Page 42 of Unholy Gambit: Checkmate in Blood
“Not today, Aurélie. I promise the next time we are intimate, we will both be naked together, but for your first time, it felt best to give you an experience without being bared to me.”
“Because you feel sorry for me, after learning about the truth of what happened to me?”
He sighed. “I can’t decide whether that hurt my feelings more, or irritated me more.”
She considered his words, really let them sink in. “You aren’t used to dealing with feelings. I’m sorry if I’m making it more difficult. I believe there was truth in my words, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay for me to act like you were wrong for taking my emotional state into account.”
The truth is,she telepathed,I’m probably not handling it as well as I initially thought. It hasn’t sunk in yet. Thanks for getting my mind off of it.
Aloud, she said, “When Alleia has French onion soup, it’s perfect, but Panera’s version in a bread bowl comes in second.”
He ordered both.
She ate curled up in a cozy armchair, and then pulled her zombie outfit out of the bag she’d brought. She changed in the bathroom while he put his costume on in the main room, and then she got a little bossy with him.
“Sit, so I can do your makeup.”
* * * *
She’d nearly undone him before, when she’d put his makeup on at the Nature Center, but having her do it in private was evenmoreintimate — the soft brush on his face, his throat, his chest. She used her fingers to blend it in this time, her bare skin brushing his cheek, smoothing it around the portion of abs peeking out of the ripped shirt.
And when he looked at himself in the mirror, he realized she’d made him look dangerous. Threatening. Scary.
She did her own makeup next, layering the dark shadows over the attractive makeup, making herself look a little demented. Why did she look demented and manic, while he looked intimidating? The makeup seemed to have been done very similarly, until he studied the differences. She focused on the shadows for him, and had made her eyes appear wild, shaded herself more for instability rather than menace.
Her zombie clothes hung on her small frame, while his pulled tight over his muscles, but together, they were a matched set.
Her scent told him she was fine — no sharp pang from her leg, no tangled anxiety in her mind. Just a low hum of anticipation and bone-deep contentment.
On the way aboveground, she eyed the steep hotel stairs with a stubborn glare.
He could sense her resolve, but she was about to be on her feet more than she was accustomed to, so he scooped her up and slung her over his shoulder.
“Axel! I’m fine!”
“Of course you are.”
She kicked her heels and squirmed, her hair swinging against his back, and he calmly braced her with one hand on her ass.
Her scent bloomed with arousal, and he patted her bottom.
He settled her back on her feet at the top, and she growled at him.
Growled.
By the time they made it to the parking garage, she’d stopped arguing that he can’t just pick her up anytime he wants.
Mostly because he didn’t respond, and she grew tired of arguing with the air. It wasn’t open for discussion — if he felt she needed a lift, he’d give her one. End of story.
When Axel drove out of the Nature Center’s parking lot later that night, Aury leaned her head back and closed her eyes. He knew she was exhausted, but her knee seemed to be holding up. Her thoughts were on her live broadcast the following day, organizing notes in her mind, making lists of things to mention about both contestants. Her mind fascinated him.
He should get points for not carrying her back to the car, though he figured it was probably best not to point it out to her right then. He’d known she’d be mortified in front of peers, so he’d let her walk despite her exhaustion and pain levels.
Her lower back was bothering her, and he understood it was because her spine and hips weren’t used to her legs being the same length.
“I can come inside and massage your hips and lower back,” he told her, when her thoughts moved from chess to the logistics of when she should set her alarm to wake. “Clothes on, no hanky-panky.”
“As nice as that sounds, I think I’ll just put some pain relief patches on and crash. It’s been a long day, and I’m carrying a chess match tomorrow. Live commentary.”
