It was Soren’s turn to glare at him, but it was Imogen who said, “He’s being a gentleman. Something you two could learn from.”
Diar’s snort of laughter wasn’t helpful.
He wouldn’t laugh if he knew,histurukseethed.
Probably not, but Soren didn’t intend to tell them about last night. They’d have questions, and, worse, suggestions—but Soren didn’t understand it himself. And how Maeve touched him, what she whispered to him as he came…those were things only for him.We don’t share.
“We’re talking,” Soren reiterated, “so please let us be. Don’t meddle.”
“Standing around town in a daze doesn’t make us optimistic about your chances,” Akila said.
“You need all the help you can get,” Diar agreed.
The smallest growl escaped Soren’s mouth, his upper lip curling to reveal a fang. Diar stilled, recognizing a threat when he saw it.
Balar held up his paws. “All right, all right, Soren. We won’t interfere. Yet.”
“At all,” Soren insisted, glaring up at hisseska-ab.
But Balar just grinned in that infernal way of his, smug and noncommittal. Imogen sighed, thesmackof her palm over her face resounding.
Soren avoided his family and their unhelpful suggestions—he was going to kill Diar if he pantomimed a phallus entering a cunt again—by throwing himself into work on Ulmo’s pub. It was nearly finished, mostly just polishing and moving furniture around. Still, it offered distraction, which was what Soren needed most.
By the next morning, he wasachingto see Maeve. He rushed Kiri through breakfast, herding him along to school earlier than usual.
The impudent cub had the gall to slump back against Soren, nearly becoming dead weight to slow their pace. Kiri snickered over his own folly, laughing harder when Soren reminded him atrue noble hunter never let his wings drag on the ground.
“We both knowyou’rethe hunter,seska,” Kiri laughed.
Huffing in annoyance, Soren bent to drive his shoulder into Kiri and tossed the whelp over his back. Kiri let out an undignified yelp, flailing like a fish as Soren trudged down the hill with him. Kiri thrashed his legs and arms but couldn’t get a good angle or grip, leaving Soren free to jostle him and scratch the undersides of his knees in merciless tickles.
Hoarse, gasping laughs and groans reached Soren’s ears, making him grin.
Kiri needed to be reminded he was never too old for Soren to tease. He knew all of Kiri’s ticklish spots.
He did, however, let Kiri slip right off into an ungainly heap the moment he spotted Maeve climbing the steps up to the schoolhouse door.
Kiri’s groans were lost on him as he hurried to ask, “Miss Maeve, can we speak?”
She was somehow even more beautiful that morning, her cheeks rosy, her hair soft and glossy. He could smell that combination of her sweet soap and some feminine scent uniquely hers—it drove him to distraction. He nearly shuddered as her scent filled his lungs and memories of that night flooded his mind.
Giggles and little voices teased his ears, more students gathering to laugh at Kiri making a fool of himself rolling around in the grass.
A beatific smile adorned her lush lips, and after looking about, she leaned to press a gentle kiss on his cheek. “Later. I promise.”
Enket at inan,his heart couldn’t take her sweetness.
She left him blushing on the steps, gently touching his cheek as if he could preserve the sensation of her lips.
Except, when they did talk later on their now customary walk in the evening, it wasn’t about anything specific or important.
Maeve chattered gayly about the students, the weather, the butterflies they’d observed after luncheon. She seemed to talk about everythingbutthat night.
Soren, however, didn’t know how to bring it up. Especially not with how she’d taken his arm as they walked, as though he truly was a gentleman escorting a lady home. His mind kept turning over the simple touch, how easy and fluid she’d been in initiating the contact.
So she didn’t mind touching him.
She wasn’t in a distracted mood anymore, either. That was…good.
