A Lesson in Thorns (Thornchapel #1)(91)

I’m smiling when Auden takes my hand to lead me out of the ruins. The ground is now so wet that my rain boots come free with a sucking noise every time I lift my foot and they splash every time I set it down. Suck-SPLASH. Suck-SPLASH. It makes me feel like a little girl again, playing alone in my backyard while the rain dropped down and my mother graded coursework by the kitchen window. The memory makes me smile even bigger.

“What are you smiling about?” Auden asks, puzzled.

“Subspace,” Rebecca answers for me over the rain. “Walk with her back to the house so she doesn’t float off to the moon.” And then she takes Delphine’s arm and tugs her down the stone row, Delphine chattering happily all the while in a giddy, punch-drunk voice. Becket follows and steadies Delphine every now and again when she sways.

“Right,” Auden says with a sigh. “Come on, Proserpina.”

“Okay,” I say dreamily.

Saint appears like a ghost next to me, mud-soaked and watchful, as we leave the clearing and enter the woods. “Do you hurt?” he asks me in a worried voice. “You’re staggering a little.”

“I only hurt in the best way,” I smile, but even with all the endorphins and sex-chemicals crashing through my brain, I can still sense that I’ll be sore as hell tomorrow.

Saint gets out his flashlight, and it’s a good one, a strong one, the kind that a man who works with his hands owns, and it cuts a sharp cone of light over the path. Rain glitters in its beam, streaking in mesmerizing silver streaks, and I stumble when I try to reach out and catch one.

Auden catches me before I hit the ground.

“It’s like she’s drunk,” he mutters to Saint, but he doesn’t sound annoyed. He sounds charmed. He sweeps me up into his arms and cradles me against his chest. “This is what you’re like after you have sex?” he asks me.

“Don’t know,” I mumble, sleepiness creeping up now that I’m pressed against such a strong, nice-smelling chest. His sweater smells like him—citrus, flowers, wood. Thornchapel. “Never had sex before.”

“Is this what you’re like after a scene then?”

“Mmm,” I agree. “Yes.”

“What would happen next?” Auden asks. He’s carrying me so easily, so warmly, that I think I could fall asleep in his arms. “If this were a normal scene.”

“I don’t know,” I whine. “It’s too hard to think about right now.”

“Well, you’re going to,” Auden says severely. “Tell me.”

“Wow,” says Saint sarcastically. “Are you the real deal now, Guest?”

“You can fuck right off,” Auden says, and clearly whatever happened between them as they shared my mouth has been smothered along with our bonfire. Crushed, like our altar under a fallen tree. “We both know how much you can be trusted with someone else’s pain.”

Whatever this means, it silences Saint. The light around us grows a bit fainter, as if he’s fallen back a couple of steps out of anger or hurt.

I should say something, I think. But the fog of subspace is too thick, too good, and too dizzying. I don’t even perceive that I’m shivering like crazy until Auden pulls me even tighter to his chest to keep me warm. I nuzzle against him in response, and that stirs a noise out of him that seems to surprise us both. A growl of approval.

He likes holding me as much as I like being held by him.

“You’d make a good lord,” I murmur as I lace my arms around his neck. I bury my face in the Thornchapel-scented curve of his neck and shoulder. “You’d make a good lord to me.”

“Enough to earn you?” he asks seriously.

“Mmm. Mmhmm.”

His voice is hoarse when he speaks again. “Poe, how do I take care of you when we get back to the house?”

I wasn’t lying earlier, it really is too hard to think. I’m so buzzy and floaty and good right now.

The hoarseness fades, replaced by something stern. “Answer me.”

That voice, like a rich boy all grown up into a rich king, cuts through the haze a little. “My pussy hurts,” I say dreamily. “You could take care of that.”

“I could. And your hand?”

“And my hand.”

“What else?”

“Mmm, I should probably have more water and—” I yawn “—a shower. And I like to be snuggled.”

There’s something tender to his words. “You like to be snuggled after?”

“And held and petted and nice things said to me.”

God, he smells so good. And his neck is so warm. And his arms are so strong and his steps are so sure and he holds me so firmly and so well that he even makes the rain warm and the wind weak. He even makes the darkness feel homey and inviting, he makes me feel like I’m already safe and cozy inside the house, and he even makes the creaking trees sound like the click of a happy dog’s paws on the floor—

My eyes flutter open as he sets me gently on my bed and starts unzipping my coat. Saint is tugging off my boots, and within a few seconds, I’m completely naked again, and so fucking groggy I can barely hold my eyes open.

My head falls against Auden’s sweet-smelling chest. “Want to sleep,” I fuss against him.

I can hear the smile in his voice. “Shower first. Then we’ll take care of your hand and then you can sleep.”