“Envy,” I clarify.
He scoffs and squeezes Cielo tighter. I swear I can hear bones crack.
“Let. Him. Go.”
Rathyn ignores me and turns to face Cielo. He says something in his language, and after a long pause, Cielo speaks back. He’s so much better in the monster’s language. It flows off his tongue like a fast-moving river.
It’s gorgeous.
Whatever he says, it gets Rathyn to loosen his grip and then eventually release him. He looks mortified for a second, and then angry. He says something else, and Cielo looks at me, inclines his head once, then turns and walks out of the apartment.
“What the fuck was that?”
Rathyn takes a long beat to answer. He sucks in a breath, then his claws click on the floor as he crosses the distance between us and backs me up against the counter.
His hands come up, cupping me around the ribs before moving upward. His thumbs find my nipples over the shirt, and he presses hard enough that I only just manage to bite back a moan.
“You are unmarked.”
I swallow heavily. “I’m…what?”
“As my companion, you are unmarked.”
I don’t know what the fuck that’s supposed to mean. At least, not immediately. “So, mark me.” Is it a bite? A hickey? I can handle that if it means he won’t go around trying to tear the hand off another monster for touching me.
But then his thumbs press harder into my nipples, and suddenly the conversation at the contract signing comes rushing back.
“Wait. Wait. Whoa?—”
“I cannot allow you to move around in this world or mine unmarked,” he says, his voice low. There’s a rumble layered beneath it, almost like his purr. “If you were marked, he would not have allowed that to happen. You protested at your tongue, but I believe this will suffice.”
Closing my eyes, I breathe out. Then in. Then out again. “I don’t do piercings.”
“You will,” he says. “It is part of our contract.”
“What about a necklace, or?—”
“No.”
My eyes snap up to his face, and I can see he won’t be moved. But I’m also not going to do this without putting up a fight. “Rathyn?—”
His hand moves to my jaw, cupping my cheek, his thumb pressed against my lips to stop whatever it was I was going to say.
I purse my lips almost on instinct, kissing the soft pad of his thumb, and he shudders, his purr growing louder for a second before he breathes out and his face softens.
“A necklace,” he says that word like he’s struggling with it, “can be removed too easily.”
So can piercings, technically. If a person—or a monster—was really desperate. I’m not super keen on having rings through my nipples at all, but the thought of them being pulled out…
“You are afraid.”
“I’m just not, like, a super big fan of needles,” I tell him. “I’m not really into pain.”
His fingers begin to stroke my jaw, and his purring gets louder again, like he’s trying to soothe me. “The pain will be minimal. And forgettable. And then you will be marked as mine and free to move around in your world and mine.”
Oh, that fucking bastard. That absolute asshole. I’ve wanted to see Erethar, and he knows it. He knows he can use this to bargain.
“Promise me it won’t hurt,” I say against his thumb.
