And then something else tossed me from the depths of sleep.
Something soft as feathers tickled my thigh.
I rose to consciousness with a gruff growl working up my chest to rumble from my throat, and an animalistic need burning my skin.
A melodic hum replied, soft and sweet and enticing, before the warmth of lips, teeth, and tongue danced across the side of my ribs.
I pried apart my sleepy eyes, and my muddled mind tried to make sense of where I was. I usually slept for long periods of time. Right now it should be morning, maybe even early afternoon. It certainly felt that way with the heat baking my skin and the humidity prickling a sheen of sweat over my sticky body and dampening my hair. But it wasn’t light in here, it was dark, and I lay surrounded by softness with the heady scent of sex lacing the air.
I blinked, and my gaze sharpened with confusion on the slats above me, as if I lay in a coffin, confined to a small box.
I realized where I was—beneath my bed.
I levered up. There was enough space beneath the tall bed to raise my head to see what the hells was going on. I met a crown of pale blond hair, the long locks sweeping across my body likefeathers as Nelle scraped her teeth against my skin. Her tongue lapped over the bumps of my ribs, raising goosebumps, her breath washed in swirls of heat as she rubbed her cheek and chin over the curve of my figure, all to that mindless humming that tightened my body and turned my blood to molten gold.
What the hells was she doing?
I sucked in a sharp breath when I understood exactly what.
Scent marking me.
Nelle glanced up, and I met eyes gone black that glittered like the night sky. She straddled my thighs and prowled over top of me. Her sex-mussed hair slithered over a shoulder when she angled herself to stare unblinkingly back.
And I realized what she’d done.
During my slumber, she’d pushed and rolled me under the bed, and tugged the overlaying rugs and furs right down to the ground so we were hidden away. She’d even dragged a mixture of bedding belonging to each of us and nestled them around my body.
She’d replicated a burrow of sorts.
Like a wyrm would do beneath the earth.
48
Graysen
Nelle straddled my hips, the top of her head grazing shy of the bed slats. She splayed her hands on my upper chest and pushed me back down onto the soft bedding of silk and cashmere, pinning me beneath her.
In silence, we stared at one another. Her irises had blown fully into mine. She was bright in the dark, even brighter with a ghost of a smile. I reached up and feathered my thumb along the gentle arch of her brow, and she did the same, tracing the inner curve of mine.
I had no idea what had inspired her to build a wyrm burrow and drag me inside. Selfishly, I wanted to stay in this moment a little longer. It was peaceful and she was beautiful and we weren’t fighting.
I ran the tip of my finger down her forehead, following the slope of her nose, dipping to the cupid’s bow in her full lips, trailing downward to end at her chin. Nelle mirrored me, hertouch softly sweeping down the center of my face in a straight line, along the dips and rises.
She was leaning above me and the riotous waves of pale blond hair had fallen forward like a cascade of raining water, the long length tickling my flesh wherever they brushed. I tucked a thick piece of hair behind her ear. My hand stilled, and then I pushed my fingers through her tangled mane, unable to resist massaging her skull, my thumb sweeping back and forth over a faint cluster of freckles near her ear.
Nelle briefly closed her eyes on a contented sigh, pushing back into my petting, before shifting her own hand to weave her fingers through my sweat-dampened hair to do the same.
My eyelids lowered at the comforting touch.
Hellsgate.
So fucking good.
Inside her burrow, the heady smell of sex was an erotic fragrance that mingled with our scents, earthy and rich like a spruce forest tangled with wildflowers. My lust for her was a drug fizzing through my bloodstream, and with every breath I took, the humid air laced with our scent made my mind fall more under her spell, pushing aside every other thought butus.
A bead of sweat slithered down Nelle’s neck, and I followed its moist trail with a fingertip as it rolled like a dewdrop to disappear into the shadowy valley between her plump tits. My mouth was parched from a long stretch of sleep, and now it watered with longing to flick and suckle on the stiff peaks of her nipples and have her moan and writhe against me.
Nelle hummed a low, husky note.
