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I exaggerate a nod as we continue through the village. “But why insist that I paint you, then? It doesn’t seem like the others did.” He doesn’t answer, just gives me a knowing look, letting me figure it out on my own. I stop breathing a moment as it dawns on me.
He wanted everyone to know he was mine too.
My heart flutters at that, the idea of him being mine, but I won’t say that out loud. I roll my teeth over my lower lip and scan the crowded streets before us, doing my best to play it off. “If only maidens are painted, does that mean they're the only ones who feel the magic from the bond?”
Loric nods. “It’s part of it, yeah. It's supposed to make it easier to seduce them, since they’ll feel the mens’ lust. To me, it seems like it’s more of a chance to bond beyond lust if they were to both partake, and then more so through it, but I didn’t make the rules.”
“Is that what you want to do?Bondwith me?” I hadn’t intended that to sound sultry, but even I could hear it dripping from every word, and for a quick moment, I panic.
He smiles, exhaling on a silent laugh. “I agreed to let you experience the festival. It doesn’t mean I have to be a dick and play into the dark elves’ sexual objectification.”
Silence falls between us. I’m not quite sure how to take that and maybe a tiny part of me wanted him to say yes, that he genuinely wanted to get to know more on a deeper level, but regardless, he’s here doing it. And he has a point.
Loric scours the festival for something, or maybe someone. “Are you hungry?” He nods toward a merchant selling food, set up down one of the side streets a little ways.
Weighing my head, I shrug. “I could eat, you?”
He smirks, then looks at me out of the corner of his eye and I can’t shake the feeling that his unspoken answer is implying something else. Especially when that smirk pulls tighter and tighter.
I smack his arm and he flinches away with a wide, toothy grin.
“You have to… That’s not…” I stutter trying to tell him he has to actually eat food,not me.
Regardless, he continues to lead us toward the merchant. “Are you always this flustered?”
“I—Yes, but that’s not the point.” His eyes are so full of life, sounburdened, that I can’t help but stare at him.
“Hmmm… See, I told you, if the ritual is done right, it’s the most important part. I’m already learning.”
“Learning, huh?” I tease, leaning closer to him.
“Are you telling me there’s nothing you’ve noticed since we left that tent?” He arches a brow.
“You don’t seem as grumpy.”
His thumb gently strokes across my index finger. “Yeah, well, it’s pretty nice not to deal with my other half for a change. He can be pushy.”
“Mine is quiet, most of the time, but when she does speak up, it’s usually something violent. Like her threatening to eat Mira today because she looked at me wrong.”
His brow furrows. “How so?”
“It was nothing.” I say, reaching out to touch the vibrant purple flowers hanging off a tent we pass.
“It obviously wasn’t nothing, not if she felt like she needed to defend you.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure. She’s also threatened to eat Brenn… a few times. She’s just aggressive.”
“Fair enough,” he says, letting go of my hand as we near the merchant selling some sort of skewers. They’re a mix of meat and sweet fruit. Loric hands me one and we take a seat on a waist-height stone wall, just off the main circle. It’s a little more quiet, though neither of us talk as we eat. It’s not until I’ve picked the stick clean and set it down beside me that either of us speak again.
"What is this blood oath supposed to feel like?" I ask, trying to sense what’s changed but coming up empty handed.
Loric finishes his last bite, setting his skewers down, turning toward me so he can lean his back against the raised pillar beside him and plant one of his boots between us on the ledge. "It's almost an extension of your feelings. If my heartbeat picks up, so does yours. If you cry, I might. And if I do this..." His free hand trails down his bare stomach, pressing against the steel length in his pants. Loric's breath hitches, his abs flexing as he bites back a groan.
Desire ripples through me, knocking the air from my lungs with its intensity.
"We’re connected," he whispers, eyes locked on mine. "Just like it would be if we were mated fully."
Loric's smile is warm and infectious as I take it all in, trying to wrap my head around the concept of sharing emotions–feelings–and wondering what I let slip through the bond since we painted each other.
