Chapter Fourteen #2
“I don’t make that much heat,” he laughed sheepishly.
And yet, his hand stroked down her arm, rubbing the goosebumps away steadily.
He told himself it was to warm her up. Just to get her temperature up, fae bodies typically thrive in a warmer climate much like elves and humans.
Yet, as the moments ticked by and he heard her breathing even out, he stopped stroking with the flat of his palm.
His fingers ended up drawing designs in her flesh.
Up and down her bicep till he adventured down to her forearm, around her elbow, then up to her shoulder.
Somehow, he ended up tracing her stitches along her collar bone, up her throat, and around her jaw.
Hyacinth softened like butter in his touch.
He watched breathlessly as her muscles shifted, giving him better access to her throat.
Austin traced her larynx. She’s so soft.
Her back arched into the touch across her collarbone.
So delicate. She turned out her arm so that he traced the dark, inky vein running down the seam.
Like a flower. He followed it down to her palm where his fingers spread across hers. She laced hers with his and squeezed.
Austin didn’t remember having certain anatomy.
Like his bladder, where it was only present when it was full.
Or his stomach that only annoyed him when it was empty.
There were other attachments to his body he only recognized when it jerked to life.
It thumped heavily against his thigh as her other hand trailed down the front of his chest. Her knuckles brushed like a feather across his stomach down to his thigh.
It rested innocently against his leg. And yet on the other thigh, his cock was firmer than it’d been in ages.
“You make enough for the both of us,” she sighed dreamily against his chest as she curled up her knees into her chest. Her body fit so easily into the crook of his arm.
While she wasn’t small for a fae, she was tiny compared to him.
Precious and delicate, she was his flower curled up against his ribs.
Austin wanted nothing more than to protect her.
Yet, as he continued to trail his fingers along the side of her legs, now in reach, then her arm, he couldn’t help but think of other things he wanted.
Austin never thought of kisses before outside of stories.
Tender touches were for characters in books.
Romance novels weren’t unfamiliar territory to him, plus Lord Rosemont had a robust collection of erotica and instruction manuals.
Anything a curious creature could peruse for several lifetimes and still have more to explore.
It always felt more academic until he bent a little to loom over her.
Her head picked up at the same time he leaned in close.
His lips brushed her forehead and she pressed into it, making his kiss firm to her cold skin.
Lightning flashed behind the window. Rain pelted the house.
The shutters slammed against the side of the house and a ghostly howl made by a terrible storm filled the air.
And yet, he couldn’t see anything else outside the hazy aura that surrounded her.
He leaned over her, with a hand to the back of her head.
She smiled, eyes finally fluttering open.
“What was that for?” she murmured, lilac gemstones searching his face.
“Sweet dreams,” he croaked. “Helps ward off bad dreams.”
“But I didn’t dream,” she teased, arching a brow before she gasped. “Oh! You! You had a bad dream, didn’t you?”
Austin scrambled to speak only to have his voice die on his tongue.
Hyacinth shifted up onto her knees, throwing one between his thighs.
She straddled his leg where her hand had slowly burned a hole through him.
His cock jumped again and he was so grateful it was against the other leg.
She put her hands to his shoulders to steady herself and leaned toward his forehead.
He bowed his head to her, letting her press those soft, pillowy lips to the space between his brows.
Every inch of him melted like hot butter as she lingered there.
When she withdrew, she did so with a soft whisper. “Sweet dreams, Austin.”
“Thank you.” He watched her climb out of his lap, curling up into his side once more and hug her teddy bear to her chest. After a moment, she sputtered, which was followed by a snicker to herself. He cocked his head, “What?”
“I’m your teddy bear,” she giggled, curling up against his side again. And with a truly impressive skill…fell asleep damn near immediately. Austin lay there, holding her to his side. Fighting sleep because he just didn’t want to stop staring at the beautiful thing in his arm. His teddy bear.
But her kiss to his brow worked like a charm, and Austin fell asleep with his head against the headboard.
“Austin,” Agatha whispered in his ear and the dead man jerked awake.
His gaze roamed the empty room and found himself tangled up in a nest of blankets all by himself.
What…where? He pulled up the duvet and looked under it, then searched the floor.
Nary a Hyacinth to be found. He glanced at Agatha, the banshee’s face split in half with a wicked grin.
She wacked him in the middle of the chest with a pillow.
“Why do I change the sheets of all these rooms if everyone is going to share a bed, huh? What are you doing?”
“Where’s Hyacinth?” he blurted out.
Agatha rolled her eyes teasingly, floating over his head.
He stumbled out of the bed as she went to work, her spectral, misty magic undoing the sheets and changing them out for the clean ones in her hands.
“She’s in the bath. I ran her a bubble bath with balm for that frost bite on her feet.
Something you ought to do for yourself. But you refuse to let me run you a bath. ”
“I don’t fit in the bathtub, Aggie.” Austin tossed his arms out to the side.
“You could just soak your feet!” She harrumphed. “Besides, don’t change the subject. Why are you both in here with frost bite to your ankles? I know you didn’t go traipsing through the mountain side door portal without boots on again.”
“That was one time,” he groaned, stomping around the bed to give Agatha access to the other side. Also to inspect the steam rolling out from under the bathroom door. “And Havershum dared me to do it.”
“Speaking of our fine, boney, brethren,” Agatha giggled, floating up beside him. “Have you seen him lately? He looked rather irate last night, and I couldn’t get a word out of him that wasn’t mumble, mumble, mumble, pests and such.”