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Wasting no time, I took advantage of her parted lips, driving my tongue into her mouth just as I would if I was eating her out. Primal need streaked through my engorged shaft, causing my hips to buck against the mattress. She strained against my tail’s hold, back arching in a gorgeous curve.

A quiet, hesitant knock sounded and we broke apart, gasping for breath. “Um, I forgot to give you the books I mentioned. I’ll, um, just place them here by the door,” Belle stated, her voice muffled by the door. Biting my lip, I rested my forehead against Miko’s, my horns brushing the pillow behind her head as I struggled to suppress my mirth.

I swear I can still feel Belle’s curious embarrassment seeping under the door.

“She’s probably a voyeur,” Freddy noted.

“The bookish ones always are,” Marv replied, and I had to agree, my lips curving up at the corners.

Unexpectedly, Miko cracked first, bursting into a fit of laughter so hard tears tracked down her face. I reared back, not wanting to accidentally break her nose with my granite one. Still, my laughter joined hers, amusement overflowing like freshly uncorked champagne bubbles.

Shifting my weight, I rolled off my her and onto my side. Unspent lust causing my ballocks to ache. Miko’s laughter died off, revealing the exhaustion haunting her expression. She scooted closer to me, then slipped her hand between us, lightly stroking my cock through my pants.

I groaned, brushing the tip of my nose against hers. “Fuck me. As much as I’d like to continue where we left off,” I said and kissed the space between her brows, “you need to sleep more. It looks like you’ve suffered a week of ague.”

Miko snorted. “Wow. You could’ve just said I look like shit.”

Shrugging, my lips twitched into a grin. “That I could’ve. But something tells me it isn’t polite to state such a thing to someone you’ve been necking.”

Miko scoffed, covering a yawn with the back of her hand. “Isn’t polite,” she repeated, shaking her head. “Fine, I’ll take a nap. Wake me in an hour?”

I hummed noncommittally and took off her glasses, intending to let her sleep as long as possible.

Two to three hours later, I smoothed the back of my fingers over her cheekbone, entranced by the miniature V formed between her furrowed brows and the way her eyes flickered back and forth under her lids. I traced the faintly blue, fine lines of her veins with my eyes, the delicate webbing akin to a map hidden just beneath her skin.

I wonder what she dreams of?

As if she sensed another perfect time to interrupt, a dainty knock came three times, and Miko bolted upright. “Wha?” Miko asked, her eyes cracking open as she fell back into the pillows.

I chuckled, moving to open the door. “So, you convinced him, eh?” I asked Belle.

She flushed deeply. “Let’s just say I wore my Beast out thoroughly enough for him not to notice a thing,” Belle replied, a small bit of humor entering her voice, stepping to the side so Miko and I could exit the bedroom.

I kissed the top of Miko’s head, my tail curling around her waist. “Lead on, Belle.”

She offered me a perfunctory nod, then strode purposely down the halls, out the grand front doors, and around the side of Beast’s castle.

Miko shivered, blustery, icy wind tearing through our clothes. “How much farther?”

“Oh, not long at all,” Belle responded, raising her voice over the wind as she descended a steep, muddy incline and stopped at the base.

My nose wrinkled, the retched stench of waste and refuse shoving into my nostrils. I searched the surroundings for the source, spotting a grate built into the castle’s foundation, murky water pouring through the bars. I continued walking along the river away from the castle, tugging Miko along, unable to think until I cleared some of the sewage stench out of my sensitive nose.

“The portal is just beyond the next bend where the streams intersect. You can't miss it,” Belle shouted after us. “It was nice to meet you!”

Miko gagged. “Bane, please tell me the portal isn’t in the middle of sewer run off?”

I grimaced, then inhaled my first semi-clean breath in several minutes and pointed a claw to where a larger stream joined the one from the castle. “Do you see the where they connect? I can just make out the shimmer of a portal beyond where the river widens from the two sources.” I glanced at her and smirked. “Don’t worry, it won’t be contaminated.”

Miko’s shoulders fell, and she blew out a breath.

I squeezed her side with my tail tip. “Ready? On the count of three.”

She sighed. “One.”

“Three,” I countered, pinning her to my body and jumping into the portal.

CHAPTER 19