Page 30 of Lost Feather
“Oh.” It still sounded like there was something she wasn’t telling me. “If I want to run back to the purification room tonight once I’ve rested, you don’t need to come. I figured out how to get back here last night.”
Panic flooded her features. “Um, no, Feather. Please don’t go out without me.” Our eyes met and I saw the answer to my suspicion there. She wasn’t my friend, or not just that. She was my warden. “I’ll stay here. Just in case,” she said, a hint of frustration seeping into her voice. Like an older sister who’d just had to cancel a date to stay home and babysit. I didn’t want to be alone, but I wasn’t going to spoil her fun.
“Listen, Sunny, I want you to go out. I promise I won’t leave. I understand, I really do.” Her eyes got even wider. “I won’t get you in trouble. Anyway, I have some catching up to do with my darlings.”
“Your whats?”
I lay back and stroked the sheets obscenely. “Once you leave, it’s just me and my ménage of sheets. Fitted sheet, flat sheet, and me—all night, baby. I’m going to find out just what luxury sheets are capable of.”
“You are so odd, Feather.” She jumped up, obviously ready to leave. “Are you sure you’ll be fine staying here?”
“Have fun, girl. Go find a merge partner, or whatever!” I gave a cheerful thumbs up, and kept a smile on my face until she had closed the door behind her.
And only then did I use my sheets to soak up all the tears I’d been holding back.
CHAPTER12
Feather
My dreams were filled with earthquakes, screaming, falling gates, and dissolving feathers. Finally, the nightmares gave way to fantasies. To the shock and titillation of my dream self, Righteous played the first starring role.
I walked into the Assembly Hall looking for Gavriel, but the room was empty. Except all the golden cushions were in the center of the space, piled up like an enormous nest.
“Hello?” I called out. No one answered, but a deep, rich chuckle rose up from the nest. As I approached, I saw two golden legs draped over the edge, wrapped in golden gladiator sandals, and white feathers framing the back cushions. His wings, outstretched. “Righteous?”
He lifted his head and smiled. Not a smirk or a preening expression, but a true smile, his eyes heavy lidded and gleaming. Like he’d been waiting for me for hours, and planning all the best ways to welcome me home. “Come in, Tili,” he crooned, trailing his fingertips over his neck and down his bare chest. The dark hairs in the center of his sculpted pecs glimmered in the low light.
I tiptoed closer and saw that he wasn’t wearing a robe or a toga, just… a pair of cut-off gray sweatpants? With what looked like a significant portion of an anaconda curled up right beneath the drawstring. An anaconda that had recently eaten an ostrich egg.
“Come in. Your alpha has prepared a nest for you. It’s time for your heat, my sweet omega.”
Aw, yeah. This wasthatdream.
I dove into the nest, laughing and tangling myself up in his arms and legs. In a flash, his hands were on my cheeks as he kissed me, and then on my breasts as he lifted them to his mouth, tasting them, licking, nibbling.
“Fucking delicious,” he murmured as he moved between them, like he couldn’t decide which nipple was his favorite. “Gonna suck these little cherries until you beg me to slide my tongue into your pussy.”
Holy dirty talker! “Righteous?” I gasped as his wide hands spanned my waist and he lifted me up, drawing a winding trail on my abdomen with his tongue, teasing me.
“Can’t wait, precious. Got to taste you, suck that little clit until you sing for me. Come for me, until all you can remember is the feel of my mouth on you, the slide of my lips, my hands holding you wide open so I can feast.” He hummed against my lower belly, the vibrations moving through me, into my core. “I’m going to devour this pretty little pussy. Get you so wet you’ll slide around my cock.” He growled. “Get you ready to take my knot.”
Then he turned us, and those strong hands were parting my thighs, his dark hair falling over my stomach as his tongue found my clit and circled it, gently at first, then harder. His wings extended over us as he learned what gave me pleasure, finding the patterns and rhythms with his hands and tongue, and—oh my gumdrops!—teeth. He kept on, drawing me closer and closer to an invisible peak… I held my breath and came, arching up against his mouth as his wings fluttered overhead. The world exploded into a golden shower of sparks behind my eyelids as he kept licking, while I shuddered under his tongue.
I heard him move away, and when I opened my eyes, Righteous was nowhere to be seen. Now, Gavriel and Mikhail stood side by side on the edge of the nest… which had become a pirate ship. Mikhail growled, “I’ve been wanting to swab your lower decks all day, Feather,” while Gavriel held out a steaming, fresh-baked pie and purred, “But first, dessert.”
Dang, I was good at dreaming. It would all be perfect, if only one more dream lover showed up. The first sexy voice I’d ever known; the one I’d desired for centuries.
I guess someone decided I needed a perfect night for a change. Because when morning was almost there, the gravelly voice I’d missed since I’d left Earth came to keep me company.
“Little one?”
My heart thudded. “Hey, Rumple. You interrupted a really good fantasy. I should make you walk a dream plank.” He’d usually only spoken to me when I was hesitating to do what needed to be done on Earth, or when I’d tried to get out of adding more smut to my soul. To be fair, he’d also hung around afterward, keeping me company between lives on Earth, when I was floating in the void or whatever. Getting used to the new weight I carried, waiting to be plunked down into my next body. I didn’t know his real name. But he didn’t know mine either, so that was fair.
There was silence, but a sensation like muffled laughter, a vibration deep in my bones. “The one about the pies and the pirates?”
“You know it. And not the dirty pirates. These ones were clean, not a single case of pox or syphilis on the whole ship.”
I almost felt a low growl. “What flavor pies this time?”
