Page 61 of Rebellious Royals

"Hot," Pascal teased.

"But not sexy," I countered. "Wrong type of hot. This is more the dangerous kind."

"Feeding from a Morrigan?" Wilder said. "I do think that counts as the epitome of danger."

"Yeah," I said, looking over to make sure Pascal's arms weren't bleeding. "I'm sorry you had to see that. The wings, I mean."

But it was Rain who smoothed down my hair. "I kinda like your wings. They go on the sexy list."

"Oh yeah," Wilder said. "Right at the fucking top."

Chapter Eighteen

RAIN

Ok, Pascal had seen Hawke's wings. He'd promised he wouldn't say anything, but he'd also phrased it carefully, so was that going to be a problem? Hawke had certainly been shaken by it.

Never mind that pulling magic from me had made those things explode out. Then there was the fact that I'd never gotten a good look at his wings before. Now, I was pretty sure I'd never forget them. I may have stared, trying to memorize every single detail, because they were gorgeous.

"Do you think Hawke caught me staring at his wings?" I asked Aspen as soon as we were shut into our rooms.

She scoffed at that. "I bet he was more worried about Pascal. He's probably pissed we didn't stop him from going back in too, but I didn't know!"

"How could you not know?" I asked - because I was pretty sure someone would ask me later.

Aspen groaned and flopped down on her bed. "Because Axel was giving me some pointers about learning how to use a sword, and Torian was being a dick. I was doing my best to keep him from biting the sentinel's heads off, and Pascal just vanished."

"He said he forgot his keys," I mumbled, turning for my room.

But Aspen sucked in a breath. "Rain..."

I paused, looking back in confusion, but her eyes were on me. More specifically, on my arm. "What?" I asked, glancing down to check.

Red was seeping into my gym shirt. It was green and black like all the rest of our uniforms, but the blood was staining the green part, turning it brown. I quickly lifted the sleeve to find a trickle that had smudged across my bicep. Nothing serious, but definitely a mess.

"Do you need to be healed?" she asked, leaning like she was about to come do that.

I just waved her off. "I think it's already stopped. I just didn't put a band-aid on it when Hawke all but fell off me."

Which made Aspen giggle. "Talk about knocking him off his feet, huh?" Yet she waved toward our shared bathroom. "Go shower."

"I was going to let you go first," I said. "You know, to keep your muscles from getting too sore."

"And you're bleeding. I think that trumps a few aches."

Turning that way, I shrugged. "I mean, the shower is big enough for two..." But I didn't wait around long enough for her to stammer out an excuse.

As a fae, she couldn't lie. As my girlfriend, I really didn't want to hear her say she didn't want to. If there was a 'yet' in her excuse, I could handle that, but we'd been together a while now. We usually slept in the same bed, often changed in front of each other now, and had gotten comfortable with the weirdness of being both roommates and dating.

But it was like something kept us from going further. Keir kept saying it was because neither of us wanted to start it, and Iwas pretty sure he had a point. That whole rejection thing hurt even worse when it was someone you were with.

Today's workout had been hard, though. I knew I had to smell atrocious, and if I wanted Aspen to curl up with me later, I needed to fix that. The blood was just one more excuse. So, grabbing a few towels, I hurried into our shared bathing area and turned on the water while I laid out my things within reach. It always took a bit for the hot part to get to the showerhead, but since it never ran out, I felt it was worthwhile.

I'd managed to soap myself down and rinse all the blood off when Aspen passed through the bathroom. I could hear her feet, but I was ok with that. She couldn't really see anything through the fogged glass and carefully designed angles of this place. Only the two sinks were really visible from the main walkway.

Then cloth flopped down right outside the shower. Turning, I saw a silhouette shifting on the other side of the glass. From the distorted shape, I was pretty sure Aspen was getting undressed, so when the door opened, I wasn't surprised. Nope, I merely stepped back.

I also failed at keeping my eyes on hers. They dropped all the way to the floor, then slowly crawled their way up her completely naked body. Ivory skin, toned but lean legs, and a perfectly flat belly. Aspen was built like a supermodel, all lean and elegant. Her breasts were small, but perfect for her, and the flush on her cheeks made it all even better.

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