Chapter Eighteen
Grym
Ihad no idea where Elliot’s bedroom was. It didn’t occur to me until we were already inside, with my brothers lounging in the kitchen and living room. Morgana was nowhere in sight.
I’d pulled Elliot along up to that point, but then I wrapped an arm around him when everyone stared at us as we entered the house.
“So you’re going to do what Morgana said and bond, then?” Neo asked.
“We’re not...” I huffed. “It has nothing to do with Morgana.”
Elliot’s cheeks turned pink, but he chuckled. It was cute, yet the giggle carried a hint of nervousness. I wasn’t sure what caused it, but I assumed it was everyone knowing what we were about to do. “Don’t bring her up. She kills the mood for Grym.”
Okay, so his nervousness wasn’t about everyone knowing. Not if he could joke about it. Was it the act itself that scared him? He said he wasn’t a virgin. That meant he’d had sex before, but maybe there was something about doing it with me. Did he not really want to, but felt obligated?
The guys laughed at Elliot’s teasing.
“Elliot’s friend Joel is a beloved. Someone needs to go get him and bring him here.” I turned to Elliot and cupped his cheek.
“Wait. Is Joel a beloved, too? How do you know?”
“It’s just a feeling. I feel protective and as though he’s part of the brotherhood. I sensed it the second I met him. It was the same when Ossy sensed you.” If I could see into his mind and gauge his reaction, I would have, but all he had going on in that pretty head of his was nervous excitement.
“What?”
“What?”
Elliot sighed. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Now it was my turn to blush, mostly because we were having this conversation in front of my brothers, which I didn’t want.
Morgana emerged from a room off the living room. She met my gaze. “I should know every beloved you encounter, Grym.”
I shrugged. “No one else knows about him. He should be fine, but we need to reach him before our three days are up.”
“Agreed.” She clapped her hands and addressed us all. “It will be a busy three days, gentlemen.”
They all blinked at her, but otherwise didn’t move.
She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Ferry souls and find beloveds. Now. Don’t make me say it a third time.” She pointed at me. “Not you. Bond.”
Shit. I met Elliot’s gaze. “I swear it’s not because she’s telling me to.”
Elliot chuckled again. “As long as you still want to.” He leaned in and pressed his cheek to mine, whispering in my ear. “I’ve been thinking about what you look like naked for days.”
The comment put me at ease. I stopped worrying about whether Elliot actually wanted to. He was as eager as I was. “Which way to your bedroom, A stor?”
Elliot pulled away, scowling. “What the hell did you just call me?”
“A stor. It means my treasure in the old language.” When he stepped closer, I wrapped my arms around him, holding him close.
“Gaelic wasn’t spoken much where I came from when I was a boy, but the cook used it from time to time.
I’ve always liked the way the language sounded, so I picked up a few words here and there.
They stuck with me, even after all this time. That’s a minor miracle, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is, smarty pants. I thought you mispronounced a bad word.” He rubbed his hands down my arms. “You have strong shoulders.”
I couldn’t help but smile at the reason for his distraction. “I would never call you anything bad. There’s nothing bad or wrong about you. In fact, you’re everything good in every realm of existence, including this one.”
“Up the stairs. Last door on the right.” Elliot pulled out of my arms, grabbed my hand, and pulled me up the stairs. “You say the nicest things about me, even though you know everything about me, or near enough, anyway. You know my flaws.”
He pulled me through a door, then turned to face me and threw his arms around me. “I like you, Elliot Coyne. I like you a lot.”
“Are you sure? I’m impulsive and sometimes do crazy stuff. I fall for guys named Grymley Reaper, for one.”
“Falling for me isn’t a flaw, A stor. You’ll never regret me.”
Elliot smiled just before he kissed me. He kept it brief, then pulled away, kicked off his shoes, and sat in the center of the bed with a little bounce. “I want to see you naked.”
I chuckled and took off my shoes, setting them by the door. I picked up Elliot’s shoes and put them by mine. “Is that so?”
“Are you going to dust the top of the dresser, too?” Elliot rolled his eyes. “The shirt, Grym.”
I grinned. “And what do I get?”
“You get to be naked in front of me.”
I took off my coat and hung it on the chair. Teasing Elliot with the delay was more fun than I had expected, even though I hadn’t planned it. His eagerness to see my body was heady. “If I take off my shirt, you’ll take off yours. Agreed.”
