Coat #4
On that thought, I, too, left the queen’s study in search of Tanyn so I could say goodbye before he left, Hurley walking beside me.
I was turning the corner into the wing where his study was when I slammed right into him.
He caught me at my hips.
I steadied myself with my hands on his chest.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey. I was just coming to see you before you left.”
“Here I am.”
I smiled at him.
Then I slid my hands up to his neck, got on my toes and pressed a kiss to his lips.
After I rocked back, I assured, “I’ll keep an eye on Manny, Zyra and Hurley while you’re gone.”
“Thank you, baby.”
“Don’t worry about us. We’ll be good.”
He cupped my jaw and ran his thumb over my cheekbones, his gaze never leaving mine.
And he said nothing.
Then again, he didn’t need to, his touch and the look in his eyes said it all.
“Walk me to the bay?” he requested gently.
“Of course,” I whispered in return.
After he bent to give Hurley a thorough head rub, we started that way.
And it was only when we were closing in on the door that I realized he wasn’t going to stop to get a coat.
“Tanyn, you need a coat,” I declared.
He looked down at me, openly perplexed. “Why?”
Dear gods.
“Whatever,” I mumbled.
He chuckled and stated, “You’ll get acclimatized.”
Again.
Whatever.
We stopped at the door, and he pulled me into his arms for a deep kiss.
After he ended it, he murmured, “I’ll text when I’m headed home.”
“Good luck, honey.”
He kissed my nose.
Then he ordered, “Stay warm inside. Don’t go outside to watch us lift off.”
“I can survive five minutes of—”
“Stay warm inside,” he ordered, just more firmly this time.
“Oh, all right.”
He smiled at me.
Touched his lips to my forehead.
Told his dog to look after me.
His dog panted his agreement.
And then he left.
I was a very deep sleeper.
But I woke when Tanyn slid into bed with me, and not only because Tanyn slid into bed with me, but because he wrapped his arms around me, and one went to my breast, the other one went to my belly, where he bunched up my nightgown.
“Tanny?” I murmured sleepily.
“Hush,” he whispered in my ear, his silky voice like a caress along the skin there, traveling down my neck, and onward.
He slipped his hand in my panties and his fingers curled in just as he pinched my nipple.
My head fell back and hit his shoulder.
He was still whispering when he said, “Payback.”
Although at first I tried to turn to give as well as get, in the end, I was concentrating too hard on what he was doing to my breasts and between my legs to do anything but feel the wonder of what he was doing to my breasts and between my legs.
And when he finally made me come, I trembled in his arms as he slid one long finger inside to feel my climax in yet another way.
His lips were skimming the skin of my neck as I came down and his finger stroked out. That arm went to round me at my belly to hold me close, while his other hand cupped my breast in a warm grip.
I tried to turn, but he clamped down even harder.
“Now you,” I said.
“Oh no, baby,” he replied. “First, I’m shattered. Second, like I said, I don’t get without giving. We’re balanced out now. So I can sleep.”
Well, if he put it that way.
“Everything go okay while I was gone?” he asked.
I wanted to know what he’d learned, but I wasn’t going to quiz him about that when he was powering down to sleep.
I said, “Zyra is out of the case and in a bed. She’s been up and about and did some PT.
She should be free to leave the medi-unit tomorrow.
We had dinner together there and watched some screen after.
They set up a cot in her room for Manny.
I asked for a room in this wing to be prepared for them to move into tomorrow. ”
“Excellent.”
“They didn’t have time to pack, obviously, and I didn’t want to interfere with any investigation happening on Sigil, so I ordered them some clothes until we can have their things brought to them.”
“Good call, baby,” he murmured on a squeeze.
“And that’s the big news from Berg Castle.”
“Thank you.”
“It wasn’t hard.”
“Maybe it wasn’t. But it felt nice knowing you were seeing to them and I didn’t have to worry about it.”
“Well then, you’re welcome.”
He kissed my shoulder. “Now, sleep.”
“You sleep.”
“I’ll sleep.
“You will?”
“Of course.”
“Then what’s that how are you doing jabbing at my ass?”
There was a moment’s silence before he roared with laughter.
I would have taken that opportunity to turn in his arms, but his laughter made them tighten even further, so I could not.
His voice was still shaking with it when he said, “It’ll go away.”
“Right.”
“It’d help that to happen if you’re asleep.”
“Right.”
“Catty?”
Oh boy.
Only Mom called me Catty.
But I loved hearing it in his beautiful voice.
Even so.
“It’d help me sleep if we weren’t talking,” I teased.
“You mean the world to me.”
All teasing left the building, and I forced him to allow me to turn in his arms.
I was too overwhelmed with emotion to do anything but kiss his throat, press close, and mumble a throaty, “Same.”
He gathered me closer.
And we slept.