Page 79 of Alliance
“Don’tgive me permission. Not yet,” Fásach warned. “I’ll take it in a snap of my teeth. Just, come here.” He patted the bedroll. “Let me teach you how—”
“To snuggle?” I interrupted with an excited jolt. Fás’s eyes locked onto my breasts as they bounced, the chill air hardening my nipples to points that dragged on the fabric. I gasped, clutching my coverall latches closed with bright cheeks. “Sorry!”
A smirk lifted the corner of his mouth despite the pained stutter in his chest. He closed his eyes and grimaced, adjusting his pants. When he reached out his dark palm to me, his claws caught the lamplight. “Come here.”
I took his hand, the thick pads warm and cushy, and sat beside him. He laid down, dragging me with him, and engulfed my waist in his thick arms. Face burrowed into the coveralls hiding my breasts, he breathed me in, swiveled his ears, and couched a thigh between my knees.
“This is much better than when I was charging,” I sighed, carding my fingers through his relaxed hackles. His shoulders twitched, and he nipped at my clothes, the impression of his teeth catching my nipple in warning.
“The harder you make it for me now, the harder I’ll chase you tomorrow,” he growled.
I pinched his ear in retaliation, remembering all the times he’d snarled at my denial in the past. “Is that a threat? It’s not a very good one.”
He chuckled, deep and vicious, making my skin pebble as he rubbed his velvet face against my pillowy chest. “I can’t guarantee…” His posture stiffened as he swallowed the confession. “Your skin is so delicate, and my claws…”
“When you chase me, will you be able to stop?” I asked, looking down at his heavy, drooping ears, how the wispy edges of his fur caught the stark white lamplight. He was quiet a long time before nodding into my chest.
“Yes,” he rasped. His anxious breath moistened my thermals, hot on his exhale and cold on his inhale. Then he shook his head and held me a little tighter. “I don’t know. Gods grant me strength, I hope so.”
I pet his tresses, working a snarl out of their lengths. “My dermal mesh has a safety feature. I can shock you if I need to.”
“That’s not the point,” he growled. “Yiwren aren’t mindless animals. I should be able to stop without you defending yourself first. And Iwill,I just… I’m worried about being too rough.”
[Analysis] I cocked my head, considering the uncertainty of the dawn. Fásach had been unpredictable, swinging between extremes. But Ilikedit. Being with Fás was like a dance in which the lead moved from partner to partner. Whether he was rough and demanding or bashful and quiet, it was all facets of him.
“If I speak out loud, will you know how I feel?”
Fásach looked up at me with wide eyes. “Yes.”
“Can your symphony tolerate if I feel bad because of you?”
He blinked, his shoulders easing. “No. I don’t think it could.”
I smiled, patting the wiry tresses between his horns. “Then we’ll be fine.” [Generating safe word] “Boosh is the new safe word. Got it?”
“Boosh…”
“Boosh,” I confirmed, beaming. “But I promise that I’ll knock you out cold if I have to.”
“I believe you.” Fás smirked, one large fang catching the light. “Thank you.”
We fell asleep soon after.
Entangled and warm.
27
The sunrise was a contradiction to the wet chill of the air. Pink light spilled across the frosty moss, kissing the tops of distant trees and the mountains at their back. Fásach and Roz watched the sun's bright orb as it rose in the sky and skirted along Big Blue's horizon, making the world feel upside down as the wind grew just a little colder again and their breath fogged the air.
Neither of them had eaten any breakfast.
Fásach was wound too tight, his heart pumping in slow, deep draughts that warmed his hands and feet and ears to blistering. He licked his fangs, noticeably longer than the night before, tonguing the hollow slot in his jaw where they slid into place when his mouth was shut. His gums there were itchy and hot, having gotten used to being empty.
"My major canines descended last night," he said, breaking the silence. Roz met his eye and he swallowed, showing her the fangs embedded in his upper jaw that were now more than an inch long. "They'll hurt if I bite."
"I'll keep that in mind."
Fásach bowed his head, relieved that she didn't immediately tell him that she'd be fine. He thought of her shoulder in his mouth and salivated, swallowing it back.
