Savage Instinct

by Anwar, Celeste

  She nodded, feeling confused and annoyed as she walked to her bedroom to retrieve her phone from the charger. She came back and handed it to him. He took the phone and dialed a number, listening for a response. Frowning, he pulled it away from his ear and dialed a few more times.

  “Dammit,” he said, handing the phone back to her.

  She took it, raising her eyebrows. “What?”

  He sighed. “I’m slipping. It’s been so long since I’ve had to actually remember a number myself, I can’t remember anyone’s cell phone. I left mine at my house, but I can’t go back there right now.”

  “Because your meth head attacker is waiting on you?” Sarcasm dripped from her voice.

  He looked up at her, something hidden in his eyes. “Something like that. Hell if I know, but I don’t want to find out until I’m feeling better and got my friends at my back.”

  She sighed in exasperation. The guy’s reasoning left plenty of room for her to doubt, but she didn’t relish the idea of going to the cops and letting them know she struck him with her car. He wasn’t the only one that didn’t trust police. Until he was better, she was at his mercy. Just the thought of being taken to jail gave her the shivers. She could at least wait until any evidence of hitting him with her car disappeared so he couldn’t use that against her. What she needed was to see how big the bruising on his legs were, but other than fucking him, she didn’t know how she’d get him to take his pants off.

  “Speaking of which, I need to check your wound,” she said, tapping her forefinger on her bottom lip.

  He looked slightly alarmed at that. “Help me to the bathroom? My legs are tired.”

  She huffed, feeling resentful of his attitude and her own lingering guilt. Guilt and empathy only went so far. She yanked him to his feet and stood under his arm, valiantly ignore the heat radiating from his muscular torso as she walked him to the bathroom.

  “Give me just a minute to relieve myself, okay?” he said, leaning against the door for support and breathing heavily.

  “All right. But let’s get this done,” she said, not sparing him her ire.

  It didn’t take long before she heard water flowing and then he opened the door for her. He sat on the toilet lid while she examined the bandage. The tape wasn’t sticking very well to his chest at the top anymore, probably because he’d gotten it wet the night before taking a shower.

  “Yeah, we need to replace this,” she said, giving her hands a quick wash. She opened the medicine cabinet and saw the giant dildo again. Nydia tried to shut the cabinet, but Aiden saw the monstrosity before she could hide it.

  “Guess you don’t need a boyfriend with something like that around,” he said, a smirk curling the corners of his mouth.

  Nydia huffed. “It’s a gag gift from a friend. I’ve never even used it!”

  “Yeah, right.” He waved his hands. “It’s okay if you like your toys. I’m not one to judge. They make things interesting. Not every man is as secure as I am though.”

  Nydia felt her skin flush with heat. “I’ll have you to know I’ve never had need of anything extra in the bedroom.”

  Aiden snorted. “Your nose is growing.”

  She planted her hands on her hips. Okay, so that one was a lie. Richard had been horrible in bed and needed a cock ring just to keep going long enough for her to come on a semi-regular basis. But that wasn’t any of his damned business. “Sex isn’t everything in a relationship.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s the funnest part of one.” He raises his hands as if surrendering. “I told you, stuff like that doesn’t bother me,” he said with a chuckle that infuriated her as much as his knowing little grin.

  Nydia opened the cabinet again and slammed the dildo on the counter then pulled out her supplies. She faced him and caught him peeking inside the bandage and grimacing.

  “You going to be a baby again?” she asked as she ripped the tape off.

  He hollered. “You just took hair off my chest!”

  She shrugged. “Some men like getting manscaped. I do it for a living.”

  “What, torture people?” he said, groaning.

  “I make people feel good. I’m a spa technician.”

  “I can’t believe people pay you to hurt them.”

  “Believe it. I do well for myself.” She noticed his hands clenched into fists. The knuckles turned white from the pressure. “You’re such a baby!” she said, laughing.

  He glared at her. “I resent that. Look at that tape. I swear there’s skin on it. Let me take some of your hide off and see how you feel once I’m done.”

  “Wouldn’t bother me. I wax everything on a regular basis,” she said. His wound was bleeding again and looked as fresh as it had the night before. She’d thought it would be scabbed over by now.

  “Everything?” he asked on a strangled breath.

  Nydia didn’t bother to dignify that with an answer. “You must be low on iron or vitamin deficient. Unless you’ve been picking at this?”

  He shook his head, his lips turning white as she patted it with alcohol and reapplied gauze and tape. “Dammit,” she said, coming to the end of the roll of tape. “I’ll have to go and get more.”

  “Batteries too, right?” he asked, a smile hovering on his mouth.

  Nydia glared at him. “You’re all fixed up,” she muttered and narrowed her eyes. “Don’t mess with it. I’ll help you back to the couch and get some lunch on.”

