Chapter 25
Ford
There was a nonzero chance that Esme’s smile had the power to physically drug me.
Every time the Bond or my own mind or the world outside started to press in on me, one smile out of her—even the barest uptick at the corner of her mouth—and I was lulled back into submission.
It was why, though I should have been physically depleted on multiple accounts after the day I had, that my body felt like it had just awoken from a nine-hour sleep.
I rolled Esme back under me, my chest pulling tight at the way her eyes brightened with amusement.
There was also a solid chance I was dreaming. Maybe dead. Maybe one of those arrows had found a home in the middle of my back and this was the peaceful afterlife the religious believed awaited us.
Surely, I didn’t have Esme flushed and naked beneath me. My vision was sharper than before, attuned to every little freckle, every faint line, every curve of her features.
“I think,” I said, propping myself up over her so that she was caged in by my arms. “That I’ve had a lot of time do to what I wanted. I think you should tell me what you wanted.”
Esme breathed in sharply through her nose, the sparkle in her eye twinkling more intensely. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said with a false air of shyness. Her eyes tracked down to my mouth then back up to latch onto my eyes. “What do I want?”
“Oh no. That’s not what I said. I asked what you wanted. Past tense.”
The little line of confusion that formed between her eyebrows was so cute, I had no choice but to bend down and kiss it.
Esme batted at my chest playfully, in a move full of such ease, that I felt a flash of blind rage that I’d never met version of her that was open with touch and affection before this.
Reminding myself that the only way to remedy that was to show her—over and over and over again—that opening up to me was safe, I kept the anger off my face. “I want to know what you used to think about. What you wanted to do seven, five, two years ago.”
There was a slight challenge in my voice, daring her to correct me and claim that the medication had wiped away all traces of interest.
Esme squirmed under me, though I couldn’t quite tell if it was just to torture me or because she was avoiding answering.
Probably a little bit of both.
“Come on,” I goaded softly. “Tell me.”
Esme blew out a breath, pushing her lips outwards as she did. Obviously, I had to take advantage. That brief interlude seemed to calm her nerves, a fact that sent the Bond spinning out with glee in the back of my mind.
“I..I imagined you losing control,” she said, whispering just between us.
At my answering hum, she continued a little more assuredly.
“I imagined that the roles were reversed and you were the one who was suffering.” I wanted to fight her on that assumption, but the truth was, I hadn’t suffered like she had.
It made me sick to my stomach just to think about.
“That you’d finally snap one day and just throw me over your shoulder and run away with me. Take me into the woods and…”
Esme trailed off with a blush. Too bad, I was already entranced. “Come on, sweetheart. Keep going.”
“You would be so mad that I made you wait so long, so you’d make me wait and…”
Ah. She might have gone silent, but I understood her all too well. “Not let you finish?”
Her nod was small, barely more than a dip of her chin.
“That,” I said with a rough swallow. God. Good God, “is something we can certainly accomplish.”
I really didn’t think she could be any more beautiful. Smiling at me like that. Cheeks and lips red from my mouth. Arms curling around my neck, one baring the symbol of our connection.
Though my mind was still reeling, still a little floored that Esme had opened the door to this type of intimacy, I still managed to keep myself in check as I bent down to nuzzle her neck. I blew into the soft skin there, making a rumbling sound that was immediately drowned out by Esme’s laughter.
Never mind, she was even more beautiful laughing. It softened quickly into a contented sigh, then lowered into a groan. I would get it back eventually.
For now, I was focused on teasing the soft patch of skin right below her ear, feeling victorious when I felt her hips start to shift under mine.
I’d barely calmed down, physically and mentally, since the second that door shut behind us.
I didn’t think Esme had either, her movements edging on desperate.
Who was I kidding, both of us were oozing with it. Clawing at each other, rolling over one another as we fought for dominance.
Esme landed me on my back after a particularly skillful maneuver, straddling my hips. Her triumphant smile made me launch upwards, grabbing the back of her head and pulling us together in a deep kiss.
Hushed, fevered words were exchanged, instructions and pleas that had Esme’s hips canting up and both our hands reaching for my cock. I felt one blissful moment of connection when we heard it.
