What Lies Beyond the Veil (Of Flesh & Bone, #1)(53)

“What’s wrong, Little One? Never been with two lovers at once?” he asked, his lips curving into a full blown smile when I flushed.

“No,” I clipped out, sidestepping him and making my way to the hot spring where I knelt down. I skimmed the surface of the water with my fingers, immediately feeling the warmth of the water suffuse my skin. “Have you?”

“I imagine I have done a lot of things you haven’t done.”

“Eew,” I groaned, immediately regretting asking the question as envy consumed me. Men were free to do as they pleased, whether that involved one woman or six. If I’d done the same, they’d have sent me to be purified by the Priests or hung me for my crimes against The Mother.

It depended on Lord Byron and the High Priest’s mood that day.

Caelum shrugged, stepping up beside me. He tugged his tunic out of his trousers, tearing it off over his head. With me kneeling at the side of the pool, I was immediately reminded of the humans kneeling for the God of the Dead.

I glanced up at him, finding him staring down at me intently. Swallowing, I held his gaze for a few seconds. Seconds that felt like hours. The tension between us pulled taut, leaving no doubt to the accuracy of his earlier prediction.

I didn’t know how I would be able to travel at his side, sleep beside him every night, and never seek out the promise that lurked in his eyes as he watched me. The heat that blazed there was like nothing I’d ever seen: a desire so potent I didn’t think I’d be able to withstand it.

He reached out with a massive, calloused hand, cupping my cheek and running his thumb over my bottom lip. The tip sank inside, brushing against my tongue as the flavor of his skin teased my mouth.

“Tell me again how much you don’t want me, Estrella,” he said, pointedly using my name as he stared down at me. The arrogance of those words snapped something inside of me, my desire fleeing as rational thought returned.

I sank my teeth into his thumb, gratified when it twitched in response to the pinch of pain. When I pulled back, I stood fluidly and glared up at him as he raised his thumb to his mouth and sucked a drop of blood from his skin.

I ignored the last pulse of desire that still throbbed within me, ignored the strange urge to take his thumb into my mouth and suck. He stared at the expression on my face, something dark gleaming in his gaze. “You’re a dick,” I said, huffing and gathering my hair in my hands. I toyed with the snarled edges, wincing when I realized just how disgusting I must look.

How many days had it been since I’d bathed? Since I brushed my hair?

“Why don’t we find out just how much you like my dick, Little One?” he asked, his hands dropping to the ties on his trousers. He unknotted them while I watched in shock, my eyes caught on the smooth, nimble way his fingers worked the laces apart.

He kicked off his boots, sliding them to the side as my eyes snapped back up to his face. I held his probing stare, my lips pressing into a thin line when he smirked at me and shoved his trousers down his thighs.

I swallowed, compelling myself not to look, not even when he bent forward to push them off the rest of the way, pulling the fabric off his calves and taking his wool socks along with them. He stood up straight in front of me, running a hand through the short blond hair on top of his head. “It won’t bite you, Estrella,” he said with a grin, taking a single step closer to me.

He didn’t touch me, keeping a breath between us as he towered over me. He was so close that I stared at his bare chest, at the swirling lines of the Fae Mark where it wrapped around his bicep and crawled up the side of his neck.

It dipped down, skimming just over his collar bone before it stopped abruptly. From what I could tell, mine did the same, as if it was incomplete and waiting for the last piece to be written. If what Caelum had said before was to be believed, it was waiting for the completion of the bond.

I jolted when Caelum grasped my hand in his, lifting it to touch the place where the edges of the Mark curved onto his chest. His eyes closed at the moment of contact, and a shudder wracked my body as a feeling of comfort overwhelmed me.

Touching his mark, feeling the warmth of it flooding through me, felt more like home than the cabin I’d shared with my family ever had. Like the other Fae Marked were always meant to be my true home, the place where I belonged.

“Most Fae only practice monogamy once they’ve found their mates,” he said, answering the question I’d asked what felt like ages ago. I’d gotten distracted by his proximity.

By his nudity.

“Oh,” I said, my brain struggling to keep up with the conversation, knowing that I would see all of him if I only looked down.

“From what my father said, the Fae are very possessive of their mates. They’ve been known to kill if someone even looks at their mate inappropriately,” he said, reaching out to unclasp the cloak from my shoulders. The fabric puddled behind me, landing on the stone surrounding the hot spring. I shivered, the cool air kissing my skin as a sudden breeze blew through the trees.

Caelum smiled and leaned forward to sweetly touch his lips to my forehead. Turning so his arm brushed against mine, he strolled directly to the edge of the hot spring and walked down the slope that led into the water. The steam increased as his cool body touched it, the muscles of his ass flexing with every step.

Gods.

I swallowed, shoving down the images of nails digging into his flesh that erupted through my head in a chaotic mess, and I pushed away the feelings his broad, muscular physique brought. He turned to me suddenly, jaw clenched, with eyes narrowed and so dark they almost looked black.