Page 87 of A Soul to Touch

“Scariest? I have not scented a single thread of fear from you.” She squealed when he tickled her. “But it pleases me to know you find me attractive, despite me being amonsteras you so called me.”

“Is that a sour tone, I hear?” she asked with her cheeks puffing.

“I do believe I intended it to be playful.”

He knew what he was and what humans regularly called anything outside of humankind. To them, and obviously to her, he was a monster. A nightmare. Something wrong that didn’t belong in this world.

Mayumi reached up and cupped the sides of his bony jaw in her small, wet palms.

“I find you and that Duskwalker face of yours rather sexy. I called you Faunus because it means forest God, and you can be my forest, bone daddy God any day.”

The way her lips curled was heated, her dark eyes glinting with wickedness. The light shone in them, making them appear like pools of rich brown.

“So, when you screamed ‘oh my, God’ yesterday, you were actually just calling out to me.” It wasn’t a question but a statement.

It gave him what he wanted, another musical, non-feminine laugh.

“Sure. Whatever you want to tell yourself.” Then she stroked his face in what felt like a soothing yet appreciative way, being careful not to touch the crack in it. “But, I know for certain I wouldn’t have entertained touching anyone else but you.”

He tilted his head in her hands. “What do you mean?”

From what he’d gathered, she would have done this with another. The fact that a Demon might have been on her menu was a little alarming, but he’d thought that if another of his kind had stumbled upon her, she may have accepted them into her ripe and plush body.

“You saved my life, Faunus. I wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for you. I may not have remembered you well, but I have never forgotten you and what you did for me.”

She gave a little sigh and then moved away from him even though he was desperate to keep her near to save him from his anxieties. He didn’t know why she wanted to break contact with him then, especially when she was saying something that made him feel... wanted.

“From the moment you said you were here because you wanted to protect me... I trusted you. That’s why I feel comfortable enough to have sex with you.”

She sat on the opposite side of the bath again, this time facing her head away into the forest.

She trusts me. I am special to her.

Joy sparked inside him. That was enough. The fact she trusted him and desired him, he would take those things from her and hold them dearly.

“I am thankful for this outcome rather than you trying to kill me,” he tried to tease since she appeared thoughtful. “I will keep your secret safe from the rest of your Demonslayers the next time I go to that big, fortified mountain castle of theirs.”

He thought the idea of him waltzing his way into a Demonslayer stronghold would make her laugh. Instead, he watched her right hand turn into a tight fist as her lips drew inwards.

Why did I turn the conversation around?Mayumi thought with a disgruntled pout.

She’d started sharing her more... private feelings, and she wasn’t used to doing that. Her prankish words about ‘the monster under the bed’ had just been because she wanted to be humorous and distract him from his obvious aversion to the water.

Talking about the fact she trusted him, remembered him, had brought a whirlwind of emotions with it. Emotions she didn’t want.

She already knew she liked Faunus. His exterior was a massive part of that. There was an undeniable, divinely dark beauty about him that others wouldn’t see – because they were blind fools – but she could also see he was... jovial. She hadn’t expected him to be so free-spirited. He could even be teasing.

Then he’d brought up Hawthorne Keep, things about her being a Demonslayer. She wished he wouldn’t.

She began to frown and brought her gaze to him.

“How did you know it was the mountain castle I went to?” Mayumi asked, drifting her eyes down his body and taking in itsoddity before going back up with suspicion. “Although my home is closer to Hawthorne’s Keep, there was a chance I could have gone to the Blackfyre Keep instead.”

Hawthorne was east of here, whereas Blackfyre was southwest.

Faunus turned his snout upwards as though he was looking at the cloudless sky. His tail swished under the water, grabbing her attention before he sighed loudly.

He turned his head back down to face her.

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