Noush would love it.
Kit gives me the softest smile. “Not one I’m going to curse. You should keep it.”
“Thank you.” I slip it into my pocket before he can take it back. “You seem distracted.”
“I am,” he says with a little laugh. “I’m a little bit afraid this place is haunted.”
I snort. “Or you’re not sleeping or eating nearly enough, and it’s messing with your head.”
He shakes his head, peering around the room. “Maybe we shouldn’t be staying here. Maybe it was abandoned for a reason.”
“Uh huh. And you’d rather get arrested? Or be constantly seasick?”
“No, I—” He blows out a breath. “I don’t know what I’d rather do. I’d rather be back in my shop with a pretty girl here to tell me all about her latest finds. They’re all probably cursed, and who knows where she found them, but I’ll show her my new telescope and the shiniest shell I found and added to my ridiculously extensive collection of them. Her pupils always blow out until they’re massive when she sees a new one.”
“Oh, really?”
There’s a little smile playing at his lips, and I love it. It’s like normal Kit has come out to play. He doesn’t look so tired or stressed right now, or like he wants to be anywhere else.
He slides closer, slowly peeling the pants from my lap before wrapping an arm around me. I rest my head on his chest, and for a moment, my head stops pounding.
“Tell me more about this woman in your shop.”
Kit chuckles softly, the sound travelling right through me. “She’s a terrible distraction. And she always looks so gorgeous that I forget how to think and even how to breathe, even.”
“You charmer.”
“It’s true. I find myself losing hours while I talk and talk to her, but it never seems to be enough. Every time she leaves, I wish her back for another hour.” He runs his hand up and down my arm, my side, resting his palm on my hip, and I let out a soft sigh.
“She sounds like a menace,” I reply. “Think of all the work you could get done if she wasn’t around bothering you.”
“Think of how miserable I’d be if she wasn’t there. She’s my favourite person, you see.”
I press a kiss to his jaw and another to his neck, inhaling the scent of him. “I’ve missed you. You need to take better care of yourself.”
“I know,” he replies softly. “It just... it all feels too important to mess up.”
“I don’t know when you got such an ego on you, but you’re not single-handedly responsible for all of our safety, you know? You’d have a job on your hands if you were, considering the entire crew seems to have a death wish.”
“It just feels like it was my curse that broke to leave us in this mess. I should have just cursed them all to die, and then we’d be done with it. I was too soft. Didn’t think big enough or far enough into the future. Otherwise, we could have been free decades ago.”
“Decades ago, eh? Just how old are all of you?” I ask. “I can’t believe I never asked before.”
His arm tightens around me, and he presses a kiss to my neck. “You don’t want to know, sweetheart. We’re old. Practically decrepit.”
I pull back and meet his twinkling eyes, relief hitting me with the force of a gryphon taking flight. He’s still here. Still my Kit.
He also doesn’t look a day over thirty, but he’s not the only one who talks about what happened to them happening years and years ago.
“Well, you’re remarkably well-preserved for a fossil,” I tell him.
“I am, aren’t I?” He pushes my hair over my shoulder, kissing and nibbling on my neck. “How do you always smell so good?”
I twist around and climb into his lap. Running my fingers through his hair, I roll my hips slightly and fight a smirk as he sucks in a sharp breath.
“Sweetheart,” he groans into my ear, his breath hot on my skin.
I cup his jaw and draw his lips to mine, kissing him long and hard. Our tongues tangle together, lips brushing in a kiss that starts off soft and grows more demanding, more heated with every passing second. A wave of pure fire rolls through me as I shift my hips, gyrating against his hardness.
