AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Pussy’s broken. Otherwise, a-okay, sir.”
He chuckles into my skin as he kisses my forehead, my eyelids, my cheeks. “I should probably say I’m sorry for breaking your pussy but I’m really not.” He paints on more kisses before he whispers, “I love hearing you call me ‘sir,’ teddy bear.”
“I got that.” I sigh and let my hands drift over him, exploring the soft pelt of his hair, the sweaty skin along his spine. “I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. It’s okay when we’re shagging. Not sure about the rest of the time.”
“I’m good with that. I needed more with Gabe. With you, it feels right to just be when we’reshagging.” He snorts. “What a strange term for sex.”
“You don’t know it ‘cause you’re a posh tosser who’s lived too long in Yankland. Normal Sweaties call it shagging.”
He nips the tip of my nose. My eyes water; he has those sharp, fairy teeth.
“Calling a Scotsman a ‘Sweaty’ is offensive, you little Manc racist, and fae don’t really consider themselves Scottish. We’re just fae.”
“Is it racist if I take the piss outta everyone? Seems egalitarian to me,” I counter. He chuckles. “I guess, technically, your father’s court isn’t even in Scotland, innit?”
“No.” Darwin gilds my jaw and chin with kisses. “It’s in the World Wood. Under Hill. At the end of the Shining Path. In the umbra of the First Dark. Whatever name you call Faery.”
“I try not to call Faery anything. Gets the attention of the fae and they are right buggers. You don’t want to mess with them,” I say.
Darwin laughs. “Egalitarian, huh?”
“You know it, mate.”
Chapter39
Bangers and Mash
If it wasn’t for my subconscious’ disconcerting sense of direction, I’d be dead chuffed with it.
When I fell asleep, I was in a fairy cloud of a bed, my back to Darwin’s firm chest, his arms around me while I traced patterns on his forearms and smiled into the night at how soft the muscles under my fingers had gone.
When I wake, I’m in a different pair of arms, in a different bed. In the moment of disorientation before I open my eyes, I hope—just for a second—that the arms holding me belong to a man ten years older than the man I fell asleep with.
Then the pine of Charlie’s aftershave mixes into the cloves and clean linen scent filling my nose from the chest I’m snuggled into.
There’s no bed in the future that I share with Charlie.
I open my eyes and rub my cheek between Gabe’s pecs like a cat, scent-marking him. He rumbles and smoothes his hand over my head without opening his eyes. “Hey, baby girl.”
“Hey,” I whisper back as I take stock of the dim room. The woody spice of Charlie’s aftershave is strong and I’m guessing he’s the one making noise in the bathroom. The lump of boy on my other side is Darwin. He’s rolled away from us and is face-down in the pillows, his arms stretched out to either side, taking up two thirds of the bed. “He’s used to sleeping alone, innit he?”
Gabe chuckles. “Yeah, but even during that year we were together, he was a freaking bed hog.”
“I can hear you,” Darwin mumbles into the pillow. “You’re both going to get a spanking.”
Gabe tips his head back and laughs.
Darwin shuffles around until he can throw an arm and leg over me. “Time’s it?” he grumbles.
“Quarter of six,” Gabe says, although how he knows that without even opening his eyes and peering at one of our phones is a mystery.
“Going back to sleep,” Darwin grunts. “Gimme some of the teddy bear.”
“I’m not a stuffed animal you pass around—” I huff.
But evidently I am, because Gabe shifts until I’m sandwiched between the boys, my face still in Gabe’s chest, my thigh through his, but with Darwin wrapped around my back like a limpet.
Gabe’s hand slides up and finds a spot on my neck that’s just the right side of too sensitive and starts stroking.
