Elm barked something sharply in that weird growling, snapping they liked to use that had Cy snapping out of it. With a snarling grumble of his own, Cy grunted and mumbled something that sounded an awful lot like stubborn and stupid, and then practically dragged me over to my car.
“Hey! I’m walkin’ here!” I barked as he gave up trying to herd me and just picked me up, stiff and unyielding as I was, to tote me, his arms banding around me tight pressing me up against an impressive set of shirt covered pecs and thick slab of abs.
Cy worked out. A lot. Good to know? I dunno. This crap was confusing. Being squished up against him like this was… It had my brain on the fritz.
He smelled nice too, but that doesn’t matter.
I mean, really nice, a sort of fresh, woodsy scent mixing with the heat of him, pressed up tight to him as I was— it was kinda distracting— but that’s beside the point.
“I won’t take it. I already told Sunny,” I warned him. Staring at him, pressed up tight like this, it was kinda hard not to notice just how disgustingly blue his eyes were, the same color as the sky when it’s all crisp and blue and deep. The stubble visible coming in around his eyes, forehead, and nose was long enough he’d be shaving today. It looked silky soft to the touch. Did anyone ever ask to touch his face? How weird would that be? Would he have allowed me to brush my fingers over his face fuzz back in the day?
Crap. Where did that come from? What the hell is wrong with me?
I felt totally discombobulated, just plumb out of it, dizzy with the scent of him thick in the air. It was scrambling my brain!
Cy stopped dead in his tracks, almost right there in front of my car. Leaning in, those big old baby blues lasered in onme. He got a shiver out of me as the tufts of fluff peeking from his beard tickled my cheek, his breath coasted over my exposed throat in my loose coat, and he- did he- “Are you sniffing me?” I spluttered. Staring at him, wide-eyed, hazel eyes bugging, I made no move to squirm free. I felt stuck, struck.
“Cy-press.” Elm grumbled his brother’s name threateningly, so loud it felt like he was standing right next to us.
Cy pulled back with something close to a half smirk twitching at his lips. His lower lip was fuller than the upper. A very pink tongue peeked to run along his teeth. Feeling like I was in a trance, I just kept staring, watching, waiting. And… I’m staring at his mouth. I’m thinking about his mouth, wondering what he’d taste like— the hint of mint on his breath or… Gah.
“We’re at my car,” I blurted as he backed me up against it, until I felt the bite of the cold metal at my back and reality trickled in. The hardness of my car and the heat of his touch contrasted, reality and this weird fantasy building itself in my brain as we speak simply at his closeness vying for my complete and total attention, thick mitts gripping me so tightly to him I felt molded against him.
“You could put me down now.” I’m whispering but can’t rightly say why.
This all felt very… intimate.
Me, intimate with Cypress Tree? Mr Too Cool For Anybody?
My cheeks pinkened at the thought.
When Cy just stood there, continuing to hold me, still in some sort of grunting, growling stand off with Elm that makes no sense to me, it was a full minute, definitely more, before he slowly, striking me as reluctant to let me go for reasons I struggled to understand, released me.
The action, with him this close, sent me sliding down his heavily muscled chest.
Stunned, I did little more than slowly glide down him like pleather down a metal slide— if I could creak loudly and bump and flop along I’d bet I freaking would— there was no finesse in this whatsoever, and yet I was so gobsmacked I did little else but creak along incrementally, mentally cataloguing every bump and muscled lump along the way— mouth open in a shocked gape.
By the time the tips of my boots touched the ground, I was so flustered, completely out of my element on this one, redder than a beet, I probably couldn’t have told you my name, let alone how to spell it.
It was very strange being this close to Cy, pressed together like this.
Yeah. Strange. Let’s go with that.
Super strange.
A soft rumble started up in Cy’s chest. My hands were still on his person, right over the spot, numb with the noise he was making.
“Pru.” I’ve never heard Cy’s voice like that, soft but deepening, a rumbling whisper.
Another shiver overtook me. I couldn’t help but think how nice this all felt. When was the last time someone had held me close, spoke to me like that?
Never.
“Look, if this is about your ma’s note,” I started, struggling to regain my composure, “I already told her-”
“Always want talk. Talk, talk, talk,” Cy taunted. Lifting a hand with a sigh, followed by a short, huffy grumble, he mimed talking at me.
Slapping his hand down, weird emotions flooding me shoved to the back burner, annoyance won out. “Fine. Get to it then, Otis.”
