Page 74 of Bright Soul

“Of what?” she giggled. “Did you hear ‘loot’ on the Internet?”

“Yes,” I admitted.

“Well, I agree.” She whisked away the two bags behind a still-sealed security gate in a swirl of shadows.

I don’t know how long we spent in the gloom of the mall, combing several stores for their goods. We did not find any new phones to claim, alas, but by the time Cress grew tired of walking, we’d amassed enough junk to ration some to everyone. Well, if Cress wanted to share. Once we gathered up all the shopping bags and boxes, the first thing she did was tear into a container of chocolate-dipped cookies.

She crunched down on one, and I watched the pleasure crease her expression at the taste of chocolate. She offered me the box, where the cookies stuck out like straws, but I only took one to commit its taste to this memory. It was sweet and crisp against my teeth, the chocolate studded with crushed almonds for that extra kick of flavor.

“Good, right?” she asked.

I smiled dreamily at her. “Fantastic.”

We worked our way through the cookies slowly, as she relished each one. Only when she was down to the last one did she wave it around to punctuate what she said. “I was thinking I could take all of this and you back to the library with Braza’s shadows.”

I frowned. “I would be happy to assist you.”

“Yes, but this way, you don’t have to go back to gargoyle form.” She pointed my way with a wink.

Hmm, now that was tempting. It wouldn’t be a long flight, but I’d lose the certainty that I was a man, rather than a rock, with any time in my other form. I’d gotten a grip on my emotionsand loosened my fingers enough to properly scratch Jin under the chin, two benchmarks amongst many that had to be achieved each time I became a man again.

So I said yes and allowed her to enfold me and our loot in a layer of black-purple shadows. There was a tugging sensation, and wind ran along my skin and through the feathers of my hair before we arrived in a familiar room. Cress appeared next to me and sighed as the shadows flowed away from her body, disappearing like mist.

She went to the door to let Jin out into the hall. “Okay, we’re alone, and my feet are killing me. Shower?” she offered.

I heard the weight of fatigue in her voice and resisted the urge to carry her there myself. “Only if I get the privilege of joining you.”

“I thought that was a given,” she said. She backed in that direction, shedding clothing as she went. My mouth went dry as I pursued her, also undressing along the way. Just the sight of all that soft skin had heat flooding to my groin.

She leaned over to turn on the shower and stood in a graceful arch, lifting her hips to jiggle the globes of her ass for my appreciative gaze. Shooting a coy smile over her shoulder, she stepped into the stream of water and then let off a less than dignified screech. “It’s cold!”

A tentative laugh ground out of me. “Turn it up,” I suggested.

“I did! Fuck,” she sighed. “Guess there’s no more hot water.”

I stepped in behind her and drew the curtain. The water was punishingly chill, dampening my earlier excitement. Well, we both needed to wash, and she had new cuts and scrapes on her body that I intended to clean before she leapt out of the tub. I pulled her into my body heat with one arm and grabbed the soap, lathering up my hands.

“I’ll go quick,” I promised before rubbing the suds into her shoulders and arms. As soon as both of us were soaked with coldwater, I turned so my back took the brunt of the stream. Cold mist rolled around us.

Despite what I’d said, I found myself worshipping her body, hands molding to her curves and brushing tenderly over new hurts. I gave her breasts an admiring squeeze, and she leaned her head back on my shoulder, damp hair tickling my chest. “I was hoping we could…”

“Soon,” I rumbled. Definitely not here, while she was standing on aching feet and cringing away from the cold water. I knelt to finish cleaning her long legs and helped her balance for a quick scrub of her soles.

Her teeth clicked together when we switched places and she slid the bar of soap out of my palm. “My turn.”

I breathed out from her touch, which was as soft as she was. After being hard and unfeeling for so long, simply being touched was its own pleasure. I closed my eyes as Cress stroked the lines of my muscles in a path top to bottom. She was finished before I wanted her to be, shutting off the water with a sigh of relief.

She passed me a towel and tousled her hair with another. “You haven’t relaxed like that in a long time,” she murmured.

“That’s the magic of your touch,” I answered.

She hummed, drying herself off thoroughly with a few shivers along the way. “Geo,” she said, tossing the towels aside and coming over to rest her palms on my chest. I rubbed her back, feeling the chill she carried on her skin. “I think you need to start taking longer breaks from your gargoyle form.”

“My duty is to protect you.” I answered without really thinking. “Well…you are my duty, of course. And I am the only gargoyle in this entire pocket dimension. Thanks to Phaeron’s tempering of my stone, I have yet to be injured. While you…”

She glanced down at her body, touching the reddened skin around a set of scratches on her side. “This could have been much worse. What I’m saying is, it’s okay to take a breather fromconstant vigilance. I appreciate everything you’ve done. But…” She leaned in to press a kiss above where my stone heart rested. “I need you like this sometimes.”

A little shiver passed through me, a shockwave emerging from the brush of her lips. I couldn’t deny the rightness of what she was asking. Her heart was big enough to encompass me along with her other two men, but I needed to occupy that space. In this, I needed to bend, to be flexible.

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