AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He put a hand on mine. His fingers trembled slightly. Through the bond, I sensed him trying to understand. Wanting to.
"It's all right. This is all very new and strange. It might just be that your body isn't used to being able to do magic. Maybe it needs time to adjust. Like…I don't know. Learning how to walk?"
"That's possible," I conceded. "Ryze likes to let on that he's an expert, but I think he's figuring things out at the same time I am. He knows more than I do, yes, but not everything about this transformation."
"Even if he did, there's no saying every transformation is the same," Zared pointed out. "He might have seen hundreds, but yours might be different in some way."
"That would be my luck," I said dryly. "I always have to be the one to stand out." I tucked my legs in tighter.
He locked his eyes on mine. "There's nothing wrong with being unique.”
"Even if I nearly kill you in the process?" I asked, bitter at my own shortcomings.
"You could have been swept away downstream. Drowned, because my magic doesn't work the way it should. Or the way Ryze thinks it should." I found myself wiping a tear off my cheek.
"You said yourself, he's not an expert on everything." Zared swiped his thumb down my opposite cheek, wiping off another tear. "Maybe it's his magic that doesn't work the way it's supposed to. Maybe neither of them do. It's different, that doesn't make it wrong."
"That doesn't mean it's not," I argued weakly.
He was right though. This whole situation was difficult and strange, but that might be the way it was supposed to be. How the gods intended. I needed to give myself time to get used to being who I was now. Every part of me. His analogy of learning to walk was accurate. That was how I felt since I woke up after my fever broke. Like I was wobbling every step to get from one side of the room to the other. And falling on my ass more often than not.
"Nothing about you could ever be wrong," he said gently. "Except the dubious company you keep."
I wiped away another tear and tried to smile.
"Including mine," he added after a moment.
"Are you saying I should stay away from all four of you?" I asked.
"No, just the other three." He slipped his hand up to tangle his fingers in my hair and brushed his lips across my cheeks. "I think we should make the most of being alone, don't you? If you're ready after…"
"I'm ready." The slight touch of his lips set my blood on fire. Not the way the mating heat had. This was the slow burn of a fire under a cook pot. Taking its time to make the perfect food.
"Good, because so am I." He slammed his mouth down onto mine, his lips hungry, like he hadn't eaten in days. He pushed his tongue into my mouth, forcing my lips apart, tasting me.
His hands were on my shirt, pulling it up out of the way before he grabbed a breast in each of his hands. He palmed my nipples until they were stiff peaks.
“So perfect,” he whispered.
He slid his hands down my side and grabbed my hips. With one tug, he pulled me until I lay flat on the mattress.
"I want to make you forget them," he said.
"Them who?" I said breathlessly.
He chuckled and took his hands off me.
When I looked at him in protest, he said, "Stand up. I want to watch you take your clothes off for me."
He leaned against the headboard and placed his hands behind his head. He gave me a lopsided smile and raised eyebrow.
I regarded him for a moment before I slipped off the bed and walked around to the end.
My eyes on his, I very slowly undid my pants and slid them down my hips. I stepped out of them and pulled my shirt up just enough to expose my flat stomach.
His tongue slid across his lips.
A faint smile on my own, I pulled my shirt up with agonising slowness, revealing centimetre after centimetre of skin until my breasts were exposed again.
