13.
“It’s very beige,” Sheyla said, as if she couldn’t sense Alastor’s tension.
Things had been strange since Dedrick showed them into the small apartment they would be sharing. The guard gave them a brief tour, not that it was necessary, and then excused himself to check on the troops, who were four to a flat and wagering over who got to sleep in the bed. Now she was watching Alastor flit around, ostensibly investigating the amenities, but it was clear his mind wasn’t on the rug or the tiny kitchenette.
Her observation startled him out of reverie, resulting in a shaded look. “Isn’t it? I had no idea there were so many variations on neutrality.”
“If you’re up to it, you should shower. They’ve gifted us some staples as a show of hospitality, so I’ll see what I can whip up.”
“Not soup,” he begged.
She laughed as he went to the washroom. Digging around, she found that she could make noodles in a basic cream sauce, along with slices of grilled meat. It had been long enough since she’d had anything but the barley soup he’d mentioned that Sheyla’s mouth watered as she put together the meal. There were also frozen vegetables, which she steamed on top of the pasta.
Half an hour later, when he emerged from the steamy bathroom, she had lunch—or dinner—ready. Alastor paused, towel in hand, staring at the dishes she’d laid out and Sheyla squirmed with surprising discomfort. Try as she might, she couldn’t figure out his intensity, and that was more than slightly irksome.
“I’m no cook,” she said defensively.
He smiled then. “I wasn’t judging your efforts.”
“Then what?”
“Shall we eat?” he suggested. “It would be a shame to let it get cold.”
Mildly disgruntled, she sat down at the table and served up generous portions. He would need the carbs and protein for the trials to come. “Here.”
“You’re offering me food again.”
“So what?” She crammed a huge bite into her mouth and half-closed her eyes in pleasure at the combination of cream and cheese.
“I shouldn’t tell you.”
“Are you trying to aggravate me?”
“Perish the thought. Do you promise that the truth won’t make you angrier?” He wore the impish expression that she distrusted instinctively yet she couldn’t let this go. Curiosity might kill this cat if she didn’t achieve intellectual satiation.
“I swear.”
“As I said before, these are mating rituals,” he said softly.
She cocked her head, trying to put the pieces together. “Are you talking about the blood mark again?”
“That was the start… and I’m trying to ignore all the other implications because I realize you don’t know our ways.”
“Explain,” she demanded. It stung to discover that he was making allowances for her ignorance. The fire of embarrassment blazed in her cheeks; she hadn’t felt this silly or small since she forgot the poem she was supposed to recite in junior school.
“You hunted for me, a demonstration of your strength and prowess, a silent statement that you can provide for my needs.”
“Everyone ate that meat.” She was aware it sounded like a protest.
“You delivered it to me,” he said gently. “The fact that I chose to share diminishes your gift not at all.”
And there was no disputing that. Sheyla nodded. “Is there more?”
“Most certainly. You’ve shared skinship with me on multiple occasions. While I understand that nudity among the Animari isn’t as rare as it is with my people, it’s still difficult for me not to consider it meaningful.”
The residual heat of her chagrin melted into deeper color, the flush of simmering attraction. She could’ve said that kisses, like they’d exchanged, weren’t exactly common either, but that would probably encourage him. “Understood. Please, go on.”
He was eating steadily, not looking at her. “Next, you took down my braids. That is an intensely intimate act, restricted to kinfolk and lovers.”
“I suspected there was something to it when you asked this morning,” she admitted. “And I had noticed the intricate designs among your men. I’m sorry for overstepping.”
Alastor waved her apology away with a vague smile. “Finally, we come full circle. You’ve laid a table for me, filled my plate and bade me eat. This is the last stage, where we test our compatibility as mates. We call this first-year trial ‘nesting’ and at the end of that time, if a bond has formed, we would pledge ourselves to one another.”
“That’s lovely,” she said in surprise.
“Did you think we are all destruction and brutality? Nevermind, don’t answer. In any event, don’t fret over my odd fancies. I’m fully aware that you’re not courting me.”
Her overheated cheeks now felt hot enough to fry a pair of eggs, and her heart thundered in her ears. The fact that he wouldn’t meet her gaze registered as actual pain. Sheyla wet her lips and laid down her cutlery with sudden resolve. “What if I said that I am? I just didn’t realize it until now.”
Though their rituals weren’t set as the Golgoth appeared to be, worry and wanting to care for someone… that was universal. Alastor raised his eyes then, scanned her face as if trying to gauge her expression. His lopsided smile wavered, and she didn’t miss how his long fingers clenched on the table’s edge.
“I’d first say it’s cruel to tease,” he managed in an uneven tone.