There was an odd rustling at our door, a scratching sound like a pet clambering for entrance. Not scary at face value, but it shattered our illusion of solitude.
Esme jerked in response, an odd show of reflex that had her shifting backwards. It had the side effect of sliding my cock right over her center, eliciting a long, pained groan from me and a broken whimper from her.
I held onto the back of her neck, bringing our foreheads together as I tried to get myself in control. Not just to extract myself from this bed, but also so that I didn’t assault whoever—or whatever—was on the other side of that door.
The muffling sound grew louder until one voice broke through the noise. Hushed, but with an urgency that made it sound crystal clear even through the door.
“You do it!” A command, full of an authoritative lilt that betrayed her lineage.
A low laugh, more of a bark than anything. The kind of laugh that would get a teenager smacked upside the head at a haughty family function. “I’m certainly not fucking doing that.”
“Soren.”
“Bellamy.”
Ah, as expected.
Despite our compromising position—neither of us were staying entirely still, even while our friends stood just on the other side of the door—we exchanged secret smiles at their bickering.
There was a smacking sound, like someone had thrown their hands up then let them fall against their legs. “Oh, alright, so you’re just going to make me suffer their wrath then?”
Esme’s smile grew an inch wider, as if she heard something in that statement that I didn’t.
Soren has responding the second Bellamy finished, almost overlapping with her. “Fine, I’ll do—oh, wipe that pretty smile off your face. You knew exactly what you were doing.”
Another voice, one that barely rose above a a soft volume at any given time, said in a rare moment of exclamation, “At this rate, they know we’re coming. I’ll do it!”
Surely, they weren’t stupid enough to try and open the door. I couldn’t remember if either of us had locked it, and we were currently very naked and very much still on top of the bed, the sheets rumbled underneath us.
We were both launching towards the bathroom by the time a knock sounded at the door, crisp and carrying a distinct note of Freya. “Hello,” she said, as if she was simply inquiring about the weather. “All good? We need to speak to you.”
“One moment!” I called back, before the panic finally cleared from my vision and I took in my surroundings.
I blindly grabbed a towel from behind me, wrapping it around my waste and wincing when the fabric dragged over my still-hard cock. That would take some maneuvering, but I’d hide behind the door.
“Stay here,” I said to Esme, trying and failing not to be affected by the sight of her. Her hair was free flowing down to her waist, posture tall, and skin slightly reddened from my hands.
I took one step towards the door, then felt her hand wrap around my wrist. “No.”
Well, that was the voice of the Bond if I’d ever heard it.
I looked back at her with a cocked eyebrow, my amusement clear. “What would you like me to do?”
“Not…” Esme waved her hand over my bare chest, clearly deciding that was all the explanation she planned to give on the matter. I understood her perfectly.
“Well, I’m sure as shit not going to let you answer the door,” I said, letting my eyes draw over her naked form with a crass, slow tempo.
Esme harrumphed, but grabbed a robe off a hook and pulled it on. “Better?”
“Not even a little bit,” I said through a smile. If anything, she looked more enticing like this, knowing it would take the tiniest slip of that silk tie and she’d be bared once more.
“Oi!” A loud voice boomed through the door. Clearly we’d missed something if he’d resorted to yelling. Probably Freya trying to get our attention through the door with a too-soft voice until Soren got annoyed. “I will kick down this door!”
“Yeah, well that’s not happening,” I said for Esme’s ears alone then walked over and grabbed her hand. “We’re doing this together, come on.”
Esme let out a God’s honest giggle as I pulled her through our room. The Bond was truly a curse, seeing as I was pretty sure she was capable of ripping my heart right out of my chest with nothing more than a genuine laugh.
I settled her in front of me, perfectly positioned to hide my pelvis, and yanked open the door.
Freya, Soren, and Bellamy all jumped back like a bunch of rowdy children, not full grown adults.
“Can we help you?” I asked to a chorus of blank expressions.
“Oh, certainly not,” Bellamy said after a pregnant pause.
“You know what, I think we’re doing just fine on our own and you two will be finding your way to Freya’s room to discuss the events of the day on whatever timing suits you.
No more than thirty minutes, surely, but we’ll just go ahead and leave you to it. ”