Page 14 of The Fae Menagerie
He shook his head, but then he turned toward me and studied me with his gaze. "I vowed to take care of you. I don't think I could hurt you, even if I wanted to."
None of that made sense to me, but if it kept Doyle from declining into zombie mode, I would accept anything.
"I'll do it," he said with a resolute nod.
"Starting after lunch," I said. "You need a nap."
I'd planned to discover which side of the bed he chose before we shared it, but he fooled me by sleeping in the middle. The bed was huge, so I would still have room on either side, but I hadn't accounted for his wingspan. When he slept, his wings unfurled from his shoulders and spread across the bed. No wonder he couldn't sleep on the couch.
That night, Doyle asked me which side of the bed I wanted. I was tempted to say I wanted the middle, but I picked the side farther from the door.
Long after Doyle fell into an exhausted sleep, I lay awake, trying not to toss and turn. Now, more than ever, I knew there was something wrong with me.
Doyle was easy on the eyes. If I were honest with myself, he was damn attractive. I could recognize physical beauty, but I couldn't get my body to respond to it. If a gorgeous fae creature couldn't change my libido, nothing would.
Luckily, my cock hadn't wanted a workout since I'd been here. On the rare occasions it craved attention, I'd give it, and then I'd be right back to no response toward others. So far, I'd been lucky, but my luck wouldn't last forever. When it did demand my attention, I hoped I could take a quick shower or hop into Doyle's comfy bed, alone.
Doyle's bed was the only furniture in the enclosure that hadn't actively hurt me. I wondered why it was any different.
I must have drifted off to sleep in the early morning hours. I woke to find Doyle on his side, his wings twitching as he stared at me.
I sat up with a start, clutching the sheets to my chest. "What?"
"Nothing." He rolled onto his stomach, his usual sleeping position. "Just watching you sleep."
"Why?"
"It's the only time you look relaxed." He pointed to my cock, which was tenting the sheet, the traitor. "Want me to take care of that?"
"No."
I didn't like the look of hurt in his eyes, so I rushed on. "It won't last. If I ignore it, it goes away."
"What happens if you don't ignore it?"
Bret had tried to make me come by sucking my early morning wood. It never worked. "It still goes away."
"Do you ever … " he made the universal sign for jacking off, apparently used in the fae realm as much as it was in the human one.
"Sometimes."
"But with a person?—"
I shook my head.
He folded his wings and rolled over onto his back, laughing. "I couldn't have picked a more impossible person to end my mother's curse. I got hit hard by that karma bus the humans always warned me about."
I couldn't help it. I laughed with him. He sounded so childlike and innocent, even though he was facing a harsh punishment for his crime.
"Why not Aidan?" I asked. I'd noticed his absence this week, and he'd been pissed when he left the last time. He'd mutteredsomething about humans under his breath. If only he knew. I was no competition.
"He's an incubus and a sociopath," Doyle said between gales of laughter.
"Interesting." I frowned at him. "I thought you were a sociopath. I suppose it takes one to know one."
He inhaled sharply and slapped a hand across his chest as though I had mortally wounded him. Then he dissolved into laughter again. "Is that what's wrong with me? It probably has something to do with my family's rejection of fated mates. Most fae have the opportunity to meet the right person who could make them change for the better."
I shook my head. "That's not how that works. People don't change you. You have to want to change."