“If I said that, it would be sincere.”
“Then I would praise all gods old and new and welcome you with open arms. I’ve made no secret of my desire.”
She hesitated. Once she said the words, they would become fact, no longer theoretical. Innate fairness compelled her to add a caveat. “I don’t think my family would understand… this. I can’t promise a full nesting.”
Pain and sadness flickered in his jade eyes, along with understanding. “No need to set terms or limits, I’m not free to choose either. Let us consider this a lovely, unexpected interlude. You have my oath that I’ll never stop you when you choose to go.”
Her heart ached at hearing that. “It seems sad to start when we already know there must come an ending.”
“Everything ends, some way or another. The question that we should ask is whether the good memories will someday be more precious than the pain.”
Sheyla finished her food in silence, and she could tell Alastor had taken her deferred response as a rejection. Out of respect, he might never mention this again, but she required some deliberation on the matter. Once made, she would never regret the decision, either; such certainty took time, so she let him simmer while she washed the dishes.
If we’re doing this, I can’t continue as his primary physician. I need to turn my notes over to Dr. Seagram and manufacture medicine instead.
As dark fell and Alastor switched on the lights, she turned, leaning on the kitchen counter, stared at him across the width of it. He wore disappointment like a laurel wreath, his shoulders slightly hunched, though she doubted he was aware of it. Then she reached for his hand and kissed the palm deliberately.
“I’ve decided,” she said.
“Oh?”
“While we’re in Hallowell together, I want to be yours. Or more candidly, I’d prefer you to be mine, because I’ve never been… passive in that regard.” It was hard to tell if he took her meaning because he was smiling so brilliantly that she almost went sun-blind.
“We can take turns. Will that do?”
“Probably,” she said.
“I’ve never begun like this before,” he said in a wondering tone.
“What do you mean?”
“This feels… weighty because I’m so certain that you’ve sorted through the ramifications and chosen me.”
That seemed obvious. “Yes.”
Alastor tipped his head back with a sigh that was nearly a groan. “I thought I’d be suffering the whole time, unable to touch you for fear of losing control. My darling Sheyla, you are such an unanticipated gift.”
In the past, she hadn’t been susceptible to sweet sentiments. Flattery slid away from her like oiled leather. Yet Alastor’s words arrowed to the core of her, and it felt like her entire body might be melting. Back in Ash Valley, he’d teased her about a wartime romance, and it seemed they were destined for precisely that.
So be it.
“If I’m a gift, then unwrap me.”
On the verge of acting on her suggestion, Alastor stilled when Sheyla pulled her shirt over her head. He had seen her beautiful tawny skin before, but never with the surety that he had the right to touch her. It seemed proper to let her set the pace, and besides, he was trembling too much to trust his hands right then. Thankfully she continued that measured unveiling, sexier than if she had been flinging clothes everywhere. Her care assured him that this wasn’t a hasty impulse, one that would have her crawling from his bed tomorrow in shame.
“Are you planning to watch me all night?” She stood before him, gloriously naked, and for a few seconds, he was speechless. “If that’s your preference, you can but I’ll admit to a certain level of disappointment.”
Alastor shook his head quickly. “I am overcome by your magnificence.”
And it was true. Her body was a wonder, strength and muscled curves, thick thighs and generous hips, breasts that he ached to touch and taste. Everything about her filled him with a yearning so strong that he didn’t know where to start.
“That doesn’t sound like a joke,” she said.
“It isn’t. I often want, but I rarely achieve my desires, you see.”
“Then let me assist with some instruction. Do you mind?” She was smiling now, her expression so open and avid that he couldn’t get his breath.
“Not at all.”
“Fetch a cushion from the sofa.”
Alastor complied at once and when he brought it to her, she rewarded him with a hot, open-mouthed kiss. “Good. That’s for you, not me. You’ll need it for your knees.”
“My…oh.”
He understood at once what she was proposing. No one had ever asked him to kneel and offer worship with his mouth. Of course, no one would dare; he was a prince, but excitement built ferociously as he placed the pillow and settled before her. His cock had been hard for half an hour, but now it swelled until he was uncomfortably conscious of how it pressed against his trousers.
Her hand tangled in his hair, tugging his head up. The eye contact sizzled through him as he hovered, a mere breath away from tasting her. “You owe me an orgasm. I’ve been so frustrated because of you.”
“It will be my pleasure,” he managed to say.
“Don’t go straight for my clit. I want kisses first on my lips, some light nuzzling. When you start feeling how wet I am on your face, then you can suck on it.”
At those explicit instructions, he almost came and he hadn’t even touched her yet. “I am your willing pupil.”
