30:00+00:00

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There was a noise I wasn’t used to. It was some tune I vaguely recognised, but I couldn’t work out what it was so I didn’t pay it much attention. Then, there was silence. And, it started up again, slightly less easy to ignore this time.

I dimly registered someone talking and it made me smile.

When there was a sudden cool draft against my side, I woke up more fully and blinked. It wouldn’t have been the first time I’d woken up not in my bed, but I wasn’t sure why I was waking up under a…

Willow tree…

I smiled and my suspicions were confirmed when I heard her voice, “What do you want so early in the morning? And, why are you so…chipper??”

The two empty bottles lay to my left, next to our two empty glasses. The ending of last night hit me; Hannibal and me, talking, laughing and kissing like we didn’t have a care in the world.

I pulled myself off the ground and stretched out my stiff neck as I heard her say, “I don’t know. Some famous guy you love?”

Although, I was more than happy to have a couple of stiff body parts if it meant she’d woken up next to me. The chill I was less thrilled by.

I pushed my way out of the willow, blinking at the change in light, and saw her on the phone to someone.

“I’m going to need you to be less cryptic, Cass.”

Hannibal gave an adorable yip as I wrapped my arms around her – the blanket around us both – and kissed her neck good morning.

God, if I could kiss that neck good morning every day…

“Good morning,” I whispered in the ear not dominated by her friend.

I heard Cass squeal into the phone, but Hannibal pulled it away from her ear for a moment. She spared me a smile and a, “Good morning,” before the phone was back to her ear and she was saying, “Okay, tell me what you saw.”

I could hear Cass replying, but couldn’t make out the words. Not that it bothered me because I had Hannibal in my arms and that was all I needed.

“Sorry, Cass. I’m confused. Try that again,” Hannibal said, then there was a pause. “Okay, whatever.” Another, longer pause. “Okay, Cass. Will do.”

She pulled the phone from her ear and flicked to a message from her dad. I waited as she read it, then she started and turned around I my arms like she’d forgotten I was there. Was it weird that I saw that more as a sign that she was comfortable with me than that she thought little of me?

“I never pegged Cassidy for a morning person,” I said.

“Not usually, no,” she laughed.

“I didn’t mean to keep you out all night,” I told her, thinking of the message her dad had sent.

“I bet you say that to all the girls.”

It was meant as an off the cuff remark, but it was definitely not something I said to any girl, and I didn’t know how to respond.

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