MALIA’S POV
My eyes zeroed in on the meals before me. They looked tantalizing, I felt my mouth watering. I had always had a fondness for food, it was my only weakness, apart from being Wolfless.
Ronan raised his eyebrows at me taking note of how I stared intensely at the food. “Why do I wish to take the place of this food? The way you gaze at it… it is delightful.”
“You don’t have to worry about that, you have a special spot in my heart. Not as big as that of food but still you are there” I teased.
“Seriously? Remind me to always exclude meals when we are together.” He replied sarcastically while rolling his eyes at me.
“Whatever” I waved him away and dived into the meal, ready to enjoy the rest of my night.
Comfortable silence engulfed us as we continued to eat. The sound of muffled voices of people around and the clattering of cutleries were the only sounds.
A few minutes after we finished the main course, the desert arrived. I finally saw the main reason why he labeled this place his favorite. As much as the meals in the palace were heavenly, the ones here were on another level.
“Thank you so much for the meal. You could always offend me next time then bring me here and apologize” As we walked out of the restaurant, I remarked.
Ronan grinned, “I will keep this in mind for when next I am going to offend you”
“I might have found a more interesting restaurant by then. Don’t give yourself much credit” I rolled my eyes at him.
“I will give you a year to search the whole pack or forever if you need, you will never find a place as good as this” He challenged.
“I know one already” I dropped my hand on my waist as I spoke.
“You do? Where?” He took my words far too seriously.
“You” I dipped my hand at his rock-hard chest. “You make far better meals than them but the thing is you don’t even cook regularly”
“The only thing you have to do is ask and I will be in the kitchen cooking for you” he muttered.
I don’t know if it was just me but I had this sudden feeling that he moved closer to me. Far too close for the concept of personal space to be observed. He looked into my eyes and so did I stare at his, getting lost in the lush grey color that reminded me eerily of the clear sky after a rain.
“I…. I will keep that in mind” I don’t know why the heck I stuttered.
He didn’t honor my words with a reply and instead focused on looking at me, so intense that my knee almost began to wobble. I knew what he was about to do. But the fact that I wasn’t making any move to stop him terrified me even more.
He was moving closer, and closer and closer, and then finally the loud honk of a car passing by caused us to jolt away from each other like the other was fire. Whosoever that driver was, I had given so much thanks to him. What was I even thinking? Allowing Ronan kiss me?
“I’m sorry,” He cleared his throat and turned to look at me. “That wasn’t supposed to happen” He added, looking intensely at me.
I shifted my gaze from his as I replied, I couldn’t afford to fall victim to those alluring lush eyes for the second time. “It certainly shouldn’t have happened” I deadpanned, my tone emotionless.
The emptiness between us instantly changed to awkwardness as he tried to clear the air with meaningless explanations while I just stood there doing nothing. I wasn’t even listening.
I don’t know why the heck I was angry at him when he wasn’t the only one who made advances toward me. I also moved closer to him and would have let that happen if not for the sound that intervened. Once again, thanks to it.
Goodness, What was I even thinking? How could I just easily allow that happen? Someone I had known for barely two months. This certainly wasn’t how I behaved.
I should be more angry at myself rather than him but I couldn’t find it in my heart to just let that anger toward him dissolve and when I couldn’t contain it anymore, I spoke to him.
“Can we go back to the palace? The cold out here is getting unbearable” I uttered.
There wasn’t any cold and if at all there was, then it certainly wasn’t unbearable. I just wanted to be as far away from him as the world may permit at the moment before I said something I would later regret.
“You are right” his voice croaked as he spoke, an indication that he had been more quiet than he normally was.
For the first time, I regretted not getting a ride to a place. I realized that we had walked our way here and would have to walk back to the palace.
On a normal day, the walk wasn’t that long, but today, I felt like it was one of the longest walks I had taken all my life. The awkwardness was so torturing and when I could finally make out the building of the palace, I couldn’t be happier.
I was even more grateful that I could find my way back to my room without needing any help from him and that I did immediately after we stepped into the palace or rather I would say I intended to.
He stopped me from moving away and took it upon himself to walk me to my room. I didn’t complain, at least it wasn’t that far of a walk.
When we reached it, I didn’t wait for him before unlocking my door and walking inside
I shut it behind me and put it under lock and key.