Page 10 of A Very Armitage Christmas
Ergo, he’d known Taft would be wandering the woods too, undead and horrific andnot gone foreverthe way I’d promised Arik he would be.
I hadn’t noticed when I walked in, too pissed and distracted, but the bathroom was cold. Fucking freezing, even. I crossed the room and shut the window over the bathtub, cutting off the flow of frigid air. Arik still hadn’t moved.
I could’ve forced him to shift back, no matter how much he’d locked down the mate bond. Being the dominant mate came with some privileges — privileges I’d never even come close to using, let alone abusing. I thought about it, though. If ever there was a time when it might be justified…
No. No, it wouldn’t be. That was frustration talking, and I’d promised Arik I wouldn’t be that kind of alpha. He trusted me not to be that kind of alpha. He could’ve taken off into the woods, masked his scent, and hidden from me.
Instead he’d come up here, to hide away in the bathtub.
Not exactly a good sign, shifting and lying in a cold bathtub, but I’d gotten this bathtub for him, installed it myself, grouting and all. Because I loved him. Because it made him happy to soak in a giant tub of hot water with the door locked and be a clean little cat on his own terms.
And he’d come here. Where he knew I’d find him. And left the door unlocked, even though I could’ve broken it down in two seconds. That had been a message, not a thoughtless omission.
Arik didn’t deal in thoughtlessness — with the possible exception of the occasional zombie.
Knowing Arik, that could mean he’d expected me to react badly, and he’d wanted to get it over with.
And that doused the last embers of my anger.
I bent down and scooped him up into my arms, cradling him against my chest. He’d have been a heavy armful for a normal human, but he didn’t weigh anything at all to me in this form, any more than he did in the other. I took him carefully into the bedroom and set him down in the middle of our bed.
He didn’t move.
Shower first, because Arik would probably prefer it if I lost my shit and screamed at him over getting in the bed with him tainted with zombie juice.
I stepped out of the bathroom two minutes later, still a little damp but smelling like nothing but me. I climbed onto the bed with him, not bothering with clothes, wrapping myself around his furry little body and holding him close, stroking him between his tufty ears. I had no idea if wild bobcats liked that; I honestly didn’t even know if Arik did, since he usually only shifted to run by himself.
But I didn’t know what else to do.
At least a couple of hours went by before he stirred. First his tail twitched, and then he stretched his paws, and then, after a few more moments of lying still, he melted into his human shape, becoming long and lean and not furry at all. He uncurled and rolled over to face me, his long blond hair tousled and streaming around his neck and shoulders.
His green eyes never stopped amazing me, no matter how many times I got to look at them up close like this. They had depths like a forest in the summer, but a vividness that made me think of dragonflies or iridescent scarabs or hummingbirds: something flashing and inhuman and painfully beautiful.
Arik looked at me solemnly, without a trace of his usual attitude, which typically ranged from sardonic stoicism to acid, cutting sarcasm.
“Did he —” Arik stopped and swallowed hard. “Did he — fuck, I can’t even say —”
He didn’t need to say anything else. I knew exactly what he meant. For once, I’d gotten it right instead of flailing around trying to figure out what the hell was going on in his head until he deigned to shout it at me.
He rolled to his back, staring up at the ceiling.
Fuck that. I wrapped my arms around him again and yanked him against my chest, curling over him like a wall between him and the world. That was what I wanted to be, and sometimes he even let me. I fucking hoped this would be one of those times, instead of him putting up a wall between the two of us instead.
“I killed him again,” I said softly. “Permanently, this time. I hope? I mean, you’re the expert. But he’s definitely headless.”
Arik turned his head a little and peered at me from under his lashes. “You did it yourself? I mean,youdid it. Not someone else under your command.”
“I did it myself. I promise. No question.”
He sighed, finally relaxing into my hold, and I dared to nuzzle his cheek and press a kiss to the angle of his jaw. I wouldn’t go for his mouth just yet. I knew better than to push my luck.
To my shock, it was Arik who turned into my kiss, pressing his mouth to mine and parting his lips for me in clear invitation. He let me kiss him breathless, until my cock dug into his hip and I’d lost track of everything else: zombies, wards, the pack…everything. Everything but the smoothness of his skin under my hands, and the soft glide of his lips and his tongue, and the sweet spiciness of his scent and taste.
He broke the kiss at last, pushing me up and off of him enough that he could slide sinuously down the bed, kissing my chest and stomach along the way.
“Fuck, sweetheart, do you want to — oh, fuck,” I gasped, as his mouth closed over my cock and his tongue worked the underside. I held myself propped up on my hands, my arms shaking, as he took me by the hips and swallowed me down all the way.
I let my head hang down so I could watch him.
