Page 97 of Such a Feral Little Lamb
He pulls off one boot, then the other, then my socks. I grimace. We need to wash up still, but everything hurts, and my head is swimming.
“Come here, Isaac,” Mason murmurs. He kneels between my legs and runs his hands up under my T-shirt. The touch is barely there, but not to tease. His mouth pulls down when I wince, though I can’t help it at all.
Warmth spreads through me, easing from his fingertips and under my skin. It washes away the pain but not the exhaustion. My eyes close and stay that way.
I feel Mason gently tug off my T-shirt and then my trousers. He positions me on the bed and then presses up next to me, no space at all between us.
“Sleep, little lamb. You’ll always be safe with me.”
When I wake, the room is dark. Mason is half on top of me, breath tickling my throat, and my first thought is howrightthis all feels, that this is the only moment I need for the rest of my life.
I sweep a hand up and down his back and he comes awake in increments, rubbing his face against my skin.
“How do you feel?”
“Tired,” I murmur. It’s a bone-deep exhaustion, one I think only time will cure. “You fixed everything else.”
Mason kisses my shoulder. “I always will.” The candle flickers to life and I huff a laugh. “Come on. Let’s clean up.”
He takes my hand to lead me through into the other room, where we wash in front of the small mirror. Mason’s hands don’t wander too much, but they linger, and so do mine.
Once we’re done, he wraps himself around me from behind and hooks his chin over my shoulder. His fingers dance along each rib, pressing the bones like he’s testing their strength.
“All good?”
“You know they are.”
“I mean us, little lamb. Earlier today… Everything…”
I swallow. I’ve not seen Mason lost for words, not yet, but then I get the feeling that no one else has seen him like this, either. I sigh and rest my weight back against him.
“Yeah. Yes. I mean, I’ll probably have more questions—”
“I’ll answer anything.”
“And I think I’ll probably have more to say about it all once I’ve had a chance to think things through—”
“I’ll listen.”
I chuckle and shake my head. “I’m not changing my mind about you. I know why you did it. And I know why you were so angry then and after. I’m angry, too.”
Mason slides a hand over my heart. “You are,” he says. “That’s not all you are.”
“No. There’s room for everything else, too. But I want todosomething. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life trapped like I was before.”
“Okay.”
I’m aware he hasn’t given me a straight answer when it comes to what I want us to do together. I also am fairly sure I’ll get my own way, and that the others might be concerned when Mason says we’re going to leave for a while, but that some might even come along with us.
There’s so much to be done before then. We have to lay the team to rest, even Dane, if only to be sure he won’t get back up again. I need to get the true lay of the land here and be certain that the Citadel won’t retaliate against this mission gone wrong.
And I want… I put my hand over Mason’s. I’ve never met a person more concrete than him, and I want to be certain of him, of us. That this is real.
“Let’s go back to bed,” I say.
“You’re tired?”
“Not right now.”
