Page 42 of Autumn Queens & Shadows

“Maybe you should rub some of your perfume on me.” Reaching a hand to the neckline of her nightgown, I wrapped the little bow there around my finger. “Put a bow on me, too.”

Closing the space between us, she put a hand to my neck and rubbed her wrist behind my ear and down my throat. “There.”

“I meant from the bottle, hellion,” I groaned, wrapping a hand around her wrist and trapping it there.

“I’m stingy. Really stingy. And you’re a friend in need.”

She really had no idea how much in need I was.

“Don’t know about the bow though. You could get all tangled up in it and end up tied up to this bed. All mine to do what I want to do.” Her voice was low and thick when she asked, “Aren’t you going to tell me to be careful?”

“Maybe.”

Those cold delicate fingers slipped over my lips, settling there. “Now you can’t say anything at all.”

Apparently, I wasn’t drunk enough, because I was letting her near me longer than I normally did.

“Don’t know if I like that,” she murmured, the tip of her finger chasing the shape of my mouth. “I like hearing you spout nonsense a bit too much.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes,” she murmured, too entranced by the movement of her fingers over my face.

I let her touch me.

More than touch me.

I watched her battle away her inner most frightening thoughts. Touching was different from other senses. It came from both want and need. She was made to not need or want it. Worse. She was made to fear it. I feared her touch for an entirely different reason why she feared mine. There was nothing I wanted more than help her get over it. It was for selfish reasons. Because I wanted her to fear it how I was fearing it. I wanted her to burn from the want and need like I was. I wanted to teach her all that. I wanted to teach her how to touch me and then I wanted to show her how I wanted to touch her.

Leaning forward, she left a soft kiss on my brow and then another on my eye, her lips lingering over my skin until it finally became the most torture I’d ever been subjected to. “Good night, Malik.”

When she made to pull away, I held onto her tighter, not ready for it to stop.

Her lashes fluttered fast. “You should probably let me go now.”

“Stay close.”

After some strange, wide-eyed hesitation, she nodded just once and laid her head on my pillow, her face barely a few inches from mine. “I’m close.”

My thumb moved back and forth over her rapid pulse. I wanted nothing more than to read her at that moment, to see the intensity of her colours. Fear or…fear. I could see it was fear, just from the look on her eyes. The desire to see what sort of fear was torturing me. That torture was keeping me oddly sane. “You still mind my touch?”

She thought about it for a moment and swallowed. “I touched you first, didn’t I?”

“It wasn’t what I asked.”

“Don’t make me say it out loud.”

Perhaps I was drunk beyond control, because I grinned. “Why?”

“I want you to keep being my friend a bit longer.”

“I am so good to you, little bird?”

“You make me forget.”

“That is so unfair,” I said, my smile gone. “You make me want to remember.”

“Would that be so bad?” she asked, her eyes focused on the button of my shirt that her fingers were now circling.