Chapter 8
Our,uh, shower erased whatever awkwardness had remained between us after our talk on the porch.
There was no more discomfort.
No more uncertainty.
We were stuck together for four weeks in the cabin, and we were going to make the most of it.
…And finish my classes, of course. I had to do that too.
August walked with me to my room, and sat on the edge of my bed with a towel wrapped around his waist. He watched me dig through my laundry basket, then get dressed.
Wearing a lot of clothing was a no go, because we needed so much physical contact to appease the magic. So, I pulled on a pair of tight spandex shorts, and a simple black bralette. It wasn’t cute, but it was comfortable.
His gaze was almost predatory as he watched me get dressed. “I’m putting my shirt on you again before you see my brother.”
“Probably a good call. Wouldn’t want you to have to kill him.”
His eyes burned hotter.
The man was insatiable. How was he still horny after what we’d done in the shower? I might not be able to walk after the next four weeks.
At least I’d go out with a bang.
Literally.
“Eli’s probably outside now. He and Gordon know better than to come up to the porch,” August said, as I stepped up to him and put my hands on his shoulders. His hands slid up the backs of my thighs, and he pulled me closer. “I’ll check.”
“After you put pants on?”
He chuckled. “You already want me covered, Fireball?”
“I do have work to get done. All this is a little distracting.” I gestured to his chest.
“Guess I better wear a shirt, then.”
“Guess so.”
He slid his hands up my ass, squeezing. “How much do I get to touch you today?”
My face warmed. “Depends how much work I get done.”
“We’d better get going, then.” He finally stood, not releasing my backside until the very last second.
We made a quick stop in the bathroom, so I could tie my hair up in a tangled bun, before making it to his room. There, August got dressed, then tugged one of his shirts over my head, as promised.
I once again tried to inhale his scent off the fabric, but barely smelled anything. “Would my sense of smell get better if we sealed the bond?”
He nodded. “Not as good as mine, but it would improve significantly. You’ll be able to tell the difference after I bite you.”
Considering I’d dated a vampire, the biting thing wasn’t weird to think about. He’d bitten me many times, and it always felt good. I didn’t see why it wouldn’t be similar with August.
Our arms brushed as we headed out to the porch. I let myself overthink it for a few second, biting my lip hard, before I finally slipped my hand into August’s. He squeezed it lightly, so I laced my fingers between his.
When his chest rumbled in satisfaction, I fought a smile.
It felt nice.
Really, really nice.
And not just because it kept the heat and pain at bay. His hand was strong and warm, and something about it felt right.
Okay, maybe it was just the bond.
I was alright with that, though.
We made it outside, and sure enough, Eli and Gordon had dragged some of the porch furniture out to the dirt in front of the cabin. Not my favorite swing, thankfully. I’d learned enough about August to know that my ass wasn’t going anywhere near a chair that smelled like his brother.
Eli flashed us a lazy grin. There was a wicked glint in his eyes.
August spoke first. “Forget whatever you’re about to say, asshole.”
Eli laughed, loudly.
Gordon smirked.
It still seemed safe to assume Eli was the fun one out of the three Sky brothers.
“Good to know you haven’t lost your mind yet, Auggie,” Eli said.
“You know I’ll tell you if that starts,” August grumbled.
“He’s treating you well, El?” Eli asked, finally looking at me. Unlike his brother, he didn’t stare or mentally strip me down. His attention was respectful.
“You must’ve talked to Brynn,” I said.
“Yup. She made us dinner. She loves you, by the way.”
“I like her too. And August’s a perfect gentleman.” I patted his bicep with my free hand, since the other was still tangled with his. “We’re just peachy.”
Eli’s grin grew wicked again, and August snapped at him. “Shut it.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Your face said enough.”
I bit my lip to hide a smile.
I kind of loved seeing them interact like that. Like normal people, normal siblings.
“Your scent says en?—”
“We’re going back inside. I’m sane. Fuck off,” August growled.
Eli laughed as August tucked me in front of him and walked me back to the porch. His chest brushed my back as we went, and it felt nice.
Really nice.
He shut the door behind us, and let out a long breath. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. No one died, so that makes it a win, right?”
His eyes softened, his lips curving grudgingly. “Sure, Fireball.”
I smiled. “Can you help me move the porch swing to the other side of the cabin? I want to work outside, but I don’t think you want me facing your brother while I do.”
“You think correctly.” He squeezed my hand lightly before releasing it. “And I’ve got it.”
“Thanks.”
He stepped back outside, and I heard his heavy footsteps moving around the porch. I grabbed my laptop, and met him at the back door as he pushed the porch swing easily into its new place.
“How strong are you?” I asked, curiosity taking hold again.
He shrugged. “Strong enough.”
I guess it made sense that he wouldn’t have lifted weights or anything to figure out exactly how much he could carry. He hadn’t struggled with the gigantic, awkwardly-large porch swing, though. So he obviously wasn’t weak.
His side met mine as he sat down, and my shoulders relaxed as heat and soreness I’d barely noticed vanished quickly.
“I’m going to send Eli and Gordon to your university. Is there any information the school will need? An ID number or something?”
Oh.
Right.
At least he was still thinking about things like that, because I obviously wasn’t.
I gave him my student ID number and full name, and he wrote them down before going over to talk with his brother.
Warmth and soreness started to set in again as soon as he was gone, but he made it back pretty quickly and sat down beside me. There was a phone in his hand when he did—it looked brand new, and didn’t have a case on it.
“Did Eli give you that?” I asked.
“Yup. We leave our Scale Ridge phones at Brynn’s place. Our normal phones are at the mountain. We don’t try to haul them with us when we fly back and forth.”
