Under his coat and jumper, Sonny’s skin had turned blueish and I grabbed the coat from the young man and wrapped it round Sonny’s torso, zipping it up.
Behind me, Declan crawled onto the grass. “Why isn’t he moving? Sonny?”
“We need to get him warm,” I said. “My cottage is near.”
Declan was shaking as much as I was when I helped him to stand, holding his freezing hands in mine and making sure he was steady on his prosthetic.
He pulled his hands away and started working the buttons of his coat. “You need to put this on,” he said.
“No, you keep it.”
He was human, and in shock. He needed the warmth. I was cold, sure, but my healing abilities were far better than a human’s and while my body didn’t like the cold, it wouldn’t kill me.
“You’re naked,” he said.
I faced him, reaching out a hand to touch his cheek. He was shaking. “Declan,” I said softly. “We need to get him to my cottage. Then we’ll all warm up.”
He hesitated for just a second and then he nodded. The trust he was showing me in that moment kept me warm as I lifted Sonny, wrapped in a dry coat, into my arms. My octopus pressed against my skin and I longed to let it out, just a little. To ease my tentacles out of my sides so that they could wrap around Sonny as we walked. My octopus wanted to wrap itself tightly around both of these men and never let go.
Chapter 9
Declan
Ibarely took in Erik’s cottage as we entered it. It had seemed to take forever to get here but I knew that, logically, it hadn’t. Erik carried Sonny like a bride over the threshold and headed straight through the nearest door. I followed behind just in time to see Erik place Sonny on a large bed and start unlacing his skates.
As I stepped inside the room, the floorboard creaked under my prosthetic and Erik looked at me, his dexterous fingers still working.
“We need to get these wet jeans off him.”
I walked forward, feeling unsteady, and held on to the dresser and wardrobe as I passed, just for balance.
The room was small, so I reached the bed without having to take a step without support, and I leaned my thigh against the bed to steady myself while I worked at the other skate.
Sonny murmured, “What…?”
Erik’s voice was soothing and calm. “Don’t worry, Sonny. You’re going to be okay, I promise. You just need to warm up.”
His teeth were chattering and he tried to huddle further inside the borrowed coat. I blinked at it. I have no idea who that young man had been, so I didn’t know how we were going to return his coat to him.
Once Sonny’s skates were off, Erik reached up to work open Sonny’s jeans.
Sonny gasped and his hand batted at Erik’s, his eyes fluttering open and then closing again as though the weight of his own eyelids was too much to fight against.
“You need to get these wet clothes off. They’re keeping you cold and you’ll catch hypothermia.”
When Sonny gave a nod, Erik undid his jeans and began to peel them off Sonny’s long, slim legs. I’d seen those legs in the summer, especially when he wore swimming trunks. In fact, I’d seen him swimming in that very lake countless times.
His legs were flawless. So long and lean and lightly muscled with soft, fair hairs. Now though his skin was mottled blue and red from the ice.
Erik was efficient and stripped Sonny completely, including the borrowed coat which was now damp on the inside. As soon as he was done, he manoeuvred Sonny under the sheet and drew a blanket up over him.
I couldn’t do anything except stare, completely useless, as he opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of jogging bottoms and a hoodie, which he yanked on over his own pale and goose-bumped skin.
“Your clothes?” I asked.
I wasn’t the most articulate right at that moment.
Erik met my eyes and held them. I thought I saw something in the depths of them, a glimmer of something below the surface.Just like I’d seen a glimmer of somethingelsebelow the surface of the water.
