Page 18 of Foxin' Around

Fourteen

Krystal’s eyes fluttered open at a sound coming up the hall on the other side of her door. Her breath caught and she strained as she listened. She could hear her pulsing pounding faster and she was nearly certain that whoever or whatever was outside that door could also hear it. Her hand twisted in the blanket beside her, her teeth biting into her bottom lip to muffle the fearful cry that rose to her lips.

“It is me,” Syrix called quietly through the door, and she nearly wept with relief.

Throwing back her blankets, she sprang to her feet, padded across the cold floor to her door, and threw it open. Fixi and Fata immediately darted in, followed by their three kits and she nearly grew weak with relief to see them. Their absence from the cabin had made her unusually nervous and had made falling asleep difficult without her bed companions. It was Syrix’s tall, lean body filling her doorway that drew her eye, and her breath caught as she focused entirely upon him.

Mud streaked his pale cheek and clung to his long red hair along with bits of moss and leaves tangled within its length. The thicker, soft strands of his hair almost appeared like fur now thatshe was truly looking at it, her focus narrowing on each strand as they seemed to shift, rising and flattening as if possessing an inhuman and unnatural movement.

“Krystal, are you well?”

She shook her head abruptly and looked up at him with an apologetic smile. “Sorry. I’m just tired. I was too frightened to sleep, however, so I was waiting for you to return. How did it go?”

He inclined his head, a faint answering smile on his lips. “It is done.”

“Good. Good,” she mumbled to herself.

Syrix’s smile faded as he stared past her shoulder, his expression shuttering. Curious, she turned to see what he was looking at. The foxes. Fixi and Fata had already made themselves a little nest within her blankets and settled with their kits. Heat flooded her cheeks as she awkwardly turned back to him.

“Ah, the foxes. For some reason they’ve taken to sleeping with me. I did not intend?—”

“It is fine,” he interrupted, his gaze growing warm as it focused on her once more. “I was merely lost in my thoughts for a moment.”

She tipped her head with curiosity. “Yeah? Do you want to talk about it?”

His smile grew and a quiet chuckle shook him. “I am not sure that my envy over a small family of foxes would be the sort of polite conversation that one should have with a beautiful guest. But,” he continued as her blush deepened and grew, “given your fear, I would gladly sacrifice all propriety and offer myself to be used however you see fit to aid in your comfort. Should you desire it.”

Was he seriously offering to sleep with her… to be a…a… snuggle-buddy. She was intrigued but also instantly mortified.Her embarrassment didn’t stem from the offer itself, but rather how much every part of her seemed to perk up and scream in excited agreement at the prospect before she could even decide if it was a good idea or not.

Fuck, was she really becoming so desperate, or was he simply just that tempting. She stared at him, taking in his wet hair plastered to his face in some places and oddly fluffed in others, as well as the mud and wet dirt clinging to him. No, it was definitely all him. Even filthy, he oozed a rich sex appeal as if he were some kind of fairy, enticing her to a night of forbidden pleasure.

Krystal swallowed nervously. “You are a bit dirty.”

Lips twitching, he glanced down at himself. “So I am, but I would not dare to keep you company before bathing, sweetheart.”

The desire to say yes rose strongly within her, but it warred with her uncertainty. What if he took it to mean that she was offering more than that? Would she be able to resist and would she regret it come morning when they shared such a small cabin and could not easily avoid each other’s company?

His soft laughter eased the tension rising within her and she blinked at him in surprise. Did it just happen again, or was it just that she was relieved that he was not so seriously intent on following through with anything?

“Perhaps another night. I can wait for your invitation, should it come,” he murmured, and in the low light of her room illuminated by the small emergency oil lamp on her desk, she could see the way his eyes danced mirthfully.

Inclining his head in a small bow, he glanced once more at the foxes before withdrawing from her bedroom completely and shutting the door behind him. Krystal stood there, unmoving, as his shadow shifted on the other side of the door and his footstepsproceeded down the small hall to the other bedroom that her aunt and uncle once shared.

Had he kept it the same? She had only caught glimpses of their bedroom in the past, since her aunt and uncle didn’t allow any of the kids into the room. As far as they were concerned, there were two other bedrooms within the cabin and the living room which provided enough room for everyone without needing to go into their private space. But she recalled their large bed somewhat enviously. They had spared little expense in making sure that they had what they required for their basic comforts.

Shit, perhaps she should have been going to his room, instead, and asking for his company to keep away the nightmares while she slept. Smiling to herself, she shook her head at her own ridiculousness and returned to her bed. Thankfully, the bed had been upgraded at some point from a tiny twin-sized bed to a double, so the foxes only took up a small space on one side, leaving her plenty of room to climb beneath her covers without disturbing them. She was still smiling when she settled into bed and drew the blankets over herself before finally turning to the lamp at her bedside and extinguishing it.

Her eyes drifted shut as she burrowed deeper into the bed, the tiny, sleepy sounds of the foxes serenading her. She hoped the rain would stop. She normally found the sound of the rain soothing, but the darkness of the forest paired with the gloom from the rain made her nervous and on edge, especially with how well it obviously concealed the lamia.

She just wanted her sunlit forest again. But as she slept, her dreams carried her through the woods along moonless paths until she arrived at the lake where the empty cabin stood in foreboding invitation.

Chapter

Fifteen

No such luck. The rain kept coming. Krystal put on a brave face and tried to pretend like the heavy shadows and the continuous downpour that seemed to obscure the world around their cabin to the point of blocking all sounds didn’t bother her. In truth, it was making her paranoid. She wouldn’t know if the lamia was lurking nearby, and she suspected she was getting a case of cabin fever from being cooped up inside the limited space the small cabin provided.

Thank fuck for Syrix. She was not sure how she would’ve got through it without him and his infinite patience, even when she was jumping at shadows. She wasn’t sure when exactly he slept, because there was never a moment when he wasn’t there, providing silent reassurance by his presence alone as he moved confidently around the cabin. That was, of course, when he wasn’t actively trying to comfort or distract her.

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