Watching them over his shoulder with heat boiling in his eyes, he grinned fiendishly. “Best watch out, darlin’. If you put kissing on the table, I’m taking full advantage.”
“Do not get ahead of yourself,” they teased, walking backward through the barley. “I am not so easily won.”
“That, I know,” he said as he stalked toward them.
With a squeak, they turned to continue their prideful strut, but their foot sank into a hole in the field they had not seen, and pain ricocheted up and down their leg. They crumpled to the ground gracelessly, yelping like an injuredkrimpias they landed in the soft, muddy dirt.
“Oh my God, are you okay?” Bryce rushed to their side as they rolled to a sitting position, balking at the mud smearing their arms and clothes. They even had it in their hair.
“Please tell me this is mud and not animal excrement,” they begged as he crouched down before them.
“It’s mud,” he said, reaching for their foot. “Did you hurt yourself?”
Their ankle was throbbing, and they winced as his fingers prodded along the joints. “It does not feel broken, but it hurts.”
“Nah, it’s not broken. Probably just twisted it.” He rolled their foot around, and they flinched. “Let’s get you up and see if you can walk on it.”
Humiliated, they allowed Bryce to lift them to their feet, then attempted to add weight to their right leg. Their ankle protested, and they swayed on compromised balance.
“It is quite tender.”
“I’ll carry you back to the house, and we’ll put some ice on it,” he said definitively, already in doctor mode. But before he scooped them into his arms, he paused. “Is that okay? Can I carry you?”
The question was one he had asked before, weeks ago when they had been in pain and embarrassed by their body’s natural cycle. They had not liked him carrying them then. But things were different now.
“Yes,” they said, antennas flicking. “Yes, you may carry me.”
Like he had the first time, Bryce slipped an arm around their back under their wings, and his other behind their knees. He hoisted them into his arms easily, and they leaned against his chest and shoulder. His shirt was a little sweaty, given the weather, but they did not mind it so much.
In fact, they liked it quite a bit, and they snuggled deeper into his hold, humming in satisfaction as he carried them home.
Chapter twenty-five
Physical Intimacy
Zef
Back at the house,Bernice fretted over them, but Bryce easily dismissed her worry. “They just twisted their ankle. I’m gonna take them inside so they can get cleaned up.”
In the kitchen, he set them on the counter and retrieved an ice pack from the freezer. He wrapped it in a towel and handed it to them to hold while he picked them back up and carried them up the stairs to the bathroom. Once there, he set them on the counter beside the sink and shook his head.
“Can’t take you anywhere,” he teased.
With a pout, they shifted until they could prop their leg up beside them, setting the ice pack on their ankle. “Do not make fun of me when I am in pain and covered in mud.”
“Or you’ll be cross with me?” he said, leaning in to drag his nose along their cheek bone.
Unable to hide their smile, they refused to look at him. “Yes. I will be so very cross.”
“Well, we don’t want that,” he said with a minuscule brush of lips to the skin in front of their ear. They shivered, and they felt him smile against their cheek. “Let me get the shower warmed up for you so you can wash off the mud.”
As Bryce played with the temperature gauge, Zef worried their bottom lip, an idea taking root in their brain. It was not exactly a brain-brain thought. If anything, it was almost a penis-brain thought. Well, more penis-brain-adjacent. But it was not… unwanted.
So far, they had embraced courage today. Why not keep the bravery going?
“I think that’s warm enough,” Bryce said, drying his hand on his jeans. “I’ll grab you a towel and get out of your hair.”
Setting the ice pack aside, Zef carefully climbed off the counter, testing their foot. Their ankle twinged, but it could hold their weight fine, at least for the amount of time necessary for a shower.
