Chapter 20 #2
Fuck, he smells good. Soap or shampoo or whatever the hell it is, it’s sweet enough to make me forget my own name and addictive enough that I crave more.
Just a taste, just once, before he wakes up and pushes me away and we have that conversation about secrets he’s been avoiding.
I trace the shell of his ear with my tongue and hum against his soft skin. It’s a little clammy, and so very tasty.
He shifts in my hold, and I use the movement to tighten my grip until our bodies press flush together beneath the sheets. Rowan makes the faintest sound in his sleep, warm breath catching against my throat, and fuck, I could stay here forever.
Slowly, I let one hand slide lower between us, sneaking down his body until my fingers brush against the hard shape trapped beneath the blankets.
Now that has me grinning from ear to fucking ear, because look at that… his cock is already waking up to my touch.
And here I was planning on behaving myself.
Well, if this has him already heating up, he’s in for a fucking treat once he wakes up properly.
I skim my lips to the corner of his mouth and whisper, “Rowan. Wake up, little mouse.”
Our cheeks press together, and I feel his lashes flutter against my skin the moment they open.
He gasps, winces, then gasps again.
And then his medical band starts to buzz.
“Oh no. Not again.”
He tries to turn my way, quite possibly to shove me the fuck off his face. I let him, because I want to see those gorgeous green eyes now that he’s realized where he is.
“I thought—” He rolls onto his back and glares at the ceiling before sweeping his gaze over my face. “I’m not in my bed.”
“That depends how you look at it. You’ve slept here two nights in a row now, so you could consider it—”
“Not my bed.” His gaze flicks around the room before landing back on me. “Where’s Damaris?”
“Downstairs. He insisted on making breakfast for you.” I pause. “Unfortunately, he appears to have been intercepted.”
Rowan blinks. “Intercepted?”
“By Lucan.”
He just stares at me. “...Oh.”
He tries to roll away from me, but uh-uh, that’s not happening. I still need answers out of him. Besides, I can’t exactly let him disappear with both of us hard under these sheets.
I grab the orange juice from the tray and bring it closer to his face. “That’s a little insulting. Most people seem thrilled to wake up in my bed.”
“I think your definition of thrilled and mine are very different,” he huffs.
“Probably.”
His eyes narrow, like he’s trying to decide whether I’m joking or not.
The answer is yes. Always fucking yes.
Mostly because watching him try to figure me out is becoming one of my favorite hobbies.
His gaze drifts toward the tray near the window, then snaps back to me. “You poisoned it?”
I bark out a laugh before I can stop myself. “You think I poisoned your breakfast after dragging you out of a secret chamber?”
Rowan’s fingers tighten around the mug. "I fell into it by accident."
“Well, the place looked quite secret to me.”
“Hmm.” Then he narrows his gaze. “Last night, you said something about tracking my multi-slate.”
I shrug like it’s nothing. Judging by the way he glares at me, he clearly disagrees. “Yeah. I wasn’t about to let my pretty musician run around Caervast falling into hidden chambers without supervision.”
Rowan stares at me. “That is not a normal thing to say.”
“Neither is waking up concussed in my bed, but here we are.”
Rowan pushes himself upright and winces.
I’m already moving before I think about it, catching his wrist and steadying him as he sits up too fast. “Easy.”
Rowan goes still, pulse jumping beneath my fingers before his gaze drops to my hand and lifts back to my face, breathing changing just enough for me to notice. “I need to go.”
“You’re not going anywhere, little mouse. You hit your head, and unless you want me to call the doctor, you’ll stay right here.”
“Perhaps a doctor—”
“Costs over ten thousand coin if they need to visit a patient on location.”
I watch as his face morphs into shock before puffing out a breath.
“Here’s the deal. You eat something, you drink something, you talk to me, and maybe”—I reach for the tray and slide it closer across the sheets—“I’ll let you go.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Not part of the deal.”
“I don’t know what to talk about.” But at least he reaches for the juice and takes a big sip.
“Also not part of the deal. Let’s do this a little differently.”
I shift over him, just enough to remind him exactly how hard we both are. Rowan freezes, breath hitching, and my mind flashes back to the way he came apart for me the last time I had him like this.
“Yeah,” I murmur against his mouth. “You like that? I like it too. Especially when you start telling me what the fuck you were doing in that chamber last night.”
“I told you, I fell, you asshole,” he grumbles.
But his pupils have dilated, and his body betrays the secrets he still refuses to tell me. He won’t for long, because my mouse is already on the verge of collapsing, and it has nothing to do with his heart.
Not giving him the chance to find his composure, I shift higher before reaching for the tray on the nightstand and snagging a slice of orange.
Rowan stares up at me like I’ve finally lost my mind, and maybe I have.
I take a bite of the orange and don’t stop moving, the slow roll of my hips pulling a broken breath from him. Beneath the sheets, his cock jerks against mine.
“Eat,” I command, holding the fruit to his lips. “And then you’re going to talk, mouse. Every word. Or I’ll make sure this is the only thing you taste for a very long time.”
I press the orange against his mouth until he’s forced to take it. A drop of juice escapes, dribbling down the corner of his lip and onto his chin.
I watch it trail toward his throat before I lean down, my tongue catching the sweetness from his skin in a swipe.
Rowan’s hips jump beneath mine, his frame shuddering at the contact.
“I told you what happened,” he insists, his voice thinner now.
“You know what? I admire the commitment to the lie.”
“It’s not a lie.”
“You disappeared from the party and ended up in a restricted area of the academy, panicked badly enough to throw yourself down a staircase, and somehow ended up in a chamber containing an abandoned Noctis.” I lean back, keeping him pinned, watching the way his chest heaves.
“That’s a weird evening for someone who just accidentally got lost.”
Rowan stares down at the blanket gathered over his legs. “You wouldn’t understand.”
He says it like it doesn’t matter, and I’m starting to suspect Rowan spends most of his life convincing himself he has to handle everything alone.
I lean forward, boxing him in against the headboard. “Then explain it to me.”
His eyes lift, green and guarded again. “You keep asking questions like you’re entitled to the answers.”
“I dragged you out of a chamber at three in the morning after you ignored my messages and nearly cracked your skull open.” I grind down against him slowly enough to make his fingers tremble. “Yeah, little mouse. I feel entitled.”
The flush returns. Rowan looks away, reaching for the coffee just to put something between us. I let him, but his fingers shake around the mug. Every time he breathes, his body brushes mine, his cock twitching in a rhythm he can’t control.
I watch him take a sip before asking, “Who scared you last night?”
That gets me his full attention, and I can’t fucking believe my luck.
One careless question and I’m standing in the middle of whatever Rowan has been trying so desperately to hide.
“You walked into that reception, played a concert that had half the room staring at you, made more of an impression than half the people actually invited, and then disappeared into a storm.” I narrow my eyes at him. “Fuck me. Was there another guy?”