Claimed by the Primals

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Believe it or not, I was patient. I waited to ask the obvious question. I even cooperated enough to go to the hotel, shower, get dressed up, and let Kade walk me down to the hotel bar. We sat at a high table near the back of the packed room, and I got all the way to ordering and receiving my drink and ordering some bar food before finally losing it.

"Okay, spill it," I practically begged. "What does it all mean? Why do we have to be more careful at the resolutions meeting? Why is it such a big deal that my brothers don't know I'm free?"

"Jayden," he sighed heavily. "Can we please talk about something else for a bit? It's supposed to be our night off."

"I don't want a night off. I don't need a night off. This is-"

"I do."

That shut me up. Looking up at him, the guilt of my own selfishness grew into a rock weighing in my stomach. It was like the lights came on and I could finally see how exhausted he was. His eyes were red and dry from sleep deprivation, and while the several days' worth of dark stubble coming in made him look hot as hell, I knew for a fact that he was usually meticulous over keeping a clean shave. He'd also already consumed half his beer, and we'd only had our drinks for a few minutes.

"I'm sorry," I told him. "I... shit, Kade, I'm so sorry."

"It's fine," he gave me a tired smile. "I know you're worried. I know you have a lot on your mind, and I'm not avoiding this. But it doesn't matter if we talk about it tonight, tomorrow, or any time between now and the resolutions meeting. We will talk about it. Just... not tonight. Tonight, I just want to talk about anything else. I just want to have the first date we should have had ages ago."

Heat rose up my neck and into my cheeks. Date? Uh... weren't we way past that at this point? I mean... we'd already slept together and agreed that we want to be together and all that. This was so out of order! Wait... what do people talk about on first dates? There was no way I could do this!

"Jesus," Kade barked out a laugh, his eyes brightening and looking more and more like himself. "You look more afraid of the concept of a date than when someone is trying to kill you."

"In my defense, I've had more people try to kill me than date me."

"I don't believe that. You went to college. You must have had guys falling over you all the time."

"Hardly. I didn't have the Hollywood experience in college. I went to class and did my coursework. One guy asked me on a date and when Matthias found out..."

The drink turned sour, and I stopped talking. It had been a while since I'd even thought about Matthias. Dare I say I even missed him a bit in that moment? Just the good times. You know, the Matthias I thought he was, rather than his true colors.

"What did you study?" Kade asked quickly to get my mind off that depressing topic.

"Business administration. I figured I couldn't go wrong knowing how to do paperwork for people who don't want to do paperwork themselves."

"I struggle to see you sitting quietly behind a desk."

"I wanted to go into childcare. I thought I would have been a great kindergarten teacher."

"So why not do that?"

"I lived in Arizona. There aren't many places in America that treat their teachers worse. I don't mind bending over for a little for a job, but I prefer the kind of hard fucking that results in aftercare."

Kade burst out laughing, and the waiter gave us a weird look before dropping off our plates and walking away. "Well, we're certainly not settling in Arizona after this. We'll look into a country that has better prospects for educators."