Page 162 of A Fate of Ice and Lies
“I think I need a cigarette after that”—Ryenne shouted—“’cuz holy wow, Elias!”
Teddy burst into a fit of giggles while I pressed my face into the crook of her neck and chuckled softly.
“Sounds like you got some work to do, Nate,” George shouted from somewhere in Donnie and Ryenne’s house.
“Assholes,” Donnie muttered, low enough only fae ears could hear him. Pretty sure Brenton shared his sentiment.
Teddy’s cheeks reddened. “I hope Grandma Richter remembered to take off her hearing aids.”
I trailed my lips from her neck to her shoulder and arm, where Eiran’s tattoo replaced the slash he’d made when they’d sparred. It was an intricate beauty of a cloaked figure beneath a quarter moon and two clusters of stars. It was meant as a sign of his friendship and her open invitation to the astral realm.
I pressed another soft kiss to her heated flesh while she stroked the back of my head.
“Is it okay—what I did?” She chewed her bottom lip. “I drew your blood.” Her throat moved at her swallow. “I drank from . . . you. Is that okay?”
“Yes.” I ran a few more kisses along her skin. “I like that you did that. That is what happens when fae matings are complete. I didn’t tell you because you didn’t seem to like theidea of drinking blood. I didn’t want you to feel forced into anything.”
“I don’t know how to explain it but something inside me swelled with this need to drink your blood.”
My chest tightened. “How did it feel?”
She let out a light-hearted sigh. “Like I could stay in that moment forever. Everything about us became more vibrant. It was like . . . everything about my life could be summed up in that singular moment, but it wasn’t enough because I’d lived my whole life without you. I hadn’t even realized you were that missing part until that moment.”
Her words echoed my own feelings. I drew her closer, joy flooding me with the knowledge that she’d felt it too.
“It feels like life didn’t start until that moment when our magic bound our souls.”
“Yes,” she whispered.
I held her for a few beats more before I pulled away.
“Stay,” I told her.
With that, I went into the adjoining bathroom, and after washing myself off, I grabbed a washcloth that I soaked with warm water. After wringing it out, I went back to Teddy and cleaned my seed that had spilled along her inner thighs. She rubbed against the rag and moaned when I cleaned her.
When I took her the next time, I put up an invisible shield so no one could hear us.
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
TEDDY
Early morning rayscast a glow over Elias’s inky hair. His face was softer when he slept. His lips slightly parted, the sharp planes on his face smooth and not drawn or tight with worry.
To me, he was everything. Like a star that set the scene for dreams at night.
I couldn’t help myself when I kissed his forehead, when I brushed the strands of hair from his face. When I kissed his lips after he blinked awake and smiled at me. A slow, sleepy smile that was both sweet and sexy.
His fingers were tender on my face. Not quite so tender when he pinched my nose.
“You sleep loud.” His voice was all gravelly and rough.
I poked his side, where his stomach was lined with gorgeous muscles I’d touched and tasted last night, never getting enough. He jumped, and it made me smile. I loved that he was ticklish. It was such a normal, human thing that I hadn’t associated with him or other fae.
“You sleep loud,” I countered, which was a lie.
While Ryenne had told me several timesthat my snoring could wake the dead, Elias slept quietly with these soft, warm breaths that puffed across my face.
