Why does he do it? Why does he stay when it’s such a struggle for him?
“Do you like being here?” He’s pretending more than I am. He’s been on best behavior since the moment we arrived. At first, I thought it was because he’s a demon, and he wanted to change what people thought about their aggressive kind.
But now I think it’s because of me.
“I like being with you.” He lifts a challenging brow at me, meeting my eyes with the most shining look of heat in his gaze.
“But do you like being here, with the men who call me their mates?”
At that, his fingers lift, skimming subtly along the side of my ribs where my shirt and my skirt don’t quite meet. Goosebumps break out against my skin the moment his fingers slide up and then down against my curves.
“You like them, Arrie. I watched you live in misery for so long. And then I watched you isolate yourself to the point of destruction. I’m never going to ask you to walk away from happiness. That’s not my intention.” His palm is heavy as it slides across my abdomen fully, stroking slowly along my skin until his touch is all I feel deep inside myself. He touches me ever so slowly like his fingers against my skin is more for his pleasure than it is mine.
My breathing is a heavy rise and fall of my chest, and I can’t decide if it’s from his honest confession or from the feel of his roaming, drifting touch.
“If you want me here, I’m here. No matter what. As long as you want me, love.” His head dips low, catching my attention with a waiting look I’ve never seen before.
He’s so close. All he does is wait for the reply that’s caught in my throat.
“I want you here. I want you, Sin.” My whispered words make his dark brows lift high as if it’s the very last thing he expected me to say. The heated look in his gaze searches over ever part of my face.
My fingers lift hesitantly, and it’s a strange feeling when I intertwin his long fingers with mine. He feels warm and strong.
He feels like home when I don’t even know what home feels like. Not really.
Eight
A Mysterious Friend
When everyonein Helen’s house is fast asleep, I watch him watch the night. In the entire time I’ve known him, I bet Rime’s only slept a total of forty-eight hours at the most. It doesn’t stop the alert way he scans the darkness from his seat perched near the window.
It’s late. Chaos’ arms are wrapped securely around my body; they have been for hours and I haven’t slept a single second. Silence surrounds the three of us in Chaos’ bedroom. Rime’s room is across the hall, but he hasn’t slept there the entire time I’ve been here. Not that he’s slept too much in this room either.
Pale moonlight shines against his messy hair, giving it an impossible white tone. His spine is a steel rod of posture as he sits on the stool, just as he did at my house when he was a small dragon. The hard line of his jaw is shadowed with tension, his bare chest rises and falls minimally. I follow the sharp lines of muscle tone along his ribs, down the smooth span of his side down to his narrow hips, before slowly trailing right back up again to admire his perfect features.
“It’s not polite to stare, My Tamer.” His whisper cuts through the darkness, and he never looks back at me from his close watch of the black, empty nothingness outside.
A smile presses to my lips at the sound of his words. There’s no amusement in his features, no teasing laughter, but the shine in his pale eyes is there. The internal smile is there even if he doesn’t know how to let it out.
As much as I’d love to change all the terrible things in Rime’s past, I’d never change a single beautiful thing about the man sitting before me.
I shift to slip from the bed, but Chaos’ big hands pull me harder against his solid chest. The smooth panes of his muscles are all around me, wrapping me up in strength and comfort. It’s something I never want to leave.
Except right now. Right now, I have got to get out of this bed.
My fingers trail up his arm, they dip low, slipping away to meet the hard lines of his stomach. Instead of teasing him in the sensual way I really want to, I tickle him with quick rapid strokes of my fingers. It’s like I stabbed him fatally, I swear. He flinches, tensing up before rolling away to safety.
Abandoning me the moment he’s tickled. I look back at him, my brows lowering.
We’re going to have to have a serious discussion when he wakes up about him leaving me behind so damn quickly. And here I thought he was the overly protective one.
The heavy quilt falls away, and I instantly regret my decision to leave the warm bed and Chaos’ deliciously warm body. My arms wrap around myself as I quickly scurry over to the stoic shifter. Rime’s eyes meet mine and he pulls me against his chest the moment I’m close enough. My arms cling to myself as he presses me against him, wrapping me up in everything that is Rime. His head buries in my thick hair, and I feel his words whisper against the curve of my neck.
“Go to sleep, Tamer.”
“You first, Shifter.”
A humming sound of quiet laughter kisses against my skin. That rumbling reverberation swirls all through my chest, warming in an instant just from his rarely seen amusement.
