Page 43 of Madness Becomes Her
“The rest of the party is as mad as you; they’ll be fine.” I stiffen as I realize I’ve said it aloud.
A laugh huffs out of him. “You’re right. I wish you’d have told me. I’ll be more careful in the future. I won’t touch you again, Tiger Lily. I swear it.”
I sigh, hanging my head in defeat.
“I don’t think that will help at all. Because there are times I’ve been flushed before, and it had nothing to do with your touching me. It was your mere proximity, Fin. Don’t you understand?”
“So, you can’t be near me, either?” Sadness braids through his tone, and wrenches my gut into a tight knot.
“No, I?—”
“I don’t think I could say goodbye to you again. It was so hard the first time, Eleanor. And now, you’renewEleanor, and there’s this… something about you. I can’t quite explain it, but—” I lift on tiptoes and press my lips to his, silencing his spiralling words.
It’s brief, a quick peck to express what I can’t put into words right now.
“Well,” he breathes, cupping either side of my face and peering into my eyes as if searching for something.
“I like it when I’m near you. I like it when you touch me. I likeyou, Hatter. I want more from you than tea parties and hats, and I know it’s wrong, and I’m sorry. I can’t help it. I think Ialways might’ve felt this way, but then it was a girlhood crush, not something I could act on, and—” His lips press to mine, his kiss lingering longer than the one I’d given him.
My heart is racing, my body thrumming with some kind of magic only Finlo can weave.
Moving against his lips, I deepen the kiss. He follows my lead, opening to me when I prod his lips with my tongue.
My arms wrap around his neck, and his hands tangle in my hair, our moans becoming the mad thing between us instead of our words.
When he breaks the kiss and looks down at me, a thumb presses into the flush I know paints my cheeks again. “I’ve loved you since I met you, but it was different then. I don’t quite understand this feeling, this new facet of love that’s growing towards you.”
“I know,” I whisper.
Pressing his forehead to mine, he regains control of himself as I try to do the same. “I’ll have to go apologize to Henry.”
“Who’s Henry?”
“The wind.” He gives me a look like I’m the insane one before pulling away and striding toward the door.
“The wind has a name?”
CHAPTER TWELVE
A JOYOUS RESCUE
Things have been awkward between Fin and me since we kissed, but I expected nothing less. He admitted he’s still trying to reconcile his love for my childhood self and his passion for me now, which makes perfect sense. In my memories, there’s a stark contrast between crushing on someone older than you and being able to act on it at an older age. I loved him then for his kindness and the safety he offered. Now, I’m growing to love him for more grown-up reasons.
Today’s the day we rescue Prospero from the Red Queen’s castle, and I’m not thrilled at the prospect of getting caught, but I want to help Fin any way I can for all he did for me then, and all he’s done for me now.
He was how I survived my childhood; I know it.
He’s also a four-hundred-year-old Fae, living in a magical world that I shouldn’t have ever stepped foot inside and am now considering home.
I haven’t tried to find the portals out of Wonderland in the last two weeks, and half of me wonders if I’ll ever try. I’m becoming too complacent.
“I’ve done it!” Fin shouts, coming out of the bathroom with a wrench in hand and his cheeks flushed. There’s sweat beading on his brow, and I can’t help how my thighs press together as I take him in.
“What have you done?” I ask him.
“Come. See for yourself.”
Half of me hopes he hasn’t harmed the bathtub in whatever mad venture he’s undertaken this morning because I need a bath desperately after last night’s whirlwind tea party, where a food fight broke out. I can still feel tarts in my hair.