“Mate Mountain?”
“Some humans and supernaturals call it that. To us, it’s just home.”
I liked that. “Do you miss the mountains while you’re here?”
“Yes and no. Since my parents died, I’ve spent more time in Scale Ridge than back at home. And when I’m there, I’ve been dealing with the thunder being assholes.”
“And now Jasper took over?”
“Yes. Finally.”
I laughed. “After your six months in prison, are you going to stay at the mountain?”
“I’m undecided on that.” He lifted a shoulder. “Tradition says I need to rejoin the rotation guarding the prison as soon as I’m free. My gut brings me back here.”
“But when you’re here, you’re constantly worried about sending someone into heat?”
He nodded.
“And that won’t change when our bond is broken?”
“Not that I know of. An unmated shifter is an unmated shifter. We have no control over our magic when it comes to heat.”
“Wow. You could walk away from this when it’s over and send another woman into heat the next day,” I said, gesturing between us.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
Irritated, maybe?
Like an object?
There was nothing special about me to him. I was just the unfortunate woman whose scent he caught at the worst possible time.
“Theoretically. In practice, it doesn’t work that way. Hardly anyone makes it through without sealing the bond, remember? The only couple I know of that did ended up as mates shortly after heat ended anyway.”
He had told me that.
We were just going to have to be the outliers.
“If it had happened, that dragon would immediately be questioned,” August added. “His tactics would be incorporated throughout the world, and he’d probably brag about it. It wouldn’t be a secret.”
“But we’re not becoming mates.”
“We can’t,” he agreed. “And for the record, I’ve unintentionally come face to face with an assload of human women over the years. I raised Brynn here, which meant taking her to school, dance, and the grocery store, on top of everything else. I had to accept that taking a mate would probably happen when I moved with her to Scale Ridge when she was an infant.”
“But it never did?”
He shook his head. “None of their scents caught my attention. Yours did, immediately. That’s not insignificant.”
So there was something special about me to him. And he wanted me to understand that.
We just couldn’t do anything about it, even if we wanted to.
Which we didn’t.
So… yeah.
That was it.
“Why did you raise her?” I asked.
“Our parents died. There were complications when our mother gave birth to her, and our parents lives were tied together with a mate bond, so they both passed on. Traditionally, a mated couple takes a parentless female infant to a human city to raise her, but on their deathbed, they asked us to do it. They didn’t want her growing up with strangers, or even with friends. They wanted us to be her family.”
My throat closed.
That was really, really sad.
“So when they passed, we inherited the throne and an infant. It was a struggle. Though I was technically the head of the thunder, Jasper was much better at keeping the peace, so he had to stay in the mountains most of the time when Brynn was young. Eli had already been running the prison’s guard rotations, so he kept that mantle. For the first few years, I was about all she had. Things eased up after that, and the thunder grew insistent that I show my face more often, so we split our time with her almost equally to appease them.”
“Why did they want to see you?”
“They didn’t agree with us raising her. Like I said, dragons are very traditional. I’m not, but most of the others are. There’s a dragon in our prison right now who was put away by his own thunder for murdering a small, influential clan of vampires who had hurt his sister. I would’ve done the same thing. The only reason my sentence is six months, instead of a lifetime, is because the Villins did the dirty work for me when Brynn’s life was in danger.”
“The Villins?”
“Bash’s family. Their last name is Villin.”
Huh.
What an unfortunate last name.
Then again, August’s was Sky.
August Sky.
Not any better than Bash Villin.
“Sounds like you don’t really belong with the thunder,” I said.
“Not really. Somehow, they’re still my family, though. If anything goes wrong, I know they’ll have my back.”
Our conversation trailed off, and I returned to the project I was working on.
After a few minutes, August’s foot began to tap on the ground. It distracted me, but only a little.
When the tapping grew louder, I sighed.
He stopped.
After a moment of silence, he asked, “Can I rub your feet? I’m losing my mind just sitting here.”
I blinked.
Could he what?
All women in existence knew a foot rub was a code for sex.
He had a phone, so he could just watch a movie or something if he was bored.
“I have to work on this,” I said, gesturing to my laptop.
His forehead creased. “I assumed you would keep working.”
“I know that’s code for sex, August.”
His forehead creased further. “What?”
“Didn’t you ever watch TV when you were raising Brynn?”
“Kid shows, sometimes.”
Maybe he really did just want to rub my feet.
“If I was trying to seduce you, I wouldn’t need your feet to do it,” he said. “I just have the urge to touch you. If you don’t want me to, I won’t.”
Oh.
Well, when he put it like that…
I scooted to the far side of the swing, adjusting the pillows before I lifted my feet onto his lap. “They’re all yours.”
His lips curved upward, just a little. “Now you’re speaking my language.”
I laughed. “I think I like you, Auggie.”
Eli had used the nickname to bother him, but I thought it was fun.
“I think I like you too, Fireball.”
He started rubbing my feet, and I fought a groan.
Maybe there was a reason foot rub translated to sex.
It tookme a few minutes to adjust to the glorious feeling of his hands working my feet before I managed to focus on my work again. But, I eventually got sucked back into my project.
The next few hours passed quickly, and soon enough, August was stepping away to make lunch. I missed his touch immediately, but survived the few minutes apart with minimal pain and sweating. When he came back with peanut butter and banana sandwiches, I murmured my thanks and kept working, taking bites when he nudged my feet to remind me to eat.
After we were done, I went back to work.
And he went back to massaging me.
It was the most I’d ever enjoyed schoolwork in my life.