Page 57 of Faerie Fate
It was the first time he’d looked at me, reallylookedat me, since the mate bond. I resisted the urge to rub my hand over the scar. Pieces of salve were still layered underneath my fingernails.
“I’d feel a lot better if I had a shower,” I muttered, pulling off my own borrowed shirt.
Mike jerked his head. “There’s a washstand over there.”
The opposite end of the room near the stairs had been set up with a neat folding screen. Beyond it were Poppy’s personal effects, a basin that filled with magically warm water to wash and drained away when the sides were tapped three times. She’d worked the same spell with a chamber pot in the corner and it emptied after use.
I scrubbed my face and hands with the bar of soap from a dish shaped like a black swan. The grimy sensation remained. I’d be gross until the end of time, wouldn’t I? I might not feel Kendrick but he’d left his stain inside of me.
Mike still stood there when I walked around the edge of the folding screen. His lips thinned into a line as he watched me.
My camisole was caked with blood from the initial throat cut. Rather than focus on it, I tossed the shirt aside, strangely awkward in front of Mike.
Not that being naked with him was awkward. But after whatever changed in our relationship, whatever new dynamic we existed in, for some reason it felt unnatural for him to watch me so closely.
My pants followed, and I waited until Mike got into the bed, then crawled onto the mattress beside him in only my bra and panties. I snuggled underneath the quilt, a tight fit, but secretly loving being this close to him.
If I closed my eyes and ignored the swirling in my head, then I could pretend it was old times and I was just waiting forourmate bond to finally click.
His scent surrounded me, citrus and salt and rosemary. I nestled closer on instinct and Mike automatically slung his arm over my waist, pulling me tighter to his front so that my rear notched neatly into the curve of his body.
His breath tickled my ear.
“You still smell delicious,” he whispered.
I shivered at the sensation. “Stop lying.”
He murmured something unintelligible underneath his breath, his fingers light as they skimmed along my thigh. “I’m not lying to you. Underneath it all, you’re still you.”
I wanted to ask what I smelled like to him, since each fae had a unique scent, but bit my tongue. I didn’t really want to know how much I’d changed.
Goosebumps lifted in a trail, hurrying to catch up to his touch. “I wasn’t sure you’d want to touch me this way again.”
I arched back into Mike and his growing hardness. It was an automatic response and the low purr in his chest trembled against my spine.
“Why would you think that, Tavi?”
It had been a night of honesty for me. How much more could I handle? A noise hummed in my throat and my stomach flipped. Would I be able to reconcile whatever Mike had to say in the wake of my observations? I wasn’t sure.
“With everything we’ve been through lately…” I trailed off, leaving it open-ended.
Noren scrambled up the steps but rather than pushing his nose against either of us, he settled at the foot of the bed with a small huff, his business done for the night.
“We’ve been through worse,” Mike said, nipping at my earlobe. “Me and you, we keep coming back to each other. No matter what happens, we always find a way home.”
Home. That was exactly what it felt like to be with him. I was never more myself than when Mike and I shared breath.
The way he touched me felt normal. It felt like a small bridge reconnecting us to the people we’d been before Kendrick clawed into me.
I shifted, turning on my other side to stare at Mike, looping my leg over his hip. He reached behind me to grab my rear and drag me closer, keeping us pressed together.
He searched my face.
Silently, reverently, I arched up to meet his lips. Kissing him tentatively, asking permission for something I’d never needed to ask for before. We melted into each other before Mike broke contact, only to crash his lips against mine.
I’d never get used to this. To how it felt being this close to him and listening to the way he said my name under his breath. The heady sensation of having a man like Mike at my side.
He caged me against him, pinning me to the bed with his knee between my legs.