  They walked back to the living room as they’d left it. Aiden collapsed on the couch and covered his head with his forearm. He groaned.

  His ordeal had been entertaining for her. Maybe she was a bit of a sadist and was only just finding out about it now?

  Nydia headed for the kitchen. She got out her stock pot and began to set fresh vegetables on the counter. She laid out carrots, celery, bell peppers, some broccoli, and boxed Italian tomatoes. As she busied herself making some vegetable soup for lunch, Aiden watched her from the couch.

  Nydia caramelized her onions and garlic, then sautéed the other vegetables a few minutes, filling the house with the delicious scent of cooking. That stage done, she poured vegetable stock in the pot along with the larger vegetables she had cut up. She added some thyme, black pepper. Then she crushed a freshly dried bay leaf into the mix for added flavor. When all of this came close to being done she would grate a small amount of nutmeg and ginger into the broth to give it a flavorful flare.

  “What are you cooking? It smells complicated. You don’t have to go through a lot of trouble. A ham sandwich would be fine with me. I would even settle for salami or roast beef. I couldn’t find where you had it hidden in your fridge.”

  “I’m making vegetable soup. I don’t keep lunch meat in my house. Don’t you know that stuff is horrible for you? It’s full of nitrates.” Nydia drained a can of beans and rinsed them before adding them to her soup.

  “What?” Aiden replied, his voice strangling.

  Nydia peered at him from the kitchen. “Something wrong? I thought I told you I’m a vegetarian.” With his face crumpled in a frown, he looked like a puppy dog who’d just been kicked. And she’d done the kicking.

  Aiden choked. “How on earth can you live without eating meat? I’m going to die here.” Aiden propped up on his elbow.

  “Are you a caveman or something? You’re living in the dark ages if you think the only way you can get protein is through meat.”

  “Well, it’s the tastiest way to get it,” he grumbled.

  “Rice and beans make a complete protein with no animal fat involved whatsoever. It’s so much healthier for you and your cholesterol levels.”

  He pointed his finger at her. “Ah hah! I knew you were some new age weirdo.”

  Nydia walked to the edge of the kitchen. “Now you sound like Richard. He hated my diet also. I’ll have you to know that I lost my father to heart disease and high blood pressure. You can’t live life eating garbage.”

  “I’m sorry about your father,” Aiden said, sounding contr
ite.

  “You might be able to exist eating curds and whey, but I on the other hand need meat. I need it to help fuel my recovery. Man cannot live by grass and rabbit food alone. I’ll lose my muscles.”

  She snorted. “Do I look like I’m starving?” She looked at his skin gloriously stretched over muscles like a carved statue. He didn’t look like he had an ounce of extra fat anywhere on his body.

  He raked his gaze over her body, making her feel warm in all the right places. Especially since she couldn’t seem to stop examining his … assets.

  “That’s different. You’re not a man.”

  “I expect any minute for you to come in here and hit me on the head with a club and drag me off by my hair. Caveman.”

  “Ug ug,” he muttered, his dark brows low over his eyes and his chin jutted forward.

  “You won’t starve without meat. You will not dry up and blow away. You are simply acting like a child and refusing to try something new.” Nydia was becoming infuriated with him. He was a guest in her home and he was acting like he was the boss.

  “Maybe I am a caveman, but I like meat and I would never give it up. You don’t know what you’re missing. You’re just going to have to go to the market and buy me some meat. I need it, I want it, and you owe me that much consideration,” Aiden retorted, crossing his arms and emphasizing his hairy, muscled chest.

  Her lips tightened. “I’m getting a little tired of you telling me what I owe you. I did strike you with my car, but as far as I can see the worst of your injuries were caused by a stab wound not by my car. For all I know, you instigated your attack and deserved it. And I will thank you to stop telling me what I need to do for you.” Nydia threw the vegetable clippings in the composting bowl at the end of the counter, trying to curb her annoyance with him.

  “Well I can guarantee that if you don’t feed me some meat I’m going to get weaker and I won’t be able to get out of here. The more all-veggie meals you serve the more likely I’m to remain on this couch unable to care for myself forever.” Aiden flopped backwards and covered his eyes with his arm.

  Nydia adjusted her soup to a simmer and retreated to her bedroom. She slammed the door, taking her anger out on the poor, inanimate object instead of whacking Aiden in the head with a spoon. She sat on her bed, willing herself to calm down from their silly argument. Why did he get her goad so much?

  He seemed to have his finger on the pulse of her annoyance.

  She didn’t have to put up with his demanding ways and she wasn’t going to give in and fetch for him like a well-trained dog. If he was used to getting everything he wanted when he wanted it then he best return to whomever he had waiting for him.

  She didn’t have a problem going and getting him something to eat, but she was damned if she’d allow him to think he could order her around and get what he wanted. If he’d just asked instead of going caveman on her, she would have offered to do so.

