Lunar Distortions

Chapter 3

"Grayson. What do we owe the pleasure?"

Something shifted in the air as Roan took a slight step forward. Almost like he wanted to hide me from the intensely eyed stranger. With the man's gaze cut off from me, I felt like I could breathe again, and I could feel my heart pounding in my chest.

Oh my god. What was that?

"I heard Roan Hale was harbouring a ...outsider." The man, Grayson, declared casually. Even his name was handsome but his words threw me off. Did he really just call me an outsider? Way to make a girl feel welcome, "I just wanted to be a friendly neighbour. Drop by, introduce myself...say hello."

An annoyed escaped Roan and my brows furrowed in growing confusion. There was something about the way the intruding man spoke that made his intentions sound...less innocent than he made them out to be, and I swallowed thickly as I looked at him.

Grayson was sprawled out casually on one of the wooden chairs set around the dinner table, his boots discarded by the doorway, and arms folded leisurely behind his head.

I wondered if he even noticed how the black material clung to his chiselled chest. Giving me more than what my own imagination is capable of.

Shock rolled through me when a noise rumbled deep in Roan's throat; rumbling deep in his chest. My brows lowered at the sound because...it kind of sounded like he was growling, like a pissed off dog. I began to wonder if this man was even his friend, it really didn't seem like it.

"I spoke to Wyatt about my niece coming to stay with me." Roan gritted out before pausing slightly. He suddenly inhaled deeply and jammed his hand into his back pocket, turning to Landon and me with a hard look, "Addison, you ought to go unpack. Landon, be a gentleman for once, and go help."

Landon's amused scoff seemed to ease the tension a little in the room, "For once?" He drawled in mock offence, slinging a strong arm over my shoulder, "Ro, I am foremost, and always, a complete gentleman. It's only in my nature."

"Addison." The way my name rolled off Grayson's tongue made me think of wrinkled bedding and hot skin. Basically, all the things that no hormonal girl wants to think of when her newly introduced uncle is in the room. His gaze cut into mine again with a stronger intensity, "Pretty name."

Roan muttered something under his breath before storming towards the back door and throwing it wide to the wall. Allowing a gust of icy air to sweep in and smack me clean in the face with a force that made my teeth chatter.

Grayson smiled with a devious twinkle in his stormy eyes. Like he already knew what was to come next.

"We're going to talk outside." Roan made it startlingly clear that it wasn't up for discussion, and shocked me by stepping out into the harsh winds in no less than a sweater on, "Move it, Faolan!"

My eyes went wide with disbelief as my uncle disappeared into the white, and I wondered what would happen to me if he died from frostbite. All this hassle, only to know the man for five minutes, before he foolishly got himself killed by the weather. It didn't feel very fair.

"Don't you need a jacket!" I shouted after him, already turning towards the front door. The sound of a blood thickening rumble of delicious laughter halted me in my tracks, the amusing kind that made me feel like I was being laughed at, and I turned, "What's so funny? He could catch his death!"

Grayson looked more amused at the fire burning in my gaze and cocked his head at me, "It won't be nature that kills that old man." He snorted as he rose to his feet, stretching his arms high enough over his head to touch the ceiling, "Pleasure meeting you, Addison Hale. I'll be seeing you."