Elliot didn’t answer with words. Instead, he pulled his shirt over his head and discarded it on the bed. His arms were lean and strong, probably from the carpentry work he did. He had lean chest muscles and a little meat around his middle, which was sexy.
“Your turn.”
I pulled my shirt off. I intended to fold it, but Elliot held out his hand, so I handed it to him.
He threw it on the floor, hooked his finger around my buckle, and pulled me to him. He knelt on the bed in front of me and ran his hands from my waist up to my pecs. “You’re beautiful.”
“I’m just a stable hand from the king’s castle in Evans Shire.”
“Is that in Indiana?”
I chuckled and shook my head. “You're thinking of Evansville.”
“Right. Yes. Near the Kentucky border.”
“I didn’t come from Indiana, A stor.”
I wrapped my arms around Elliot and leaned in, kissing him. I wanted Elliot more than I’d ever wanted anything, even the promotion I’d lost the second I laid eyes on him. I made sure Elliot knew just how deep my desire for him ran.
Elliot melted into me. I cupped the back of his neck, holding him in place so I could take what I wanted, what he was eager to give me.
He held me around the waist. When I deepened the kiss, his grip tightened. His hands were hot against my skin.
It was Elliot who took things to the next level. He fumbled with my belt buckle and then with the button on my pants, but he managed to undo it.
Elliot ended the kiss, meeting my gaze. “Take them off.”
He watched me. Throughout the entire process, he bit his lip. His breathing changed, becoming heavy with desire, when I was fully naked. He knew he would get to touch me as much as he wanted, and that turned him on.
He didn’t zero in on my cock right away, but he touched everywhere around it. His gaze was also like a touch. He seemed to love looking at my body.
I’d never considered myself exceptional.
I kept in shape, working out a few times a week in the basement gym of my house, but I wasn’t concerned about how I looked.
The muscular definition came naturally. It was genetics more than any effort on my part.
I didn’t think about my body much. I was just grateful my body made Elliot want to touch me.
He placed a kiss in the center of my chest, then kissed a trail to my nipple and licked it.
My attention went straight to my cock. It jumped, impossibly hard and hot with need. Elliot trapped it between us.
Elliot smiled as he licked once more.
I cupped the back of his head, not making demands, just holding him. I needed to touch him somewhere, but I didn’t want to interrupt him. He focused on the right spots, and it made my blood heat deliciously.
He moved to the other nipple, licking it only once before returning to the center of my chest. Then he kissed a path to my abdomen. “I love this spot. You have more than a six-pack.”
I smiled. “I’m glad you like it.”
He nodded. “More than like.”
He made his way to my cock, taking it in his hand before kissing the head. The attention made me moan.
He met my gaze as he took my hard length into his mouth.
The wet heat surrounding me made me want to close my eyes and lose myself in the sensation.
I’d come in his mouth, and it would be the best experience I’d ever had.
But I couldn’t look away from him. His eyes burned into me, reminding me he was mine—my beloved.
I’d never meet anyone like Elliot again.
Someone so eager for me. So open and daring.
I didn’t want him any other way, and I knew exactly who Elliot was. I saw it all.
It was when he shut his eyes and moaned around my cock that I pulled away. As much as it pained me, I wanted to touch him, too. “I want to see you, A stor.”
Elliot frowned. “I want to suck you some more.”
So, my beloved enjoyed sucking cock. That was good to know. “I’ll let you if you show me the rest of you.”
His frown deepened, and he averted his gaze to the comforter, then sat on his heels. “I don’t look like you.”
I lifted his chin with a finger, forcing him to meet my gaze. “I like how you look.”
“You haven’t seen all of me yet, beautiful.” He called me an endearment as if he were saying I was the beautiful one rather than him.
“You are beautiful, Elliot. Inside.” I pressed my hand to his chest. “And out.”
Elliot nodded and smiled, but I could tell he was still worried. He unbuttoned his pants and lay on the bed to take them off. His underwear came off with them.
Seeing him fully naked was the stuff of dreams. I didn’t know I needed him bare until he lay across the bed.
He bit his lip again and refused to meet my gaze.
“Look at me, A stor.”
His gaze snapped to mine.
“Don’t look away.” I wanted him to watch me and my expression as I took him in.
He was such a pretty man. Young. Still in his twenties, and that showed in the tightness of his skin. He was open to me, so willing to receive whatever I wanted to give. That showed in his calm acceptance and in the way he relaxed a little at a time, as if accepting the truth in my gaze.