“I’m quitting the council. I can’t keep playing the docile role and being kept away from you.”
I laugh into his neck, more breath than noise, kissing the skin behind his ear as I murmur, “We both know you’d be bored in under a minute… or I’d run away. I can’t take the full force of all of your bossiness.”
He huffs and then groans. “The Council should be about doing what’s right for the community, not arguing about what to name things and how many lobster tails each family should be allocated each fucking week.”
I pull back from him a little to make a face. “Seriously? That’s what the Councilman is talking your ear off about? Tell him to come build houses with Gabe, Elliot, and I. We’ll have him too busy to worry about stupid things. Can I get a nail gun? Is there room in the budget for that?”
He raises an eyebrow at me and then rubs a hand over his eyes. “Of course they gave you a high powered weapon to play with, because that’s the latest nightmare I need to occupy myself with.”
He genuinely looks like he’s about to start yelling at people, so I attempt to distract him and save Elliot. “So you’re working overtime on lobster tails and names? Should I be leaving you alone more? Sleeping elsewhere so you’re not distracted?”
He doesn’t move his hand from his eyes as he drawls, “Wherever you sneak off to on my nights, I’ll just come to get you. If you want me to fuck you on Atlas’ sheets while he watches and sees exactly what he’s missing out on, then go right ahead, Bonded.”
My cheeks heat and he knows he’s managed to embarrass me a little, his casual and filthy flirting is a little harder to wrap my head around than Gryphon’s. I’m not sure why, but when he says fuck, my knees go a little weak.
His nostrils flare and he glances down at me, a dark ring circling the outer rim of his irises like he’s desperately holding on to his control. “Do you want me to fuck you here instead? You smell like sex.”
I take a deep breath, but all I smell is his very expensive cologne, the musky undertones of it like an aphrodisiac to me now that I know what his cock tastes like. I swipe my tongue over my bottom lip before I say, “Let’s just say it’s a good thing you can’t read my mind like Gryphon can. You’d know way too many embarrassing things about me now.”
His eyes drop down to my lips and he murmurs back, “If it were anyone else’s night tonight, I’d spread you out on this desk and fuck you until you couldn’t walk straight.”
I swallow and nod. We both know that’s not a good idea on Nox’s nights. Not that I know exactly why, but I know enough about his careful lines with his brother to understand that he won’t cross it. I’m not sure if it’s for my safety or Nox’s, but I’ll play along.
I’m getting awfully good at it.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Nox
The bedroom is quiet as I slip in, trying not to bleed everywhere as I do. The late night training sessions that have taken over from my late night drinking sessions aren’t any easier on my body, and blood is still pouring out of my nose from the lucky shot Black had gotten in.
My knuckles are a bloodied, raw mess from the beating he’d gotten in return.
He’s going back to his rooms with access to the best Healer of our generation, so I don’t feel an ounce of guilt. Azrael lifts his head from my bed, and I feel his relief in my presence. North’s creature is there as well and when I scowl at him and gesture to the door, I can feel my brother’s frustration. I don’t need a fucking babysitter. If he wants me to let the girl sleep here, then he’ll have to just trust that she’ll make it out alive.
The creature leaves, his legs being snapped at by Rahab, who is my most savage creature. I have to step between them to make sure they don’t wake the girl up with their childish bickering.
I move slowly into the space, my eyes shifting so that I can see clearly. There’s nothing out of place. There never is when she comes here. She just slips into the bed and sleeps on my pillow, burying into the scents of me as though they’re the only thing keeping her heart beating.
It’s strangely respectful, and more than I’ve ever offered her in return.
If I didn’t know my brother better than he knows himself, I might guess that he’d told her. Even something small, just a tiny detail about the absolute mess that he calls a brother, but he wouldn’t.
He never even told William, his closest blood relative after our father was put to death. No, I was the one to spill out the truth to him in one of my episodes. I’d feel a little more self-loathing about that moment but I was nine, and there’s been enough therapy poured over my soul by now that I’m past that phase of my life.