What Lies Beyond the Veil (Of Flesh & Bone, #1)(55)

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.

I’d been so busy staring at his ass, so fixated on the relative safety of that part of him compared to the front, when he turned I got an eyeful of everything.

He paused, the water touching just above his knees and hovering so close to where his length hung down his thigh. I froze, my body turning to a statue as my mouth dropped open in shock.

“Gods,” I muttered, my hands lifting to cover my mouth as I realized I’d said the word out loud. Caelum grinned, tilting his head to the side as he studied me, and made no move to sink lower into the water. Made no attempt to hide the manhood that must have been the source of his arrogance.

Under any normal circumstances, I’d have said that the man was overcompensating with his bravado for something that was lacking elsewhere. Caelum’s were not normal circumstances; his cock something I didn’t even know was within the realm of possibilities. I guess the magic of the mate bond had chosen a mate for what would be a very pleased Fae female.

“See something you like?” he asked, finally stepping backward until his lower body submerged, and I was freed from the temptation to continue to admire his cock.

“That looks more like a torture device than an instrument for pleasure,” I said, shaking myself and wrapping my arms around my waist.

Caelum chuckled, ducking his head beneath the surface. He ran his hands through his hair when he re-emerged from the water, pushing it back from his face as it dripped down over his chest and the muscles on his stomach. “When the time comes, you’ll take all of it and beg me to fuck you harder, Little One,” he said, walking through the water until he reached the edge where I stood.

He stared up at me, affection in his gaze that didn’t belong; it didn’t fit for how briefly he’d known me. If I hadn’t known better, I might have compared him to the images of the humans on their knees.

To the complete and utter worship on their faces as they serviced a God.

He reached up, catching me by the ankle and gently lifting my foot off the ground. A shock ran through my body when he touched me, my desire so potent I didn’t think I’d ever felt anything like it. But it also came with the knowledge that it wasn’t real. It wasn’t about Caelum or about me, but about the magic on our necks that marked us as the same. He could have been anyone, any of the Fae Marked, and I suspected my body would react the same way.

Nothing else made sense. Attraction like this didn’t exist.

He slipped my shoe and sock off, tossing them to land next to his boots. “What are you doing?” I asked, stumbling back a step until I was out of reach.

“I think it’s obvious that you aren’t going to come in unless I give you a little push,” he said, reaching for my other foot. I kicked out, my bare foot colliding with his wrist with a solid thump that would have hurt most men.

Caelum only grinned at my show of violence.

“I’m not going to come in at all,” I said, my lips twisting as I shook my head.

“Baths don’t come around often for people on the run, and soon enough it will be too cold for anything that isn’t a hot spring. Don’t be foolish, Estrella. Get in the water,” he said, stepping back from the edge to give me some space.