“Mmhmm.” Interesting. Maybe the little witch wasn’t as innocent as he thought. She rubbed her temples, like she was churning the riddle over in her mind. He tried to do the same, but when he thought about an aching hole that was yet to be filled—fucking hell.She was corrupting his goddamn mind.
After a minute, she yawned, covering her mouth. “I need to shower and sleep. I can’t think about anything right now.” Her gaze dropped to where he’d sprawled across her mattress. “Can you get off?”
Felix raised his eyebrows.
“Gross, not like that.”
Regardless, he wasn’t moving. His neck hadn’t ached this much in years. “I am not sleeping on that thing again; my neck won’t recover.”
“If you sleep as a cat, what’s the difference?”
Felix looks to the chair, pointing, “Hard.” He pointed back to the bed beneath him. “Soft.”
She glared at him, unconvinced.
“Just because I can sleep as a cat doesn’t mean I don’t have standards. You try sleeping on the chair.”
She scoffed at him. “It’s my bed, shifter.”
“And you’re sharing it with me.”
“This is ridiculous.”
“It’s quitediculous,actually.”
“That’s not even a word!” she said, storming off into the bathroom. She shut the door loud enough for the wall to rattle ever so slightly. The corners of his mouth tilted up. He hadn’t smiled this much in years. He was known to be stoic at home. His brothers would make it their daily mission to say something funny enough to actually get Felix to crack. It never worked. But for some reason, the witch had been the one to do it.
The groan of the shower handles turning piqued his hearing. He tried not to imagine what she was doing in there—probably washing her hair, you idiot.Still, his cock jumped at the thought of her naked and rubbing her hands all over her body.
He shoved a hand through his hair, exhaling sharply and pulling at the damp strands to try to distract himself. A few days. That was all it had been. A few days, and he was already falling apart. His head hit the back of the bed, jaw grinding hard enough to crack teeth. Sharp nails twitched at his hands and feet. His shadows came out too, like they had a mind of their own and undulated around him. Impatient, restless. He heard the little witch humming a tune in the shower, a reminder that she wasin there, naked, wet—he didn’t like the wet part; he preferred making women wet. That was all it took for his hand to drop, palming the hard line of his cock through his shadow pants.
He rubbed against the fabric, the friction already too fucking good. He’d spent his entire life hunting them, ripping out their throats with his teeth. But this one? This one he wanted to taste first, to lick the crook of her neck before sinking claws into her jugular. The memory of the kiss pulled him back in, the taste of her. He wanted more, he wanted so much fucking more.
Just pent up. Means nothing. The lie tasted bitter as he freed himself from his pants, biting back a groan at the first bare stroke. He was already leaking; days without release had him trembling at his own grip. He stroked slowly, savoring the feeling of his own hand.I wish it were hers.
His hand moved faster now, imagining it was her playing with his cock, breath ragged through clenched teeth. Part of him didn’t care if the witch saw him like this. Part of him wanted her too.
Close. So close, but before he could tip over the edge, the door opened.
He froze.
Sixteen
Avery
Scaldingwater washed over her skin. She almost liked the way it burned, the way it prickled. It was her place to go when the world became too much, letting the water drum against her skin, its droplets the only sound allowed through her mind.
The metal squealed as she shut off the water, taking her time to step out of the bath. It wasn’t funny how many times she had eaten shit stepping out of it.
Using the towel, she dried off her body and looked around the bathroom for her clothes.
Fuck.
Her clothes were out there. With him.
She sighed, wiping a hand at the fog on the mirror. She would have to go out there.
Taking a deep breath, she opened the door. At least she would be covered in a towel.