  “Stupid jerk. All men really are jerks,” she said. She fished her phone out of her pocket and saw she had two missed calls from the night before.

  Richard.

  “Screw you too, Richard,” she ground out, checking to make sure her phone was still on silent. The last thing she needed was to talk to Richard.

  She placed her head in her hands and thought how much her life had changed in 24 hours. Richard was gone and she had the house guest from hell on her sofa.

  “I’m hungry Nydia,” Aiden called from the living room, sounding loud through her door. “I can’t heal without some food.”

  Nydia huffed.

  “I’m hurting and I can’t take any aspirin on an empty stomach, Nydia. Have a heart, please? I’m sorry for being such an asshole!”

  Nydia began to soften as she sat there and listened to his pleading calls.

  Damn her soft-hearted ways!

  It took every ounce of determination to stay seated on the bed and not go in there to him. She intended to show him who was in control in this house, and that she wasn’t a servant to be ordered to do his bidding.

  Aiden needed to learn some limits, and she was just the person to put him in his place.

  Chapter Seven

  Gnawing guilt put Nydia’s nerves on edge. As much as Richard might have complained about her being an uptight bitch, she’d always been tender-hearted for the suffering of others. It was one reason she enjoyed working with people at the spa, making them feel better and easing their tensions.

  She didn’t enjoy the idea of Aiden being hungry or not liking the food she fixed. She’d always gone out of her way to pick up special cuts of meat to sear on the stovetop or in the oven for Richard. If Aiden had had a little more patience, she could have done the same for him.

  The man was infuriating, and the fact that he seemed to like putting her through a guilt trip was more annoying than anything else. He seemed to know what button to push to bring out her worst side.

  Through the AC vents, she could smell the scent of her soup simmering to completion in the kitchen. She knew she needed to check on it, but she hoped it wouldn’t scorch while she was trying to outwait Aiden.

  Once he finally stopped calling for her, she began to wonder if he was okay.

  Nydia worried her bottom lip with her teeth.

  She’d spent the last hour thinking about the argument, and different zingers she could have used against him in the heat of the moment.

  Her way of eating had evolved over time, and it was something she was quite used to. Aiden, however, had a valid point about his need for meat.

  He wasn’t going to starve without it the way he thought he would, and she would have made certain that he received ample mounts of the necessary vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that he required to heal.

  But as a vegetarian in a meat loving world, especially the South, she knew what it was like to be served foods you didn’t like, didn’t want, and weren’t accustomed to eating. She also realized that should she force him to eat a strictly vegetarian diet for a few days when he wasn’t accustomed to them she could cause him to have problems with his digestive system.

  Problems with the digestive system could cause him to be weak and take a longer amount of time to heal and get off her couch. Getting that pain in the ass off her couch and out of her house was her main goal.

  She’d come to the conclusion that she should have never been dumb enough to bring a wounded stranger into her home. She should have just done the logical thing and dumped him off at the hospital and called the cops.

  But she’d brought the headache home with her, and now she was stuck with him.

  Nydia was as stubborn as she was tall though, and she had been trying to wait in her room to see if he would fall asleep before she went to the store. She wasn’t relishing the idea of having to tell him that she had conceded. He was so arrogant that he would think that meant he won.

  Just thinking about the smug look on his face when she showed up with meat was almost enough to make her spite herself and not do it.

  “Damn all men to hell,” she muttered.

  Nydia eased over to the door and opened it just enough to allow her to see the couch.

  Aiden was lying on his side facing the back of the couch. Taking a step out and closer, she watched the rise and fall of his chest and realized he’d fallen asleep.

  Nydia closed the door as silently as she opened it.

  She went over to the bureau and opened the middle drawer. She pulled out a pair of shorts and a tee shirt to change into. She opened the top drawer and got a bra and a fresh pair of panties. She quickly changed, slipped on a pair of leather sandals, and then went into the bathroom to put on her makeup and fix her hair in a sleek ponytail with a clip adorned with a bling butterfly.

  Satisfied at her appearance, she retrieved her purse and crept out for the door. She knew she needed to pick up more tape and gauze before coming back, and made mental note to make a list on her phone when she got in the car.

  As she entered the main room, she turne
d and looked at the sleeping form on her couch. She really didn’t want to leave him here, alone, in her house. She didn’t see where she had much choice in the matter though. He could barely walk, and was still half naked. She couldn’t take him to a store looking the way he did.

  She’d have to remember to pick up a pack of t-shirts and underwear for him too. He looked like a comfortable large in her eyes.

  Nydia stopped by the kitchen and turned off her soup then looked at the white board hanging on her refrigerator. She picked up the marker and in large print wrote “gone to store. Be back soon.” She didn’t want Aiden to wake up and wonder where she was, or wander outside and fall. Maybe he would stay put until she returned.