Chapter 313: Be Careful What You Wish For, Shorty

Chapter 312: Be Careful What You Wish For, Shorty

Sophia didn’t even blink after the kiss she’d just given him — that wicked little mouth-to-mouth ambush with the drink still warm between them.

She only smiled at him afterward, small and innocent, like she hadn’t just upended the entire atmosphere of the room with one reckless but perfectly timed move.

Her smile literally screamed that she was harmless and she was just giving her mate an innocent kiss.

Orion watched her with an expression that said he absolutely knew better.

Sophia, pretending not to notice the storm she’d stirred, lifted her spoon again. "Anyway," she said lightly, as if nothing at all had just happened, "this barley pilaf is really good."

She scooped a generous spoonful.

Orion’s eyes tracked the motion with slow, dangerous patience — the kind of patience that meant he was one breath away from doing something she definitely wasn’t prepared for.

At least, not fully prepared for.

Sophia raised the spoon to her own mouth but paused at the very last possible moment... and fed him instead.

The spoon touched his lips. His mouth closed around the warm pilaf. His eyes stayed locked on hers.

Sophia swallowed hard — because the way he looked at her right then didn’t just heat the air; it changed everything in the room.

She could see those beautiful gold flecks she loved in his eyes as they darkened.

He chewed slowly and deliberately, watching her as she watched him, before swallowing.

Once he was done, he spoke. "Sophia..."

She tilted her head at him innocently. "I thought I was Shorty to you? Why Sophia now?"

Orion smiled at her. At that point, he was reminded why he had missed her so badly.

"Shorty..." he called out to her.

She blinked. "What?" she asked him sweetly.

His voice dropped — dangerously low — and Sophia knew she was playing with fire at this point, but she didn’t care.

"When you leave this place," Orion told her, "sorry, when you’re healed..." He said it slowly, that smile still on his face. "You’re going to regret messing with me."

Her brows shot up and she smiled sweetly. "Why do I have to wait until then?"

He stared at her in shock because he could not believe the words that had just come out of her mouth.

She stared back at him, lips twitching.

Then he angled his head slightly, like her words had just lit a new fuse in him. "Are you challenging me, Shorty?"

Sophia shrugged — or tried to, because her pulse was suddenly hammering in her ears. "Do you want it to be a challenge?" she asked him as she took another spoonful of the food, looking at him innocently.

Orion gave her a look and she shrugged again.

"Well... it could be a challenge," she told him.

"Hmmm... you’re still in a bit of pain," he reminded her quietly, leaning forward. "You know that."

"So?" she asked. "Is that supposed to stop you? Aren’t you an ogre?"

"You call me an ogre," he told her.

"I do. But is that still supposed to stop you? You’ve never been one to step back from a challenge," she told him.

Everything in Orion went still. Absolutely still. She was right, and perhaps that was why he silently stood up from the chair.

Sophia watched him walk to the door. Her heartbeat stuttered and her fingers tightened around the spoon.

"Orion..." she said carefully.

He reached the door and locked it quietly, but the sound echoed through the room.

He turned back toward her — and there was something in his eyes. She knew at that moment that she wasn’t escaping this.

He stalked toward her, each step controlled, quiet, predatory in the gentlest possible way. A wolf who didn’t need to growl to be dangerous.

Sophia straightened instinctively, the spoon held like a tiny, useless shield.

"What are you doing?" she asked, her voice a little higher than intended.

"I," Orion said as he closed the distance between them, "am going to make do on your words."

"My words?" she echoed.

He didn’t answer her right away — he didn’t need to.

Instead, he reached the bed, reached past her, and began lifting every plate, bowl, parchment scrap, and wineskin off the blankets with unsettling calm.

Sophia watched, frozen, as he set them carefully on the bedside table.

Then he looked at her.

And in one swift motion pulled his tunic over his head.

Her breath left her body in one rush.

He climbed onto the bed — slow, careful, effortless. The bed dipped beneath his weight, and she noticed suddenly, vividly, that he took up space in a way that made her feel small but not insignificant. Small like someone being gathered into warmth.

He was close enough that the heat of his skin brushed against her. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Sophia forgot the concept of air for a moment.

He reached for her hand — the one still clutching the spoon — and gently pried her fingers open. He slid the spoon from her grip and set it back in the food container.

Sophia stared at him with her mouth slightly open.

He tilted his forehead toward hers, pausing just before their skin touched.

The world shrank again.

"Why are you..." She couldn’t finish the sentence.

He kissed her.

Softly at first — impossibly soft. Just lips brushing lips, breath mingling, as if he were asking permission even though she had already given it in every possible way.

Sophia made a small sound — half sigh, half surrender — and the moment she pressed back, he deepened the kiss, still gentle, still holding back, but with a heat that rolled through her like a slow wave.

His hand came up to cup her jaw; his thumb stroked the corner of her mouth, guiding her closer. Her bandaged hand found its way to his shoulder. She felt the firm warmth of him under her palm, the steady rise of his breath.

He kissed her again, slower, deeper.

When he finally pulled away, lips barely grazing hers, he murmured against her mouth, voice dropping to a dangerous whisper:

"Be careful what you wish for, Shorty."