The best he could do was flash Declan a smile even as he shook his head.“What a fucking pair we are.Paranoid batshit ex-con and a revolutionary, fanciful Murderpunk.”
The slow smile on Declan’s lips was too damned tempting.“I prefer dramatic.”
“Noted.C’mon, show me that room.We can overthrow The Man in the morning.”
Declan took a step back, nodding toward the stairs.“Come along, then.I, for one, am looking forward to some sleep.”
Chapter Six
Declan
Declanwoketofindhimself curled tight against his bedroom wall.On the other side, Antonio slept.Too far, when Declan ached to touch.He itched with it, that need to be closer, a feeling like ants under his skin.
Bloody ridiculous, dramatic sluagh.That’s what he was.Declan had gone years without physical contact outside of brief moments of familial affection.Being apart from Antonio for mere hours shouldn’t be a hardship.
But ithurt.
The clawing need would be soeasyto resolve.A few steps and a wall was all that separated them.Antonio slept; Declan could feel the comfortable blankness of his rest.Done quietly, and the human wouldn’t even need to know.
Invade the man’s personal space.The protected area just for him.On the first morning.
No.Declan wouldn’t do that.Instead, Declan showered and dressed, dark jeans with too many straps and a plaid button-up with sleeves cut off.He ignored the fresh scratch of steel wool over the ants as he pulled on his boots and didn’t bother to style the white fall of his hair.
And maybe, perhaps, he leaned against Antonio’s door instead of walking directly to the kitchen.Pressed his forehead against the dark wood, eyes closed, as he sank into the bond.
It wasn’t the same as contact, but it helped.Bronzed Antonio, who cleaved to iron and tasted like copper.Who’d touched Declan as if he truly wanted him, fit them together so well it took everything in Declan not to strip down there in the park.
Antonio had felt sogood.Solid and broad, running hot as his soul, his hand up under Declan’s jacket, on the ridge of his spine and sides.A completely new sensation, that touch to Declan’s skin without glamour.So much better than any touch had felt before.
It didn’t matter.This wasn’t about him.He turned from Antonio’s door and headed to the kitchen, hoping to steal a cup of coffee in the quiet of the early morning, undisturbed by anything but his own foolish wanting.
It wasn’t to be.Aisling sat at the large table, expression uncharacteristically blank, fingers wrapped around a steaming mug.
“Hello, Declan,” she said.Her even, light tone gave him pause.“You bonded the Hollow?”
Ah.So she’d spoken with Florian.
“His name is Antonio,” Declan replied, studying the fruit Faerie saw fit to manifest on the kitchen counter.“I thought you liked him.”
“I do.I also told you he wasunsuitable, darling.You said you were to speak with Everil on removing the curse.Not to use that favor to dothis.”She hissed the last word, cheeks flushed and angry.
This.
Declan stared at his mother.His one true support, confidant since he was old enough to not annoy her with sticky hands and tiny claws.How odd it was, that the cold, slick curl of hurt at the pit of one's stomach could continue to be a surprise, even after so long.Declan took the time to study the feeling before tucking it away.
It wouldn’t do to wake Antonio with his dramatics.
“You think so little of me?”he asked, loathing the plaintive note in his voice.“Calloway, that insipid wisp of the House of Acacia Hold, wants to steal him away.Wed him.Antonio askedme, Mother.”
“Sweetling, I only–” Aisling stood, appearing within Declan’s personal space in a blink.She grasped his hand before he could step away.“Everil nearlykilledyou.”
How was he to say anything to that?Difficult enough to think with Antonio so far away, and she brought upEveril.
“That’s not relevant.”
“That kelpie was cruel to you.You stood by him near your whole lives, even after he bonded that shameful excuse for a brownie.”Venom on her tongue, rare as it was acidic.And, like the ants, blessedly figurative.She was not a sluagh.“One vision and he left youshattered.”
“I was notshattered, Mother.”He’d been too numb to be shattered.
