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Chapter 28
A kiss lands on my cheek as the hand is pulled away from in front of my eyes.
Alastair unwraps himself from around my shoulders and flops onto a kitchen stool next to me. He's dressed even more scantily than Lyall, in a thin white robe like people wear at health spas.
I wonder if he's wearing anything underneath.
OMG don't think about that! It's as if I'm a dirty old man perving on schoolgirls. Breathe. He just kissed me on my cheek. Ignore that. Didn't happen. Breathe.
I sneak a glance at his beautifully defined chest peeking out from the robe and my face reacts by turning a fierce, burning red.
Everything about him just looks amazing. Especially his hair. Messy dark blonde, slightly damp – probably from the shower.
My cheek is warm and tingling where he kissed the skin.
Get a grip Ashling. Don't freak out over
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FABLE Chapter 29
Thump. Thump. Thump.My heart is beating so hard against my ribs I feel like it's about to jump out of my chest on to the kitchen counter.I've managed to keep fairly calm up to this point, but the thought of Lyall making pancakes for me... I want to do a crazy fangirl dance.Lyall hums quietly to himself while he stirs the batter, and Felix is sitting next to me with his head down on the counter. He hasn't even touched his tea yet.Alastaire flicks through something on his phone.There's no reception out here, so I'm tempted to ask what he's doing, but I don't want him to think I'm being nosy.The guys don't seem to notice how nervous I am, and realizing this helps me to calm down. I clutch my mug a little less tightly.Everyone's lost in their own thoughts.Apart from Lyall's softly murmured tune and the clinking of the spoon ag
FABLE Chapter 30
“Your guess is as good as mine,” says Alastaire as he pokes at a pancake with his fork.“He went out for a bit,” Lyall says in between mouthfuls. “I’m sure he’ll be back soon. Don’t stress ‘bout it Kit.”“He went out?” says Kitty, her eyebrows knitting together in worry.“Don’t get your knickers in a twist,” Alastaire says. “He’s just out doing loner junk in the forest. Typical.”Kitty shakes her head, looking gloomily at the counter.“You worry too much,” says Ben as he pats her on the back. “It’s not like he’s gonna get run down by a rabid pack of bloodthirsty fangirls this deep in the woods. Unless you told your buddies about us, Ashling.”He winks at me, and I almost choke on the bite of pancake I was busy swallowing.
FABLE Chapter 31
"I'm not buying it," Kitty says as she drags me between moss-drenched oak trees and ferns, over the faint path snaking through the forest. "Why are you really here?"She's holding my hand so hard that I can feel her nails biting into the flesh of my palm. Even though she doesn't turn around as she asks the question, I can imagine her expression. There's a growl in her voice, something almost feral.She pulls me along behind her at a steady march, further and further away from the cabin, deeper and deeper into the forest.My skin prickles with goose bumps as the space between the trees lessens, and the woods get subtly darker. The overgrowth is thicker, the path more difficult to see than I remember it.Is this the way I came earlier?Then I see it. Just a few feet away, an impossibly dark shape streaks through the trees to my left, skittering away into the gloom. To
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