He leaned in at last, fixed on following her orders to the letter. Her lips were full and soft, already glistening a little, and she tasted like heaven, sweet and salt. He pressed delicate kisses against her until she let out a groan and lifted a foot onto the stool nearby, opening herself fully to his mouth. She worked against him in slow undulations, until his face was coated with her juices, and he could only think of getting her off. The insistent throb of his own desire seemed distant compared to the hands tugging at his hair, urging him where she needed friction most.
“Yes, that’s good. Feels so…” The words dissolved in a moan when he licked each of her lips in turn and then sucked on them.
Her clit was swollen now, begging for attention. He grazed it with his thumbs and her whole body jerked. He pulled back enough to ask, “Can you come standing up?”
“Don’t stop,” she ordered with a yank on his hair.
Alastor took that for a yes. When he touched his mouth to her clit, her back arched. He raised his eyes to watch her face, adjusting the speed and pressure in response to how she quivered and her lips parted on sweet little gasping breaths. Without waiting for an invitation, he slid one finger inside her and then two, and she went wild, fucking his face with urgent lunges.
She cursed as she came and her knees buckled. He caught her in a move that was near miraculous because his legs were stiff. Sheyla snuggled into him as he carried her to their very beige bedroom. Aftershocks were still ticking through her, so he cradled her against his chest, thoroughly pleased with himself.
Eventually, she pushed up on one elbow and touched his sticky cheek. “You don’t want to wash up?”
“In a bit. I’ve some hope that I’ll become messier yet.”
“Ah,” she said, smiling. “You have been remarkably patient, and it seems utterly unfair that you’re still dressed.”
“Let me remedy that.”
He was reluctant to let go of her even long enough to strip out of his clothes, as if she was a creature of pure light who might vanish if he blinked. He did the job quickly and came back to bed in record time. Her amber eyes gleamed with warm gold as she drank him in. His cock responded to her look with a pulse that doubled as a wave.
“Signaling frantically, I see.”
“What can I say, he’s a greedy bastard.” His voice emerged rasping and thick.
“Is that where you want me to begin?’
Alastor couldn’t think, let alone make requests. “Do as you will with me.”
A pleased purr escaped her, full of throaty appreciation. “You won’t regret giving yourself to me.”
She started with a soft, deep kissing, and it felt like she was licking up her own juices, savoring her flavor on his skin. A jolt of pure lust shuddered through him. With anyone else, he would’ve put her hand on his cock or possibly forced her face down. Alastor wanted to know what Sheyla would do, given complete freedom, so he kissed her back until he was half-mad and breathless. He panted as she nibbled down his throat, over his shoulder to his chest. It seemed as if her lips must leave a white-hot imprint on his skin.
Rolling atop him, she sucked at each of his nipples, then bit into his chest, not hard enough to break the skin, but the sting contrasted deliciously to the soft heat of her mouth. Blearily he realized what the intermittent pressure meant. “You’re marking me?”
“It’s only fair.”
The blood mark. He almost lost control over the idea of Sheyla leaving her stamp on his skin, not that it was her sole claim on his body. Her wet cunt slid against his abdomen, so that his dick rested beneath the ripe curve of her ass. It was too much for him to be still, so he rocked against her, slowly at first, and when she sat up, he understood that she meant to tease.
“I’m not fucking you tonight, so don’t hold back.”
“You want me to come like this?”
“If you can.”
“Not if. When.” Gazing up at her lovely face, stroking against her soft ass, it didn’t take long until the pleasure spiked to excruciating levels. She made it even hotter by moving with him, studying his face as he had hers. His pleasure became a story she could read, written in each new gasp and moan.
“You’re watching me get there,” he whispered.
“Yes. It’s making me want you again. You’re so beautiful like this.”
And he could feel the heat in his cheeks, the hardness of his nipples, nothing compared to the diamond-bright need thrumming in his cock. Pressure built in his lower back, tightening his abs. With a groan of pure need, he sat up and pulled her in for a devouring kiss as he spurted against her round ass and he couldn’t resist rolling her against him until they were both slick.
Trembling, he leaned his forehead against hers. “See? Messy.”
“We should shower. I doubt they provide limitless linens.” Her amusement didn’t even faze him.
“Give me a moment. my legs won’t hold.”
“Take five, then.” She held him the whole time, arms firm about his back until the shaking stopped.
Alastor had never felt so secure in his life. “That… was amazing.”
“It will get better,” she said with a remarkable, serene confidence.
“You’re so sure?”
“Of course. This was merely to take the edge off. I don’t intend to take you tonight because anticipation will only make completion sweeter when the time comes.”