“Of course, my mouse. Whatever you want.”
He leads the way with me glued to his side. Not only does he not seem to mind, but he seems to like it. “Get as close as you can,” he says when I shuffle toward him. “No, not like that. Closer. Closer. Mm, yes, just like that.”
I’m basically tucked under his arm, a Velcro cutout of myself, but I’m as happy as I can ever remember being.
When we get to the library, he stretches out on the settee and I drape myself over him.
“Want me to read to you?” he offers.
“Do you think you can? Aren’t you too foggy?”
“The fog has lifted, baby.” He smiles, caging my face in both hands, creating a set of blinders that make it impossible for either of us to see anything but each other. “I can see everything clearly now.”
He picks up a book and starts reading. I don’t know the title or what the story is about, and I honestly couldn’t say whether Alfie is reading well or if he’s repeating the same paragraph over and over. All I know is that the sound of his voice seeps into mybones, making them hotter than anything I’ve ever felt. My skin burns, my face a torch and a flame rolled into one.
After a while, I find it impossible to remain still. My hips rock, pulled hard toward Alfie by the tightening of an invisible cord. The heat in my blood develops a pulse of its own. A deep, hard thud that clenches and releases in time with my heart.
At some point during my stay here, the arousal I feel for Alfie became constant. An endless, ceaseless reality that’s with me all the time. I’m used to that, but still, I feel the clear shift as it happens. A slate is carefully wiped clean and then dropped into an inferno.
My belly cramps, and I scramble off Alfie and head to my rooms. He follows, considerately waiting in the hallway, face stamped in concern, as my body prepares itself for heat.
Afterward, I take a cold shower and wash my hair. My body feels like mine and someone else’s. The heat running through me is unlike anything I’ve felt before. It’s scorching, so hot I can’t help whimpering as it flows through me, but there’s something different about it. Last time I went into heat, it was something unknown that my mind raged against. This time, there’s a lazy drag, a slow clap that welcomes the wild side of me home.
When I’ve towel-dried my hair and patted myself dry, I open the door to find Alfie on his knees, sitting back on his heels as he waits for me. The sight of him hollows me out and carves me into pieces, each one igniting as another tiny flame takes hold.
The light around me is too bright, and I’m suddenly acutely aware of that fact. My eyes sting as my retinas protest against the assault. Alfie reacts quickly and without a word, standing and scooping me into his arms. He holds me close as I breathe raggedly against his chest.
“I don’t want to be here anymore. I don’t like it. I want to be somewhere else.”
“I know, baby,” he murmurs as he carries me upstairs. I let my eyes drift shut, floating and bobbing in a river of lava that smells better than anything I’ve ever come across.
I keep my eyes closed when we get to the entrance of the heat chamber, but I know we’re there the same way you know when someone you love is standing close to you. I know without knowing how I know. I keep them closed when he pulls back the tapestry, and when his body dips as he steps over the threshold.
I open them only when he kisses me lightly on the nose to let me know that we’ve arrived.
I look around, blinking in amazement. I thought I knew what to expect. I thought this place would be like the rest of the house. Beautiful in an old way. Graceful and stylish, but a little staid.
It’s nothing like that. The chamber has the look and feel of a place carved from stone. It’s cavernous and curvy. Sinuous and seductive. Spacious, yet cozy enough to calm my anxious heart. The mattress is round, a large, luxurious sphere with all my favorite blankets and pillows carefully arranged into a nest on top of it. Swathes of gauzy muslin have been draped from the ceiling and soft, warm lighting has been recessed into the walls. There’s enough light to illuminate my mate perfectly, but not so much that it bothers my eyes. There’s a large free-standing bath in the far corner and a mishmash of silk rugs covers every inch of the floor.
I can’t help smiling when I notice the books. They’re everywhere. Piles of them next to the bed, and a tall stack on a wooden stool near the bath. There’s a row of narrow vases on the floor, lined up along the curve of the east wall, each containing fresh flowers from the garden. A sprig of lavender and rosemary in one vase. Daffodils, camellias, and bunches of bluebells intermingled with a little mint in others.
It smells like heaven, or at least, it would if, for me, heaven wasn’t a person.
“Alfie, thank you,” I say as he puts me down and my toes sink into plush fibers. “Thank you so much, this is… It’s more than I ever dared dream.”
“More than you dared dream? No. That can’t be right. I won’t have that, my mouse. I’ll simply have to make it my life’s mission to make sure you dream bigger than you think possible.”
My legs shake at his words. My hole clenches around nothing, causing a painful ache to radiate up my spine. I groan and pad over to the mattress, legs giving way as soon as I get there. I lie on my side, knees tucked up to my chest as I rock my hips in an effort to release some of the tension that wracks my body.
It’s not until I reach out and run my fingers over the spines of the books he’s put next to the bed that I notice what he’s placed on top of them. A square velvet box. Royal blue and not particularly deep.
“Is this…?”
Alfie nods and smiles as he opens the box and shows me what’s inside. A blinding line of ice sparkles up at me. “It’s the piece I had made for you.” He looks thoughtful for a moment before continuing, “I spent so much time on it. Dozens of emails and calls to the jeweler to get it just right. I think… I think part of me might have known who you were to me, even when the rest of me was too drugged to recognize you.”
“Made for me? I-I thought you just borrowed it from a jewelry store.” Truthfully, I thought it was costume jewelry. I thought it was a prop. Part of the ruse. I’d had no idea I had a shit ton of real diamonds on my neck at the masked ball.
My God. I wasn’t careful at all. Anything could have happened to it.
