I helped her gather all the plates and deliver them to the table where we placed them all in the middle and Saint actually flinched as he realised he wasn’t getting his own plate.
“I’m not eating with my hands like a dog,” he snarled, shoving away from the table to gather a plate and looking wistfully into the cutlery drawer at the knives and forks.
Tatum followed him, chewing him out about having to stick to her rules tonight and I grabbed myself a beer before mixing her a dark and stormy and taking my seat at the table.
“You said we had to eat it, not that I couldn’t use a fucking plate,” Saint growled as Tatum grabbed the other side of the plate he’d retrieved and tried to tug it out of his hands.
“This is my night and my rules,” she insisted. “And we eat pizza with our goddamn hands like normal people, you don’t need a plate for that!”
Monroe chuckled but Kyan just continued to glower as he grabbed himself a slice and started eating without waiting for them to finish their spat, tearing into his food like a beast.
“Barbie, if I’m forced to eat like a savage, I can’t be responsible for the way I get. My rules and routines are the only things that-”
“Keep the monster inside you chained up, blah, blah, blah,” Tatum interrupted, rolling her eyes. “You know, I think you just hide behind that crap because you’re a coward and you can’t bear to try something new. Any little change to the status quo and you lose your shit. You need to grow up and eat the pizza, Saint.”
She yanked on the plate so hard that it flew out of both of their hands and smashed on the flagstones. Silence followed the sound of it shattering and Saint’s nostrils flared as he stared her down.
“You’re new,” he pointed out in a low voice just for her. “And I’ve adjusted just fine to having you here.”
“No. You’re only making my point more thoroughly. How many times have you let your monster loose on me?” she demanded.
“Not as many as you think,” he hissed. “Because the real darkness in me can’t be sated by these petty games we play. It needs to feast on blood to satisfy it.”
“Well, tonight, it’s feasting on pizza,” she replied, grabbing his hand and dragging him back to the table and to my surprise, he gave in, not even making her clean up the broken plate.
She pushed down on his shoulders to make him sit and he complied before she dropped into her spot beside him. Monroe watched the entire thing play out with hungry attention in his eyes and I was willing to bet he was surprised to see Tatum wielding that power. But I wasn’t. That girl was fast becoming Saint’s weakness. Hell, she was becoming all of our weaknesses. And sometimes it showed.
I decided to be a real prince and cleared up the broken plate, winking at her as she looked my way before depositing the shards in the trash and joining the rest of them at the table to eat.
We tucked in to our food and the conversation turned to football as Tatum zoned out. Saint joined in the discussion just fine, but I noticed he hadn’t taken a single slice of pizza. And the longer the conversation went on, the more certain I became that he’d decided not to eat at all.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Tatum huffed, snatching a slice from a plate and holding it out to Saint in offering.
Strings of gooey cheese hung off the sides of it, making my mouth water, but Saint looked more inclined to puke.
“There’s fucking pineapple on that,” he growled. “Who the hell thinks cooking fruit is a good-”
Tatum shoved the end of the pizza into his mouth while it was open and we all fell still in shock as we waited for Saint to explode.
Instead, he ripped the bite off with his teeth and slowly started chewing. Tatum reached out with her free hand and wiped a speck of food from the corner of his lips and I swear my mouth fell open in surprise as he just let her touch him like that.
“Good?” she asked brightly.
Saint looked at her like what he really wanted to devour was the girl before him then nodded once and she smirked in triumph as she offered him another bite. Which he took.
The table fell silent all around them, but the way they were looking at each other said that no one was invited to interrupt this game.
She lifted the slice to her own lips and took a bite before offering it to him for the third time. He didn’t even hesitate at the idea of sharing food with her. Nothing. His gaze was riveted to her like he didn’t know what to do with her, but was desperate to figure it out. My heart pounded as I wondered if she’d ever given me her undivided attention like that in a room full of people.
We slowly fell back into conversation as she continued to eat with him, alternating between feeding him and taking her own bites of food as we lamented the fact that all broadcasted sports had been suspended in light of the Hades Virus.
When we finished eating, we all sat around the table, discussing everything from football to classes, to the other students. Saint gloated about the way Bait had been since he’d had the mask glued to his face and we all laughed about how fucking broken he seemed while Tatum frowned. She didn’t say anything in his defence though,
