Free Aris: A Sexy Romance Novel (Thief of Hearts Series Book 1) by Elody Knight Page B

entrance to the outdoor room.
    “She’s with Anaya.  She said she had some stuff that would stop Denise’s itching.”  Aris held his arms out to her.   His hopes were dashed as Saoirse sat in the chair rather than coming to him on the couch.  Aris put his arms down trying to pretend it didn’t matter.
    “Are you hungry?  Mata made dinner.”  Aris put on his best nonchalant tone.
    “No.” Saoirse drew her feet up into the chair, curling into as if it could hug her.
    Aris watched her in the chair wishing she had come to him instead, “Are you warm enough?  I can grab a blanket for you.”
    Saoirse frowned pulling into a tighter ball in the chair,  “I don’t want a blanket.  I’m fine.”
    “Alright.”  Aris pulled his tablet back up scanning the screen. 
    There was no way he was going to be able to concentrate on anything in front of him.  He was having a tough enough time just staying out of Saoirse’s face the way Anaya had told him to.
    “I, um,” Saoirse ran her hand along the side of her neck. 
    “Yes?”
    Saoirse’s mood snapped like a dry twig under Aris’s foot. This egg shells thing was rough.
    “I’m going to eat.”  Aris turned his tablet off setting it on the coffee table.  Nothing in her posture changed, so he went to the kitchen.
    Once he got through the door, he lost motivation to do much of anything.  This was not how he thought Anaya’s advice was going to work out.  He opened the fridge.  What he wanted wasn’t in there.  It was out in the outdoor room curled up in a chair when she should have been in his arms.  A halved papaya caught his attention.  Well, it wasn’t like he was driving.  Yanking the papaya off the shelf, he opened the cabinet behind him.  There was still an entire bottle of coconut wine.  Better still, there was a large bottle of dark rum.  An evil idea presented itself to Aris, which he embraced eagerly. 
    He pulled the blender from the counter in corner.   He couldn’t recall what the ratios were supposed to be, so he just poured what looked right.  Coconut wine, dark rum, papaya chunks and a little bit of ice.  This could be fun.  Aris’s mood lightened as he set the blender to its ice crushing speed.  Glassware was an issue.  He had almost three quarters of the blender glass full.  Of course, he could put part of it in the fridge, but he didn’t want to.  He could always just drink it out of the blender jar.  No, that was crude.  Nothing presented itself, so he had to settle for a regular tall glass. 
    “I thought you were getting dinner.”  Saoirse looked at the blender with suspicion.
    “I am.”  Aris poured as much into the glass as he could before pushing the blender jar into the fridge.  He took a drink of the mixture.  It could use a little more sweet, but since he couldn’t think of what they had in the kitchen that might be sweet, he poured a little more coconut wine into the glass.  “Did you need something?”
    “No.  I just heard alot of noise in here.”
    “Oh.”  Aris walked around Saoirse as he headed for the sand.  He could feel her eyes digging into his back, but since she wasn’t saying anything, he kept walking.  He was already halfway to the fire pit when she called out to him.
    “You guys don’t get TV out here do you?”
    “Satellite.  215 channels.  The box is in the other room on the far side of the house.  Help yourself.”  the words had slipped out of his mouth before he realized what he’d said. 
    He waited for her mood to get worse, or the daggers to get him.  Neither happened.  She had disappeared into the house. 
    “Okay.  That was rude, but she didn’t care.  I’m polite, so she’s pissed at me.  I need to talk to Anaya again.  This makes no sense.”  Aris muttered under his breath.  He took another long pull on the drink before anchoring it in the sand to get some wood for a small fire.
    Alcohol on an empty stomach is never advisable.  Aris knew