Chapter Eight #2
She hadn’t let me eat anything from her hand since the treat she called a cookie and the dinner she’d fed me with a fork.
I’d tried a few things here and there, but nothing tasted as good as it had when she fed it to me.
I was convinced the same was true for her.
She’d eaten so well when I fed her the stir-fry, and I wanted to see her consume this the same way.
She needed to eat.
Determined, I collected the plate and cup and headed for her room.
As I strolled inside, her head popped up in confusion.
Her blue hair was tied up into a messy bun, and I had the strangest urge to remove the hair tie that held it all together and run my fingers through the silky tresses.
Instead, I crouched, put the cup on her desk, and lifted the croissant to her lips.
Her eyes dropped to it in surprise. “Oh, um, thank you. I can eat it myself.”
I didn’t put it down. I brought it closer to her mouth, waiting for her to take a bite. It made me oddly satisfied to feed her, and she’d been eating so little. I wouldn’t let her dismiss me tonight.
Her eyes narrowed, but instead of arguing again, she leaned forward and took a bite. A particularly desperate noise wanted to flee my mouth as her eyes closed and she basked in the taste of it. “Ah, Felix, that genius.”
She went to grab the pastry from my hand, but I pulled it out of reach. Her lips pursed and mine twitched. Something bubbled in my throat, but I swallowed it down. It always amused me when she made a frustrated sound at something I did.
“What is this? Are you being a brat, Ghost?”
When had that nickname become something I wished to hear from her as often as she was willing to say it? When had hearing it threaten to make me smile as intensely as she scowled?
I stared at her before canting my head and lifting the croissant to her mouth again. Sighing loudly, she took another bite and chewed. A bit of white powder clung to her lips. I set the pastry down, and she hummed as if she was happy I had, until I was wiping her mouth with my thumb.
She froze before trying to pull her head back. She wanted to distance herself again. The way her face went lax before tightening, as though catching herself in an unintentional act, was exactly how it happened every time. She was reminding herself we shouldn’t touch.
The feeling in my chest was back as I firmed my grip on her face to keep her there. A strong urge to drag her closer struck me. I didn’t want to let her go. I knew the minute I did, the space would be there again and it’d be difficult to close.
She growled a little. “Hey, Ghost. This is super rude. You can’t just go around grabbing people’s—”
My mouth cut hers off. I’d leaned all the way forward and pressed my lips over hers the way I saw mortals do.
The way Zelus did when he wanted to make a woman stop talking.
The way I’d wanted to several times while she slept next to me.
I’d never had the desire to kiss anyone until her, and the softness of her mouth made me glad I’d finally given into it.
A gasp got caught between us as she gripped my wrist and went rigid.
I pressed closer, unsure what came next, only knowing I didn’t want it to stop.
And as if reading my thoughts, her tongue teased across the seam of my lips.
Opening to her, I slicked my tongue along hers, devouring the taste of the treat I’d fed her.
She was all sweetness and eagerness.
Her little groan went straight to my dick. I hadn’t even been aware I could feel anything there. But by the growing stiffness in my pants, it was clear I could. Her tongue moved with mine like she’d been waiting. Maybe I wasn’t the only one with urges I couldn’t ignore.
The euphoria was immediate and intense. Bliss I’d never thought possible. Sensations that only made me want more. Urges sprouting from answering urges. Wanting, needing, pining. The emotions I’d mocked and thought I was above crashed into me the second I kissed Nomi.
I finally got what all the fuss was about.
I moved on pure instinct, flicking, sliding, and searching her mouth with my tongue. Devouring her the same way I did the cookie she’d fed me. It was so good that I moved closer, hand reaching for her thigh, intent on discovering more of the feeling it roused in this body of mine.
Maybe Zelus wasn’t totally full of lies if this was how good it felt to touch someone.
But then she pulled away, and it was the first I’d ever seen her mad.
“You can’t do that, Ghost. We…” An intense sadness swam in her eyes as she glowered at me.
“We shouldn’t do this. I really need to write these letters.
I don’t know how long I have, and I need enough for a year. More if I can manage it.”
The fact that her time was short shouldn’t come as a surprise to me, but it hit my chest like one. It bothered me to hear it put into words. I didn’t like how confident she was about it.
She swallowed, her gaze flicking down to the paper in front of her as if to put an end to everything, even as the skin around her nose and eyes blazed red. “Thank you for the coffee and treat. I’ll see you in the morning.”
It was a dismissal, and the feeling in my chest was back, stronger than before.
My familiars were careful around her letters, but they stayed close. She let them, unlike me. I glanced at them before leaving.
Once I got to the living room, I pulled out the phone I kept mainly to stay in touch with the other Horsemen.
Ares hadn’t texted, but Zelus and Thanatos had both sent several and tried to call.
After shooting off a few texts, I put the next stage of my plan into action.
It was time to find Michael. It was time to do like I’d planned to do from the beginning and leave the mortal to her letters.
I put the phone in my back pocket and walked over to the couch, unable to make sense out of the burning in my throat. If I hadn’t known better, I’d almost think I was upset or frustrated, but I didn’t feel emotions like those. And the mortal was right. We shouldn’t do more than we already had.
Once I had Ares’s location, I’d leave.
I rubbed a fist over my chest, lost to thoughts as her scribbling resumed.