The longer you’rein here, the longer I have to fight climbing you like a big ass tree full of muscle...and fur.. and oh my God. I want him.
“I know.”
But he doesn’t leave.
The water lapsagainst my skin as I shift, trying to find a position that doesn’t make me feel like I’m soaking in the flames of hell. Nothing works. I lean up to turn on the cold water, but Andrik beats me to it.
“Getting hotter?”
Oh.If you only knew, big guy. I’m pretty sure I’d melt his snow-cone clean off if I sat in his lap right now.
The ache is getting worse—spreadingfrom my core outward like roots digging deeper.
“Andrik,”I breathe, and I hate how desperate I sound. I close my eyes as if that will make the answer easier to hear. “How much worse is this going to get?”
He’s silent,then I hear him move closer, the soft scrape of his claws against the wood floor,
“This is just the beginning, Lumi.”
I crackone eye open to glare at him.
“How do I make it stop?”
His expression is unreadable.“You can’t.”
“That’s not helpful.”
“I know.”He crouches beside the tub, close enough that I could reach out and touch him if I wanted, and God do I want to. “The only thing that eases it is?—”
“Don’t say it,”I cut him off, closing my eyes again. “Don’t say the one thing we can’t do.”
Silence stretches between us,thick and suffocating.
“I’ll make you some tea,”he says finally, standing up and taking a step back from the tub. “And something to eat. That might help.”
The only wayit’s going to help is if I’m lick that tea off his...
No.Don’t go there. Focus.
Saevel suddenly hopsonto the edge of the tub. His paws are silent, but his weight ripples the water. He doesn’t look like a mischievous forest spirit now; he looks like a worried puppy.
He letsout a low whine and nudges my shoulder with his nose. It’s barely a touch at all, but for a split second, the fire in my nerves actually dulls.
“He loves you so much, Saelûn,”He whispers. “He wants to take the pain away. I do, too.”
He turnsand walks out before I can beg him to come back, leaving me alone with a spectral fox and a bathtub full of useless lavender.
I sink deeperinto the water until it laps at my chin, letting out a frustrated groan that echoes off the walls.
This is torture.Literal torture. I wonder how long I can hold my breath.
I press my thighs together,trying to ease the ache, but it only makes it worse. My hands drift lower?—
No.
I yankthem back up and grip the edge of the tub. I will not touch myself in Andrik’s tub while he’s downstairs making me tea like some domestic fantasy from one of my dark romance books.
I won’t.
