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Thorn looked up at Nox from his seat on the ground and scoffed. “It’s not weird that she would letyoutouch her, Nox, do you understand that?”
Nox glanced down at himself for a moment, caught sight of the sleek black jeans and black t-shirt he had illusioned onto himself, and sighed. He knew Thorn was right, but it didn’t make him feel good to admit it.
There had to be another way. Logan craved being touched. He knew this after that first night, when he could smell her thick arousal even in the pitch dark when it could have been anyone—or anything—running up and down her legs. While the gears in Nox’s head churned, it wasn’t worth arguing with the beast about concepts like ‘confidence.’
“As I said,” Nox said in his usual cool, stern tone. “No promises, but I’ll do my best.”
The ghostly-skinned male figure turned on his heels and made his way back to the house without his usual melting into shadow. He wanted Thorn to know he wasn’t just running away, but genuinely needing time alone to think, and thought that his rapid disappearing might come off as dismissive.
A mouse dashed between his feet as Nox pulled the side door shut behind him.
“Watch it, clumsy!” Ruse demanded from his spritely mousey form.
“How am I supposed to ‘watch it’ if I don’t even know you’re there, Ruse?” Nox sighed with annoyance.
“Oh, I thought you always knew everything about everything.” Ruse laughed as he quickly shifted into his human form.
Nox slumped into the closest chair—the simple wooden one at the kitchen table—and rested his chin in his hands.
“Yeah, well,” the shadow-man muttered. “I don’t. And I wish you two would stop acting like knowing things is some sort of crime.”
“Well, if it’s not a crime,” Ruse started as he found his own seat at the table. “Then let me tell you how much absolute joy it brought me to watch you give that girl the time.”
Nox loudly groaned as he moved to rest his forehead directly on the table.
“Great!” he said into the floor. “At least now I know how you felt yesterday. It really is great knowing that both of you happened to get a front-row seat of my private time. Let me guess, you were some type of bird outside her window?”
“Even better!” Ruse barked back in jest. “A spider! Built a nice little web in the corner so I could crawl around however I like.”
The shifter settled into his chair and plastered a big smile on his face. “Good thing I had the idea when she first showed up. Doesn’t take long to spin a web, it turns out. I’m glad I had it ready to go for the big show.”
“Glad you enjoyed yourself,” Nox muttered sarcastically.
Ruse leaned back in his chair until it popped up on two legs and whistled a jaunty tune to break the silence as Nox’s head still sat heavy on the table.
“Well,” the shifter said after several awkward moments of near-silence. “You got any ideas about how to get the girl to let Thorn in between those beautiful milky legs of hers?”
Nox’s head shot up off the table in anger.
“Don’ttalk about her that way,” the pale man hissed. “She isn’t just something, Ruse.”
“In what way?” Ruse laughed. “I didn’t say anything untrue.”
“It’s not what you said,” Nox explained. “It’s how you said it.”
A shadowy mist began to rise off Nox’s shoulders like morning fog over a lake, and he slowly rose to his feet.
“I’m sorry,” he said as he sighed to the shifter. “I’m more tense than I’d like to be. More tense than I can remember feeling for who knows how long.”
“Which is honestly a bit of a surprise considering how you spent the first half of the day,” Ruse snickered, but quickly silenced himself when Nox shot him a venomous look.
Nox began to pace in circles around the kitchen. “Thorn is about to go insane, you can’t seem to be serious about anything, and my—all of our shots at freedom lie in the hands of a human girl who only learned about us a day ago.”
“So, I’ll take it that youdon’thave any ideas to bring the girl to Thorn…” Ruse said quietly. Nox just stared back at him with empty eyes, confirming Ruse’s suspicions.
“I don’t mean to press,” Ruse continued. “But perhaps you’re making it harder than it has to be. The girl is…” The shifter paused as he thoughtfully drummed his fingers. “She’s something. Curious. Open. Interested? Maybe this situation with Thorn could be as easy as, how do the humans say it? ‘Leading a horse to water.’”
“Maybe,” Nox said dismissively. “I just… I need quiet.”
