“What?” she asked incredulously. He had to be joking.
“You’re. Sleeping. With. Me,” he said slowly, over-enunciating every word like she was hard of hearing.
“There’s no chance in the Underworld I’m sleeping next to you.” She realized the irony of invoking the Underworld, given that this man was a daemon, but still, it got her point across.
“Look, I spent all last night keeping watch so that you, little miss flight risk, would not take off again. I need to sleep tonight. And the only way I’m doing that is if you’re right next to me. I sleep lightly, so I’ll know if you move even an inch. And if you need more motivation, you should know I still have those ropes, so we can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
Ena swallowed. This man was her enemy, and not to mention they had an incredibly complicated and fraught history, so she absolutely didnotwant to sleep next to him.
Still, she couldn’t help the way her body reacted to the thought. Her heart beat a little faster and butterflies filled her stomach.Fuck.
She thought about telling him that she wasn’t going to try to escape again. Maybe she could convince him it was the truth. But what reason would he have to believe her? No, she knew Ty well enough at this point to know that there would be no dissuading him from this.
“Fine,” Ena said, rolling her eyes to disguise her body’s brief lapse into what had to be insanity. “But if you’re forcing me to sleep next to you, the least you could do is come over here. I made a makeshift bed of moss and leaves. It’ll be much more comfortable.”
“Alright,” Ty said, seeming way too pleased with himself. He stood up and walked around the fire to where she’d made her nest, then he paused for a second as he stood over her. His eyes seemed to glow in the light of the fire as he stared down at her with that intense gaze of his. Always so intense.
From where she sat on the ground, he loomed above her, his body tall and menacing, his bearded face half-shadowed in the light. Looking up at him, an energy passed between them as she met his gaze. One that she hadn’t felt in a long time. Nine years to be exact.
Ena quickly looked away, clearing her throat. The spell they’d been under mercifully broke, and she curled up on her side facing away from him. She felt Ty lower himself and lay down behind her on his back.
She thought he’d stay that way, keeping as much distance between them as possible, but then she felt him turn towards her, so their bodies were only separated by a few inches of emptyair. She could feel his warm breath on the top of her head, feel the heat of his body coming off him in waves. She knew that if she were to shift her body just the tiniest bit, she could nestle back into him like a spoon. But the time for that closeness between them was long past, and even then, it had been a mistake, as Ty had so thoroughly reminded her last night.
So she stayed exactly where she was and closed her eyes. But just as the exhaustion overtook her and she drifted off to sleep, she heard him whisper.
“Good night, Ena.”
Chapter Sixteen
Enaawokewithadeep feeling of warmth and contentment. Her face was pressed against something impossibly hard, and her nose was filled with the scent of stone, woodsmoke, and honey. She nuzzled deeper into the hard thing and the smell, sensing in her half-asleep state that closer meant warm, and to pull away would be cold. She felt the hard thing surround her, wrapping tighter around her, and as she shifted her leg, she found it was sandwiched underneath something heavy, and her hip was pressed up against… Oh, Gaia.
Ena cautiously opened her eyes. Her face was nuzzled into Ty’s hard chest, his arms were wrapped around her, her leg was in between his, and yes, that was indeed his extremely erect cock pressing into her hip. Ty’s breaths were still even and slow, so he was clearly still asleep. She went to extract her leg from between his and tried to turn out of his grasp, but his embrace was like iron. There was no way this wouldn’t be awkward.
“Ty,” she whispered gently. “Ty, wake up.”
He stirred slightly and rolled his hips, pressing his cock more firmly against her. Heat shot straight to her core, followed by anintense wave of embarrassment. She began to struggle slightly against him, and the act of her shuffling caused him to wake up fully.
All at once, his arms loosened and he lifted his legs apart, allowing her to escape.
She rolled away from him and stood up quickly. “I have to pee,” she announced awkwardly, and practically ran behind a nearby tree.
She heard him stand up, cough in an extremely masculine way, and then heard the stream of his own morning urination nearby.
How he managed it with his cock in the state it had been, she did not want to know.
Ena took her time, only to buy herself some additional space to clear her head. She heard Ty wander off after a minute, presumably to check the traps he’d set last night, so she came out from behind the tree and set to work building up the fire.
By the time he returned, she had decided that the best thing to do was to not reference the state they’d awoken in at all and continue on with the day. She did not have the mental energy to dissect what had happened. It was all far too confusing.
Blessedly, Gaia had granted them breakfast. Ty came out of the woods holding a decently large squirrel by its furry tail. He sat down wordlessly and proceeded to skin and gut the animal deftly, then speared it on an appropriately large stick before starting to roast it over the fire Ena had built.
The smell of the roasting meat made Ena’s stomach grumble, and while she waited patiently for it to cook, she re-braided her hair and obsessively picked small pieces of moss and sticks from her woolen cloak and dress.
Once the squirrel was cooked through, Ty pulled off some of the biggest pieces of meat tenderly with his large fingers and handed them to her. The freshly cooked meat scalded herfingers, but she popped the pieces into her mouth one by one, not caring if they burned her tongue. They were absolutely orgasmic.
After Ty had picked over the rest of the squirrel carcass until all that remained was bones, they put out their fire and continued on their way. Ena was surprised that Ty did not seem to have to stop and get his bearings the way she had. He seemed to intuitively know what direction they were heading without orienting himself to the mountains or the sun’s path. That was clearly because of hisvenator. He’d said he had an unparalleled sense of direction, but damn, seeing it in action…Ena was reluctantly impressed.
They had been walking at a brisk pace and making good time, so Ena assumed they were only a couple days of travel away from the Western Road. She doubted they’d travel directly on it to get to Attax—two people on foot would draw too much attention—but they’d likely walk parallel to it and make their own path. At least that’s what Ena would do, but who was to say what Ty would do. He was constantly, annoyingly, surprising her.
