Page 39 of Cryptic Dreams
Unfortunately I need to table this for now because not only can I not discuss this with Zephyr since she won’t even speak to me, I have more important matters to attend to this night. And since she is awake, probably thanks to the damn doorbell, it’s time for me to return to my room to shower and change before Orion and Aries arrive.
Mumbling to myself the entire way, I stomp my bare feet up the stairs like a petulant toddler.
Those two.
I hate the way they continue to try to keep things normal, the way they try to maintain a level of civility despite how disgusted, disappointed and quite frankly, suspicious of me they are. And the way I utterly loathe them while giving them more than enough reasons to be suspicious probably doesn’t help either, but still. It is infuriating the way they mix relatively normal parent-adult child conversations with the hate we all three equally share.
All things I can’t help but fixate on for the moment.
I’m so lost in my thoughts of avoiding my parents until I’m ready to initiate the Uprising, that I barely notice the door to the hall bathroom open. Not until the scent of honey and chamomile along with what is undoubtedly lavender soap collides into me, quite literally.
Zephyr slams into me from the side, my entire body lighting up like a fucking car battery is attached to my arse, and of course Excalibur—my very observant cock—immediately turns to stone.
“Sorry,” she barely whispers as she regains her footing. “I didn’t... I’m... sorry.”
I pull the dressing gown closed tighter, my eyes on the erection that has lifted the robe and is trying to part it on his own. “My fault. I wasn’t... ” I wasn’t prepared for what I’m now seeing.
Zephyr is by far the most beautiful female I have ever seen, but fuck me, right now? Freshly showered, her hair almost as dark as the night sky, tiny drops of water cascading along her honey colored skin? Those delicious curves covered in nothing but a far too small towel that hits just shy of her arse cheeks and pushes her breasts up exactly as a corset would? Those long legs covered in goosebumps as she shifts nervously on her sexy feet?
Christ, there has never, nor will there ever be anyone as breathtaking or bewitching as my mate.
And she is about to get one hell of a show because I can feel the air hit my balls in a way that surely means I’m almost entirely exposed.
“No need,” I croak out and avert my eyes, then let them ping-pong around the hall so I don’t do something insane. Something like shove Zephyr into the bathroom in order to bend her over the sink and make her mine. “As I said, my fault entirely. I wasn’t... wasn’t watching where I was going.”
I see her nod out of my peripheral, her pouty lips rolled between her teeth as she all but flattens herself against the wall. “I... I forgot to... ” Zephyr swallows hard and drops her gaze despite not looking at me. “I forgot my clothes and thought I could run across and grab them before you came back upstairs.”
And there it is.
Despite the way our bodies clearly react to each other because yes, I can scent her much stronger right now, she still wants nothing to do with me.
Active avoidance.
“Right,” I snap unintentionally. “I’ll just leave you to it then.” My spine stiffens as I continue to stare at the ceiling. “Orion and Aries should be here soon anyway. Wouldn’t want my presence in the hallway ofmy own hometo inconvenience you.”
Zephyr flinches, something I feel rather than see, but I can’t seem to stop the hurt that swirls in my chest from speaking for me. “Hurry now,pet. We shan’t keep your cousins waiting.”
She inhales sharply and nods again but as she scurries across and down the hall, almost too quietly for me to hear, Zephyr sniffles hard before she silently closes her door.
And I groan, look down at my still hard dick and hate myself just a little more. This isn’t the way to make things right with my mate, it’s not the way to show her how sorry I am for behaving just as I did. If anything I’ve made things harder for both of us, pushed her a little further from me, and gave her a shove toward rejection.
Perhaps I should have just let my cock hang out.
Then at least she would have known I am not repulsed by her as she so incorrectly assumes. On the contrary as a matter of fact, and my love for her grows with each little sob I feel wrack her body and in turn, my heart also breaks a little more.
And such a beautiful pain it is, too.
13
Dead and Gone
ZEPHYR
There is something seriously wrong with me.
Something other than what is glaringly obvious to me and my cousins, to anyone I actually touch. Otherwise no one actually knows what’s wrong with me. And there is alotwrong with me.
That’s beside the point, though.
