I paused as my hand brushed against the dried flakes on my butt. Puzzlement overshadowed my shame as I tried to understand how it had gotten back there.
My butthole also felt strangely sensitive in a way I couldn’t even begin to explain.
A wave of heat crawled up my neck.
I rose and crossed the room, pulling clean clothes from my drawer with quick, embarrassed movements even though no one was here to see. No one could ever see me like this.
I peeled off the soiled underwear, unable to look at it as I balled it up in my fist. The sight alone made my stomach twist. My hands were shaking again as I hid it under a stack of linens to wash privately later.
When I went to leave my room to take a shower, I noticed a piece of paper on my desk that I hadn’t remembered putting there. With my clean clothes tucked under my arm, I walked over to take a closer look.
You taste heavenly, cherub.
“I taste… heavenly?” I read the note out loud, wondering if it would make more sense that way than in my head. “…Cherub?”
Hadn’t Jace called me that during confession?
Did he…? He couldn’t have… Right?
My heart thudded in my chest as I looked at the note.
The messy handwriting wasn’t unfamiliar, but that meant…
It didn’t make any sense, though!
None of this made sense.
I sank slowly into the chair by my desk, the note trembling between my fingers like it might vanish if I blinked too hard.
Itasteheavenly?
My mouth felt suddenly dry.
People didn’t… say things like that, or at least not to me. Especially not to me.
And no one would ever come into my room like that.
No one would—
Jace wouldn’t.
Hewouldn’t.
I clutched the note a little too hard, crumpling the corner.
Jace was… kind. Strange and a little overwhelming—well, a lot overwhelming, butkind. He listened to me. He smiled in ways that made heat pool quietly under my ribs. He made me feelseen.
But he would never—
…would he?
My face warmed so quickly it almost hurt.
I remembered last night in the chapel, and how he’d rubbed my feet, daring to touch me when he could get in so much trouble for it. It had felt like the air thickened so much between us that I had to fight to breathe normally. The way he had looked at me like—
I shook my head hard.
That wasn’t the same as this. He said that was how the Light called him to worship me. It wasn’t the same as… whatever happened here. It couldn’t be. That kind of thing didn’t happen.
