Chapter Eight
Felicity glared at her laptop. She had been working for hours on crafting the perfect ad for a roommate. The problem was, well, her. She wanted to be honest, but her last ad had gone over like a lead balloon.
Roommate needed. LGBTQIA+ Friendly. Non-smoker preferred. Must like rhinestones and be tolerant of loud noises at all hours, bad smells, and glitter.
The glitter must have been the sticking point. Damn craft herpes. Nobody would willingly sign up for a lifetime of finding sparkles everywhere.
Technically, she didn’t need a roommate anymore.
Her sales had gone up, and she’d made a few lucrative discoveries in her latest storage unit hauls.
Not Rembrandt-lucrative, but the sort of thing she didn’t mind selling.
Heck, just that box of comics had paid her electric bill for the month—who would have thought the first appearances of Deadpool, Cable, and Gambit would be in such demand?
Okay, anyone who paid attention to collectible comics would have thought it. But a number of medium-ticket finds like that had added up to a big-ticket profit, even without the bedazzling income. She had months of expenses in her bank account now. She could afford not to have a roommate.
But she couldn’t afford having that empty room, mocking her with Dimitri’s absence.
She’d stopped telling herself she shouldn’t miss him.
The weeks he’d been gone had given her enough distance that she could forgive herself for not freeing him earlier.
And since he’d set out to deliberately seduce her, she could forgive herself for all the lusty thoughts and what she was now calling FootrubGate to avoid remembering it in detail.
Felicity wasn’t mad at him, either. If she’d needed to seduce someone she wasn’t attracted to in order to gain her freedom, she’d have done it. He had been a slave, and he’d wanted to be free. Who wouldn’t do what they had to in that situation?
Now, she was just sad. Because for all the complications, all the rules and ickiness, the painful beginning and heartbreaking end, the moments they’d spent together in the middle, talking and laughing and playing Go on the worn-out board she’d gotten from his storage unit—those had been real.
She’d genuinely liked him. Been genuinely attracted to him, even when he wasn’t getting his flirt on.
She’d fallen hard and fast, even though it could never be.
And now she needed to move on.
There was a knock at her door, and she groaned and shoved her laptop away. It was too early in the morning for visitors. Had she forgotten to pay a bill? Was it the landlord with another noise complaint? Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good.
“I’m coming!” she called out as she put on a robe over her pajamas. The knocking came again, more imperious. “Hold your horses! I just—” She yanked the door open, and her throat closed.
Dimitri.
He was wearing a cropped T-shirt that exposed his entire midriff, along with low slung jeans that had to be illegal in at least thirteen states. He looked absolutely sinful. The crop top had one word scrawled across the chest in sparkly pink rhinestones.
Magic.
“Hi,” she said softly.
“Felicity,” he said in his espresso voice.
She gulped. “Dimitri.”
He took a deep breath. “I am here to respond to your advertisement.”
“My—”
“You are seeking a roommate.” He cocked his head.
“I am friendly to all letters of the alphabet. I do not mind loud noises, foul smells, or things that glitter. I find rhinestones...acceptable. I do turn to smoke on occasion, but I hope that will be negotiable. May I request that you consider my application?”
“You came back,” she whispered.
“There are things I must say,” he growled, eyes suddenly fierce.
“Yes,” Felicity said, stepping back from the doorway. “Come in.”
God, where had all her words gone? She was like a robot. But then he followed her, gemstone eyes fixed on her face, and she knew where the words were. He’d stolen them all, because they were his.
She was his.
She flung herself at him before the door had even closed, and he met her halfway, swooping her into his arms and pressing her against the wall.
He stroked her hair back from her face, searching her eyes.
He was smiling now, a fierce smile of victory, and Felicity smiled back, though she could feel tears welling.
He brushed them away. “You missed me,” he murmured, brushing his lips against her cheek.
“Of course I missed you,” she confessed, letting her hands stroke his bare waist. “Who wouldn’t miss a man who’d wear a shirt like this.”
“It reminded me of you.” His lips found hers, and they kissed for a long, luxurious moment.
“Why are you here?” she finally said, bracing herself for a hard truth. He just needed a place to stay. He was bored. He wanted to be friends forever, nothing more.
He brushed the incipient tears from the corner of her eyes. “You know I could not tell you how to free me. That I could not speak the words, that the magic prevented me.”
She nodded. “It was a stupid rule.”
