When they touch me (Shelagh Milano) novel Chapter 45

Chapter 45
Artemisia

Matthew is working on a sculpture. His stained clothes make him look like he escaped some secret fantasy of mine. I stare drooling a bit too long before his chuckle gets me to finally force out something.

“Didn’t you want to have breakfast?” I ask as he rubs his hands clean with a rug.

“I’m not that hungry,” He answers with a grimace, making me feel guilty.

Something about our interaction feels strange, and I cross my arms wanting to scold him playfully to loosen up the situation. “That isn’t healthy. A wolf like you not being hungry is quite a bad sign.”

He answers my snicker with a tired smile and steps closer without touching me, which just intensifies my feeling about something being wrong.

As he doesn’t say anything, I clear my voice and try not to crumble under his intense gaze. “So, this is your hobby?”

“Yeah, helps me unwind. I guess that Logan is at the gym and Fynn is doing something aggressively right now.” He laughs, even if I don’t think that he finds it that funny.

Smiling up at him, I push down the urge to just turn around and leave. “It’s nice. And if it helps you, even better.”

“Ah, I love it,” he says dreamily, looking up at the statue he is working on. “Even if they made fun of me because of it.”

“Your brothers are idiots. They knew exactly that if you told anyone, you would have gotten all the girls,” I say, wanting to cheer him up.

He shakes his head while lowering it, “Wouldn’t have mattered anyway because I wanted to wait for my mate at any cost.”

“Aw, Matthew.” Letting my arms slump, I take a step closer to him but refrain from touching him as his posture keeps me from doing it. “I’m sorry they interrupted us.”

Tsking, he throws his rug onto a table. “I’m just tired of Fynn fucking everything up, and us having to bear with it. It’s already a pain having to share a mate that is destined for you with egoistic pricks, but Fynn always manages to take everything to the next level.”

“I’m so sorry! I promise that I won’t ever have them have more of my time than you.” I say, desperation expanding in my chest. “It’s not easy for me as well… But we can make it work.”

He grimaces as he shakes his head. “It’s not you that has to apologise. I’m sorry if I made you feel like you should.”

“It’s alright,” I smile up at him, finally getting one back.

I’m just about to say something else as he sighs, “Maybe you should go, Missy.”

Fighting hard to not let my smile fall, I try to ignore the fact that he didn’t call me Love or another pet name he had used for me the last few days. “Don’t you want to eat breakfast with me? We could have them bring it up here, so we could spend some more time together.”

“I don’t think that this is a good idea,” he sighs, and I could swear that I can see the pain of it written all over his face.

Getting a little push by the thought, I finally reach out to lay my hands on his toned sides, a light shiver passing through me. “Come on, Matt. It’s just breakfast.”

Instead of wrapping his arms around me, he grabs my wrists and forces me to let go of him. “Missy, please.”

“Sorry, I… I understand. I’ll go.” I whisper, my heart getting another painful stab.

With a last smile, I free my wrists that he is still clutching, turn around, and walk out of his quarters as fast as I can without running like an idiot.

I sense him moving behind me and I guess he would have wanted to say something but, in the end, decides to keep it to himself.

As I continue to walk through the pack house, instead of running back to my rooms like I would want to, I pass the gym and through the glass doors can see that Logan is indeed working out.

And he doesn’t look happy.

Concentrated, sweaty, and incredibly hot, but not happy.