What the fuck? The first time I want to go there with someone, and he’s rejecting me?I try to climb off his lap, but he doesn’t allow me to move.
“Listen here, my brave little warrior. There isnothingI’d like more than to lay here and let you have your way with me.” I nod, thinkingYeah, let’s do that,“But you’ve had too much emotional turmoil tonight, as well as too much to drink. You don’t wantme,” the fuck I don’t— “you want a distraction. If in a few days, you want to bless me with the gift of your body, I will cherish it and you for all of my eternities. But you’re not in a place to make that decision right now.”
Somewhere in my half-drunk lust-and-sorrow-addled brain, I know he’s right, but my traitorous body doesn’t want to listen. She just wants to replace the shitty memories with new ones of his perfect body beneath me, letting me take what I need.
He stands, holding me against him with one hand and pulling down the soft comforter and sheets with the other. Once the bed is ready, I disentangle myself from him and clamber in. Instead of leaving, as I expected, he slides in next to me and pats his chest with a soft smile.
I curl myself into him, listening as he tries to slow his breathing and shake off the righteous fury still fighting against his hold. Even though both of us are furious and restless, laying in his arms is utter bliss. I’ve never been held this way by a man. Never wanted to. Now I fear I’m going to be addicted. If it were up to me, we’d never leave this little heaven we’ve found with Fritz. Going back to the real world will be a bitch after knowing what life here could be like.
Surrounded by his snowy scent, while feeling his heartbeat slowing against my cheek and his fingers tracing patterns on my arm, I fall asleep almost instantly.
The Greatest of Gifts
Caspian
Once I’m certain Bel is sound asleep, snoring away, I go in search of Fritz. There’s no way he’s sleeping, probably pacing to burn off the rage the same way I am. Thankfully, he’s already waiting for me, sitting on the couch he shared with Bel earlier.
I know I should find their familiarity concerning, but having someone else to look after her brings me comfort. He knows this world far better than I do, and he’s fantastic in bed. If I was going to trust anyone with her, it’d be him. She certainly doesn’t seem opposed to the idea, so who am I to keep her from her desires?
He hands me an amber-colored drink before commenting, “She’s a firecracker, that one. Yelling at you even while you’re more monster than man?” He whistles, “Brave girl.”
I sit and take a sip. “Indeed, she is. She shot me when we met,” I recall with a smile. Fritz’s laughter fills the room, and I’m granted a small semblance of peace, finally having something familiar around me. “She even yelled at me,in my true form, because I killed a few cops.”
“That does not surprise me in the slightest,” he remarks with a smile before turning serious. “So when do we kill this fucker?” I knew he’d want a piece of the filth who dared harm my girl.
“She does not want us to.” At that, he rolls his eyes, mirroring how I feel about that sentiment. “And as you know, I cannot leave her without being tracked by the hunters.”
“How? You have their little compass,” he crosses one leg over the opposite knee, relaxing into the couch.
I sigh, “I do not know. The two I killed made it sound as if they have an array of sensors for our kind. How have hunters not found you yet?”
“I’m sure they know exactly where I am, I am simply not enough of a threat for them to hunt me, plus I am constantly in a sea of mortal witnesses.”
“Not a threat?” I laugh, “You are one of the most powerful of our kind.”
With a shrug, he explains, “And yet I use it to deal blackjack and live quietly in a hotel room. Why should they come after me? I’m harmless unless crossed, and if they provoke me, they won’t live long enough to gain anything from it.”
I have to admit, he makes a point. “Well, once I get Belissenda back home, we can sneak away and take care of him.” The promise of releasing my fury has every inch of me begging to let the monster out.
He nods, then asks, “What will you do now that you have your answers? Apparently you are in no hurry to relieve her of her virginity,” he snickers.
“I am not worthy of the gift she wants to give, and she was not in a position to be doing that tonight anyway.” She needed rest after our game and the revelations about her past. “I suppose now we will go home in the morning. She needs to get back to work, and I need to find my way in the world, somehow.”
At the mention of us leaving, all the humor leaves his face. He tries to cover it up with more questions, asking, “What does she do?” Part of me is becoming irked by his curiosity, but I cannot fault him for that, can I? She’s a fascinating creature.
“She’s an audiobook narrator, specifically books withsmut,”I explain, hoping I used the proper phrasing.
He looks at me strangely, “That seems… odd, given her history with sex.”
“I get the feeling she uses her career as a way to explore her sensuality without having to trust anyone else with it,” I respond, adding, “She’s built an entire career within the walls she erected.”
“Can’t say I blame her,” he comments, and I nod. “But she’s definitely…curiousabout things,” he says in that mischievous way of his.
“In what way?” I’m sure I know the answer, but I crave hearing it anyway. It seems wrong to discuss this without her present, but I’m too enthralled to stop.
“You may not have been close enough to sense it, but her reaction when you confessed to our dalliances wasso sweet,” he finishes with his eyes closed in elation. “Her entire body froze in place, her pupils fixed on me as they widened, and the scent of her wetness was so powerful I had to bury my face in my drink to stop myself from getting a taste straight from the source.”
Christ, I’m getting hard again.If Belisinto that idea, I don’t know how long I could stop myself from acting on it. Fritz would obviously be ecstatic, but I don’t want to push her into anything too soon. “We shouldn’t seduce her, Fritz,” voicing the protest I’ve been trying to tell myself all night. “She hasn’t even had one man, let alone two at once. Had I known about her past, I never would have dragged her into my rough desires.”
