Page 31 of Fairies Never Fall

”I’ll —” I swallow. “I’ll stay if that’s what it’ll take to get you to sleep in the bed.”

His mouth turns down. “I know it’s asking too much. It’s just that the nightmares never let up, unless…”

“Unless what, sweets?”

“Unless you’ve touched me,” he says quietly.

I breathe deeply through my nose, acutely aware my hands are still resting on his shoulders. I think I’m getting the picture. Kind of. Except the picture is breaking my brain a little.

“You’re saying when I touch you, you don’t have nightmares. So you’ve been avoiding me? That’s why you’re not sleeping?”

“I thought if I stayed away, I’d get used to the nightmares again. But I just can’t.” A hint of despair seeps into his voice. “If it were anything else… but I dream of my family”

He trails off, hands clenching on his satiny pajamas.

Christ.Orion said his family were all dead or missing. Does he have nightmares of them dying?

I squeeze his shoulders, prompting him to look up and meet my eyes. “I’ll stay if that’s what you need. But I don’t understand. Can you help me out? Is it a fairy thing? A monster thing? I want to make sure I don’t make it worse for you.”

His mouth twists. “I don’t know. It must be because you’re human, so you’re the only one who can touch me.”

“I’m what?”

He gives me a blank look. “Other monsters can’t touch a fairy. They’ll get magic poisoning and die.”

I’ve clearly missed some important memo, and it hits me immediately —that’swhy he freezes up after every one of my extremely casual, not-at-all on purpose gestures. Not because he’s standoffish or awkward, but because I’m literally the only person who can do that without dying.

Andthat’swhy he melts.

Fuck me up, down and sideways.

I kick my shoes off. “Okay, sweets. How do you want to do this?”

Tension seeps out of his body visibly. I ignore the twist in my heart. I can have a big old revelation about how this makes me feel later.

Or never.

“Like this,” Lysander says, lifting the cover.

Normally I sleep naked, but that’s obviously not the play here. I strip my jeans off and I leave my shirt, boxers, and socks on. I’m for sure still on a one way train to mind-fuck town, a reality that smacks me in the face when I get in after him and catch a glimpse of his smooth, pale green thighs. And again when something soft and warm brushes my bare leg. It’s his bare skin.

Bad brain.

Whether it’s because he’s a fairy or because he’s — like Orion said —sheltered, he doesn’t seem that concerned with modesty. I’m not gonna be the one to make it weird.

When I reach for the lamp Lysander stops me. “Leave it on,” he says, quickly turning his face away.

“No problem,” I murmur, trying to sound calming and not at all like I’m kind of freaked out his nightmares are so bad he sleeps with the light on. I shuffle closer, until my chest is flush with his folded wings — a net new sensation for me. One that makes my heart beat a little too fast.

Feeling bold, I drape my arm over his waist. “Is this okay?”

It’s like every bone in his body relaxes the second I cozy up to him. A deep sigh spills out of him and he goes still. It’s enough of an answer.

I couldn’t sleep right now if you put a gun to my head. It takes every ounce of will to keep my cock from hardening against the sweet curve of his silk-clad ass. Only two scant layers of clothseparate us — and in some places, not even that. I’m in hell. Or heaven.

A few minutes later, Lysander is out cold. In the end that’s what calms my over-eager dick enough that I can finally relax. He can’t even get a hug without accidentally poisoning someone — he needed this. He trusted me and I’m gonna live up to that trust.

I’ve had my own share of sleepless nights. Imagining the demons that drive him to the point of practically begging me for help brings all kinds of ugly feelings churning to the surface. Yet even when he asked, he wasn’t worried I’d deny him — he was resigned to it.

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