“Yes. Well.” He cleared his throat. “There are other words I was forbidden to say. Things I was forbidden to feel. But I felt them true, even if the words could not come. I did not care that they were forbidden.”
The knot of trepidation in Felicity’s gut eased enough that she could smile. “That sounds like you.”
“But I was afraid,” he said softly. “Once I had been freed, I was afraid that my feelings were not my own. And I was afraid that once you knew the truth, that I had plotted to seduce you, that you would reject me. And so when you told me to leave, I left. I left to find my truth, to find what freedom had for me.”
Here it was. The let-down. “And what did you find?”
“I found my courage,” he said. “And I found the truth I sought. I found that my freedom is what I choose it to be, and I choose to follow my heart.” His fingers tunneled into Felicity’s tangled waves.
“I haven’t even brushed my hair,” Felicity whispered, heart lifting.
“Your hair is beautiful just as it is. You are beautiful covered in dirt, before you’ve had coffee, coated in glue and rhinestones. And I love you.”
“You are dead sexy covered in dirt,” Felicity laughed. “And I love you, too.”
Dimitri groaned and pressed her against the wall again, raining kisses along her throat. “I have missed you so,” he growled into her throat. “Missed your laughter, your touch, your taste.” He took her mouth desperately and heaved her up by the thighs, grinding into her.
Felicity hooked her ankles behind his back, running her hands up his skin to toy with the delicate rings through his nipples. “I love this shirt, you know. Easy access.”
“The jeans come off, too,” he said into her hair.
She drew her head back, gazing into his eyes. “Is there something you wish for?”
“So many things,” he murmured, stealing a nip of a kiss.
“Your wish is my command,” she teased.
He grinned brightly, almost feral, and then Felicity felt their dissolution, felt their essences mingling into smoke and then reappearing, separate again but together.
They were back in the round room, but this time, there was a huge round bed draped with gauze and heaped with pillows in the center.
“Do you just, like, fold out the bed when you need it?” She giggled as he tumbled with her onto the mattress.
“I call for it in need,” he said. “Do you like it?”
“It’s big, cozy...” She coyly smiled up at him. “Could maybe use something to hang on to. You know, for leverage.”
“That could be arranged,” he said, catching her earlobe in his teeth. He waved a hand, and bedposts appeared around the edges of the bed, six of them evenly spaced.
“Wow.”
He grinned. “Just wait until you see my bathtub.”
She gasped as his hands ran up her thighs. She was wearing leggings, but his touch was still like fire. “Later,” she managed to say. “Bath later. Naked now.”
“Is it Naked Day?” He laughed and sat back, tearing his shirt off.
“Every day is going to be Naked Day for a while,” she said, leaning forward and grabbing the waistband of his jeans.
“Gods,” he moaned as she licked a stripe up his belly, from his jeans to his navel. “It’s been—”
“Years?” She popped the button and began to drag the zipper down.
“Centuries,” he gasped. “Centuries since I have been touched so. Since I have felt—”
Felicity tucked her hand inside his fly, wrapping her fingers around his thick cock. “This?”
He let out an inarticulate sound that Felicity assumed was a yes, since he thrust his hips up and tangled his hands in her hair as she stroked.
She should take his jeans the rest of the way off, but for the moment she just shoved them aside until his dick was free and she could explore his entire length.
“What about this?” she murmured and sucked the broad head of his dick into her mouth.
She got in a few hard sucks and a good lavish lick up the underside before he grasped her shoulders and dragged her away. “Wait,” he said, voice thin.
“Of course,” she said, laying back among the pillows. Dimitri was gasping, and she felt a stab of worry go through her. “Did you not want—”
He laughed. “Of course I want.” He rolled to face her, relaxing slightly. “Your mouth on me is something I have dreamed of, hungered for. But there is more I desire. And I am... It has been a long time.”
Felicity smiled, relief flooding her. “We can go as slow as you want.”
“It will not be slow for long,” he said like a promise, and then crawled across the bed. “I desire you naked.”
Felicity sat up, shimmying out of her ratty robe and tossing it aside. “Like this?”
He gave her a wry look. “You are not yet naked.”
“I’m nakeder,” she teased, then dragged her tank top over her head.
His eyes flared. “More.” His hand had gone to his hard cock, slowly pumping it.
Felicity went up on her knees and turned her back, shimmying her sweat pants and her panties over her ass. “Is this enough?” She wiggled it.