Slowly, he relaxes back, running his tongue over the bite.
“You’re growling,” he says.
I cut the sound off. Yeah, that is a little weird.
“You’re biting me,” I counter in a gasp because gasping is so very sexy.
Just mildly better than growling, but gasping is safe – and what I really want to do with my mouth isn’t.
Lick him – all over.
Nibble – yum.
Bite – yes. I run my tongue over my teeth, feeling nothing but ordinary mortal teeth.
Sure, I could bite, and I could probably draw blood, but it would be nothing like the delicious puncture from Pax’s teeth. Or maybe they’re Thane’s. I really should work out who’s who.
“I may have been dreaming of doing that. Lucky I wasn’t dreaming of doing anything else,” Pax says.
The sigil on his chest is glowing, along with the gold in his eyes. I run my fingers over it, tracing the edges raised like a brand pressed into his skin. But here and there bits are missing, like finger smudges through a drawing in the flour on the kitchen bench. A very small finger.
“Does it hurt?”
He shakes his head. “Just inhibits. Like my ideas run into a wall.”
“I know what running into a wall feels like.”
He offers me a lopsided smile. “You’re going to have to get up, Beautiful. I can’t pull myself away.”
Right, get my almost naked body out of this bed before he manages to find a loophole in his sigil.
Which, at this point, I completely don’t mind him doing. Headache and threat of death don’t even deter me. But he would mind, and death is not something I’m keen on existing in. Staying nestled under him with just the fold of the blanket and my shirt between us is clearly warring with his instincts and his common sense.
In short, I’m currently torturing him.
“Stay,” I order, pressing my finger against his nose like it might be the key to him following my command.
He smiles. “Just for the record, so you’re aware when this sigil wears off, giving me orders is the last thing you want to do.”
I shimmy out from underneath him, saying, “Right, so I should give as many as I can before the sigil wears off?”
He collapses onto the bed, rolling to watch a glimpse of my bare ass crossing the room towards Eydis’ clothes.
Slowly, something about being exposed makes me hyper-aware of the way my body moves and jiggles – and sways. I sway, not something I’ve stopped to explore before. I mean, unless I didn’t sway before, which is also a possibility. It’s not like I’ve ever enjoyed anyone looking at my ass, not in this or possible past lives.
I feel… almost… sexy.
Thane cuts through my thoughts with his growl, and shivers cover every inch of my skin.
The new bite on my shoulder is nestled against several half-healed puncture marks. I must be crazy, because just looking at them makes me clench my core in anticipation of something more.
And… no shaking. The remnants of static are rushing down my spine, but no twitching. No tremors. Nothing.
I consider this as I stretch out still-sleeping muscles.
Did I shake after our last kiss? I think, and walk straight, smack, forehead first into a wall.
My wall.
I groan, holding my head and fighting against my eyes watering.
“It’s still shrinking,” Pax says, not really asking or sounding like he wants me to respond as he jumps out of the bed and rips open the zip on his bag.
I’m too busy trying to breathe through the sting to bother saying anything.
His arms wrap around my shoulders, pulling me back into his bare chest. He hasn’t even bothered with a shirt – but at least he has pants on.
That chuckin' hurt.
“Get dressed,” he whispers, pushing a pair of his pants and a shirt into my arms. “Wear these; we still need to get those clothes smelling right.”
“Pax,” Seth shouts up the stairs.
I would argue, but I don’t have time. Seth is on his way in here. Rushing, I pull Pax’s pants on just seconds before Seth bursts into the room, his gaze finding me.
“Ah?” he asks, pointing at me and clearly saying something other than what he intended.
“Bubble’s shrinking,” I grumble.
“We’ll discuss it down stairs, get dressed,” Pax orders.
Seth looks over my head to Pax. “She’s healed?”
“Yes,” I snap, because I’m right here so I’m going to answer. “I think.”
Seth gives me a lopsided smile, not sure what Pax’s doing because he’s behind me. I run my hands over my braided hair, then down the front of my messed shirt.
“Worried about your looks?” Seth asks, smiling wickedly.
“Shut up and turn around,” I snap.
Seth chuckles, but he obeys.
“Why?” Pax asks, his back to me as he fishes through his bag for a shirt.
“I’m changing my shirt,” I say, shimmying out of the dirty garment from Eydis that I actually liked and working Pax’s nice and clean, creamy white one on.
It’s not going to be clean for long.
“My shirt,” Pax says.
“Oh, brother, everything you own is hers now,” Seth says. “She’s like the mouse making a home in your bottom drawer. Nothing survives.”
That’s just mean.
I run at him with every intention of tackling the guy and kind of wishing there were a pot of gravy nearby. But somehow he turns my tackle into a straddle and takes my full force without even staggering.
“Nice to see you too,” he says, wrapping his arms around me and starting down the steps.
I squeal and squirm. Being carried down a tight staircase with no way to see where I’m going is a horrible feeling.
“Put me down!”
“Even if I put you down, you’re still coming with me. Pax has had enough time with you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask, but I don’t stop trying to escape.
He lets me slide to my feet by the front door and stares down at me. “Exactly what I just said, my turn.”
“Pax didn’t just get a turn. There are no turns.”
He lifts his hand and starts counting off his fingers, “Was he with you
