They Thought My Mate Chose Her novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Night Shift

"It's midnight," I said.

"You're up."

"I'm working."

"So put me to work." He nodded at the shears in my hand. "Or stab me. Either's fair."

I should have shut the door.

I looked past him at the dark alley, then back at his rolled sleeves.

Two hundred and sixteen naked werewolves on a beach in November.

"Three rules," I said. "You don't touch me. You don't talk about the cup unless I ask. And you're gone by four, before Mrs. Anybody on this street gets up to let the cat out."

"Done."

"You didn't even think about it."

"I thought about it on the walk over. Took me six blocks."

I opened the door.

He had to duck under the lintel.

My workroom is long and narrow.

My mother's two machines sit under the front window, with the cutting table down the middle and the pressing table at the back.

Cador stood in the middle of it, trying not to touch anything.

I handed him the iron.

"Wool's not cotton. You don't push. You lift and set, lift and set, through a damp cloth, or you'll shine it."

"Lift and set."

"And you don't leave it sitting, or you'll scorch it."

He set the iron down on the muslin, lifted it, set it down.

He did it very carefully.

"You're holding it like a hammer," I said.

"Everything I hold is a hammer."

"Hold it like an egg."

"I hold eggs like hammers too. Ask my grandmother. She's banned me from her kitchen since I was twelve."

I didn't laugh.

I wanted to.

I went back to my cutting table and cut hood panels.

He pressed muslin seams, over and over, until his lift-and-set got smooth.

He was terrible at being still. Between seams he drummed on the table, rolled his shoulders, rearranged my pins by color.

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