Maybe Ben could visit again and work his big hands into my abused muscles before putting them elsewhere. My core clenched shamelessly at the thought.
Hussy!
I hummed tunelessly as my feet crunched against the dirt path. I thought about the most recent book I was reading—an encyclopedia of plants—to distract myself from the discomfort in my back and shoulders and the constantly slipping box.
“Ho, Faylinn!” a deep, rumbling voice called as I finally neared the edge of our town, my heart rate picking up at the familiar sound.
A smile crawled across my face as I squinted in the sun to see Ben standing and waving to me from his perch on the stone wall that surrounded his family’s property.
“Good morning, Ben!” I called in return. Ben was incredibly good-looking, tall and muscular from working the fields with his father, eyes that matched the earth he worked, and a mop of brown hair that was always unruly no matter how much he tried to tame it. He was an Earth Mage with no Vessel—many of the Mages out here didn’t get the option of a Vessel—and he was extremely popular with the women in town. Though he cut his wild ways once we decided to take our friendship to something more. I never begrudged him his history, the man could do wicked things with his tongue.
I blushed at the thought, thankful that the exertion from my walkcovered up any evidence of embarrassment. While I was never embarrassed of Ben or what we did together, I was far from experienced.
Ben jumped from the wall, the muscles in his shoulders flexing as he pushed himself off, and met me halfway down the path. He stopped right in front of me, making it impossible to continue walking without running into him.
I halted and stared up at him. He was at least two heads taller than me and wore a shit-eating grin.
Is he thinking of last night, too? How he took me first on the wall by the door and then again on the table before we collapsed in the bed together?
My nipples tightened and my core clenched, again, at the memory.
I shook my head slightly at the thought.
“What’cha shaking your head for?” he teased.
I shrugged my shoulders as best I could while holding the box. “Just curious as to why you’re stopping me without helping me with this box.”
Ben’s face fell and he looked sheepish before quickly grabbing the box from my hands.
I groaned as the weight left my hands and Ben shot me a heated look.
Clearly hewasthinking about last night.
I brushed my hands off and stretched my back again before gesturing to the road. Ben stepped out of the way, and we quickly fell into stride. We walked quietly for a few minutes, stopping every so often to speak with a neighbor or inquire about people’s health. At our fourth stop, I gave one of my vials to Mrs. Henshaw to help ease some of her pregnancy discomfort.
“Oh, Fay, let me pay you, please,” Mrs. Henshaw said as she pocketed the little vial. Three kids ran around her, chasing each other with sticks, and another two were jumping off the porch of the house. The whole scene was mildly chaotic. The youngest Henshaw, barely a year, was doing her best to pull Mrs. Henshaw’s breast from her dress, clearly needing to feed.
“Uhm, no that’s quite okay! You’ve got enough going on . . . here,” I said as I gestured lamely to the utter chaos happening in the front yard. The two oldest boys were now wrestling each other in the dirt, throwing punches at every exposed body part. Why this woman wanted to have another child was beyond me, and I sent a silent “thank you” to Sharol for the conception rune we inked on my stomach last week. It was reversible, thankfully, but I highly doubted I wanted any kids, especially if they behaved likethat.
I slowly started backing away from the fence and Ben followed me.
Mrs. Henshaw looked relieved at my words and thanked me profusely as she unabashedly pulled her breast from her dress and began feeding the baby.
Aaand that’s my cue to leave.
I had no problem with nudity, especially when feeding a child was involved, but it wasn’t something I was just going to sit around and watch, either.
I turned quickly on my heels and strode down the road toward the town, my pace brisk. Ben jogged a bit to catch up with me, the sounds of the Henshaw clan fading the farther we walked until it was muted in the distance and all we heard was the crunch of our feet against the path.
“You’re a natural at this, you know?” Ben said, breaking the comfortable silence.
“What do you mean?” I looked up at him, a wayward curl falling in my face. I crossed my eyes and blew it, only for it to rest on my nose again. Ben chuckled softly at the sight.
“This. Helping people. How’d you know that Mrs. Henshaw needed this particular tonic?” He tenderly brushed the curl behind my ear, and I shrugged my shoulders.
“She’s pregnant. Has a horde of miniature humans. And is helping in the fields. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that she’s a bit stressed.”
Ben just shot me a look.
