“Hmmm. Not sure I should. Gav will freak.” Her eyes were on my pecs, and I loosened the neck of my shirt, undoing two more buttons, and flexed them. She didn’t even blink. “You might believe me, but Gavriel still thinks I’m a useless nothing.”
“Was Seraphiel covered in smut like you?” I flexed my pecs twice in a row, amused at how she watched them like a cat hunting a mouse.
“Horny,” she muttered. I almost laughed, but she went on, her voice low. “He was super horny.”
“Horny for you?” She shivered, not answering. Had she even heard me? I flexed my pecs again, first one, then the other, in a steady rhythm. “Hey, Scrap?” I said after at least a minute. “You’ve got a little drool… right there.” I reached for her face, and she batted my hand away.
“You hypnotized me with your man breasts,” she accused, her mouth drawn down in disapproval.
“My whats?” I peeked down. “I don’t have breasts!”
“Look, Ry,” she said, rolling her eyes as she scooted closer. “See this curve on the bottom of your boob?—”
“Not a boob,” I growled, unbuttoning my shirt the rest of the way, and pulling it wide. Her eyes went bigger as she took in my bare skin.
“Whatever. This curve, under yourpectoral,” she drawled, reaching underneath the muscle. “You are definitely a B cup.” She hefted it in her hand. Then hefted it again. “Maybe a C.”
“You just wanted to touch it,” I teased, trying not to reveal how much I loved having her hands on me. “Admit it.” I trailed my fingers over her silky, gleaming hair that cascaded down my sheets. For an instant, I had a vision of her lying back on those sheets, naked, her eyes closed and her mouth open in a cry of bliss, her legs drawn up and my tongue delving?—
“Um, so I should probably go,” she squeaked, and I smiled internally. The little trickster could read every thought I had, apparently. I let myself stand and helped her off the bed, allowing the lewd scene to play out in my mind as we walked toward the door. By the time we reached it, she was biting her lip so hard, I was afraid it might bleed. She muttered, “Mated, Feather. You’re mated,” like she was in danger of forgetting.
I stopped imagining her naked, but instead, brought the Tili I had known back to the forefront of my mind. Her hands offering me roses. My surprise and the soft affection I’d felt for her. The need to protect her, no matter what.
“I loved you then,” I said to her, as I opened the door. “And I will make up for my abhorrent behavior somehow.”
And maybe you’ll learn to love me, too.
A flash of pain crossed her face as she heard my errant thought, and I shook my head. “Feather, I don’t need any more than this: to know that you are safe and well, and to look upon your face from time to time. It’s more than I deserve, more than I ever thought I’d have.”
It’s enough for me, I thought.
“But maybe not for me,” Feather whispered to herself.
I hid my smile. As soon as Gavriel got back to Sanctuary, and we could plan the ceremony, it was time for me to fully ascend.And then maybe I could begin the hard work of becoming a man worthy of the woman I’d foolishly spurned.
Chapter 17
Feather
Afew days later, I could hear Sunny’s mind whirling with high-decibel thoughts while she worked on her latest craft project, a second macramé owl towel hanger. I’d been too busy to see her much for the past few days, what with trying to clean off my new smut from re-mating Mikhail, going to my horrible Purity seminar, another boring class on Sacrifice and Redemption, and spending evenings with Righteous. He’dbeen treating me like a queen, but I hadn’t had nearly enough time with my best birch.
Sunny was too quiet. But her thoughts were another matter. Her fingers tied knots in the thick, yellow polyester craft yarn while her inner monologue tied knots in my emotions.
Feather looks nervous. Like she’s got a secret. And she keeps touching that feather on her chest. Somebody needs to tell her that’s not a birthmark. Why hasn’t Mikhail said anything? He’s the one who should… but maybe he’s nervous about it? He must have seen it before the first mating… No, he did that to save her life. Who’s her other mate? Could it be that Rumple guy? Not sure if he’s really Seraphiel. I wish I’d met him. We sure need Seraphiel here now, or someone. Sanctuary with no High Angeli—well, Feather is one, sort of. Can’t believe I’m best friends with the most beautiful soul ever created in Sanctuary. Even with that smut on her, and inside her… Wait. Inside? Did she merge with Rafe when she was in the Abyss? Maybe that’s why she looks so guilty. Or was it Righteous? He couldn’t even look at her yesterday after she came back to the room. She wouldn’t be unfaithful to Mikhail. But that feather on her chest… It’s not his. Is it Righteous’s from her first life?
That would make sense. He looks at her like she’s got his heart in her hand. Or her hand on his dick. Now if Mikhail would let it happen, that’s a three-way I could get behind, even if it is way too much dick for my personal merging preferences. Righteous is hung like a fucking monster, according to Feather. Oh, my stars, her name! She’s gonna regret that for millennia.She began humming a very familiar song about an anaconda and his deep love for buns.
“I should probably tell you I can hear your thoughts some of the time,” I blurted out. Sunny stopped halfway through a row she was tying off, and shot me the finger.
“No, you can’t.” She glared when I only shrugged, then snarked, “Okay, what was I thinking, Madame Psychic?”
“You were singing a classic Earth song,” I said softly. “About Righteous.” Her eyes narrowed, and I rapped out the final words of the line from “Baby Got Back.”
“Oh, stars and suns,” she gasped, dropping the macramé on the floor. The plastic circular towel holder part cracked on impact. “You read my mind? You birch!”
“Not on purpose!” I explained as she began throwing scraps of yarn and sequins at me. “It just started happening after I came back from the Abyss!”
“What have you heard?” she hissed, circling the room like she was going to attack. I backed away, hopping over the bed in an effort to keep something between us.
