Chapter 101: His Shirt
"Wear this," Rowan said gruffly as the soft fabric of his t-shirt fell on my face.
Instantly, I was encased in his scent. I moved it out of my face and looked up at Rowan, surprised, only to see his cheeks slightly red. He seemed to be trying his best not to look in my direction. Whenever he did, he kept his eyes purely above my waistline.
When I remained unmoving for a bit too long, Rowan glared at me. However, I couldn’t help but notice the lack of heat behind his eyes. This time, he didn’t look at me with the frosty indifference, nor was it the fiery hatred Cassian often gave me.
"Well?" he prodded. "Are you planning to just stand there?"
I held the shirt in my hands, staring at it. Even before putting it on, I could already smell Rowan’s scent on it. If I did actually wear it, his scent would merely flood my senses. Before long, I would no doubt lose control once more to the control of the mark.
"No thanks," I said, frowning. "I think what I am wearing is perfectly fine."
It wasn’t as though I liked being out in the nude. However, it would be much better than having Rowan’s scent attacking me constantly around the clock until I had the chance to change out again. Who knows when that might be?
On the other hand, Soren and Cassian were locked in a fist fight. Cassian had just given Soren a right hook, and the latter retaliated with a punch straight to Cassian’s gut. Both men seemed restless. However, the moment they heard those words leave my lips, they whipped their heads around and frowned at me simultaneously.
The look of disapproval hung on their faces, but by the looks of it, it seemed to be for different reasons.
"So you’re saying you would prefer to parade around with your clothes in tatters?" Cassian asked, his lips curdling into a sneer. "And you still want us to think you aren’t a slut?"
"I have some spare shirts," Soren offered. When my eyes met his, he darted away, almost as though he was afraid to meet my eyes. "You can wear mine―"
"Cassian, give Briar an old shirt," Rowan commanded, cutting Soren off. Soren frowned, but he didn’t say much.
On the other hand, Cassian seemed to have an awful lot to say.
"Not in a fucking million years!" he bellowed. "What makes you think I will give her my clothes?" Cassian asked, mortified. He held a hand to his chest like a scandalized lady.
"You were the loudest when talking about her walking around in tatters," Rowan said, repeating Cassian’s words. Even I had to do a double-take to look at Rowan, silently applauding him for that clapback. "In that case, you should cough up new clothes for her."
"I― You―" Cassian was slowly starting to turn purplish. He looked at Rowan’s clothes in my hand. "What’s wrong with your own t-shirt?! Did you forget to wash it? "
"Just do it," Rowan seethed through gritted teeth.
Surprisingly, Cassian relented much more easily than I thought he would.
"Fine!" he said, throwing his hands up in the air.
He stormed into his room, but quickly returned not long after with a bundle of cloth in his hands. Then, without warning, he threw the bundle straight at me.
I dropped Rowan’s shirt to the ground by reflex. When I unfurled the bundle, I found that Cassian had tossed me an old graphic tee, just as Rowan had requested. Cassian’s unique scent clung to the old fabric, along with the smell of the drawers from having been unworn for a significant amount of time.
Nevertheless, at least this shirt did not drive me crazy the same way Rowan’s shirt did. Cassian’s scent still messed with my mind, but it was on a much more manageable scale than Rowan’s scent. I could work with this.
"Thanks," I muttered under my breath. Cassian harrumphed, a sign that told me he definitely heard me.
Quickly, I slipped the shirt over what I was wearing. His physique was so much bulkier than mine that even a simple t-shirt that looked well-fitted on him was way too big on me. However, it was precisely because it was so large that the bottom hem of the shirt easily fell to the middle of my thighs, covering everything that needed to be covered.
On me, this t-shirt merely looked like an oversized nightgown. I pulled the ripped jeans off so that they wouldn’t be in the way. The tear in the fabric had made the pants impossible to be reworn anyway. There was no point in keeping it on, other than to serve as a reminder of what had just happened.
"The sun is about to rise," Rowan noted, looking out the window.
True enough, outside, the sky was starting to take on a slightly pinkish hue. Just like that, yet another night’s worth of sleep had slipped by. I could feel my eyelids starting to grow heavy with exhaustion. Right as I thought that, I yawned, unable to resist shedding a few tears as I did so.
"You should get some sleep while you can," Rowan said, turning to face me. "We have a long day ahead of us."
I pursed my lips. On one hand, I really didn’t want to return to Rowan’s bedroom. His scent wouldn’t allow me a single moment’s worth of rest anyway. On the other hand, I could barely keep my eyelids peeled open. I couldn’t say for sure whether the endless heat that his scent brought me would be able to keep me awake if I truly tried to relax on the soft mattress.
"You’re trusting her to go back into that room?" Cassian asked, his eyes twitching in disbelief. "She’ll just escape once we’re not looking again!"
"Which is why we will be standing guard," Rowan plainly said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"What?!" Cassian squawked. He looked every inch unwilling. "You expect me to sacrifice my sleep for her?"
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