The Beastkeeper's Bride

7: The Tentative Emancipation of Millie Adams

7: The Tentative Emancipation of Millie Adams

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The door slammed shut behind him and with it her own façade of immovability shattered. Millie's heart constricted within her chest, her temples throbbing with the exertion it took to withhold every microcosm of her being from running after him and beckoning him back to her.

Blayne Leowyn had enthralled her- there were no other words for it. And for less than thirty minutes she had been susceptible to every whimsical and magical emotion that had made her giddy by just being in his nearby proximity. She had succumbed to it so easily too, and perhaps days of every part of her being homed into instinctual alertness of fight or flight had finally ensured that she cave to more pleasurable pursuits- and none had seemed quite as pleasurable as spending time with an impossibly beautiful man in idle chitchat.

Splaying a hand between her breasts, she sought to quell the steady ache that began to throb with each persistent beat of her heart, sure that she was going mad with it. How utterly bizarre to feel so affected by a man she had only just met.

There was no doubt Blayne was astonishing in his beauty, though quite definitely not human. His tail assured her of his Otherness. There were other fae-like qualities to him, differences that had piqued her interest. The myriad of shades of his eyes and hair, the markings on his spine and flank-

She blushed at the recollection of her frankness. Something had come over her when she had spied the faint markings lightly covering the back of his neck, overwhelming her with the need to see more of them as they disappeared under the collar of his plain linen shirt. Consumed with just that need, Millie hadn't thought twice about her impetuous actions, almost as if it was the most natural thing in the world to pry his shirt from the waist of his trousers, to place her hands on the smooth, hard skin of his back.

And Lord he had felt good. Under her fingertips, his muscles had twitched and flexed, as if tormented by her touch, and she traced the variety of curious markings that condensed along his spine, tapering out along his sides until they disappeared entirely. Her palms had flattened against the small of his back, entranced by the disappearance of the pelt-like marks under the waistband of his trousers. It made her wonder, rather licentiously, if they continued downwards over his backside- a rather firm-looking, taut backside, she added. His tail was marked with them as well so she assumed they must do and the appeal she had felt at finding out assuaged her with such a wave of brazen lust it was a damn good thing he had sense enough to stop her exploration then and there.

She had heard of Blayne Leowyn, or James Woode- almost everyone would have. He was one of the Beastkeepers, renowned for keeping the cities safe from marauding and wicked fae creatures who sought to inflict harm. Though his appearance had been described in hushed, titillated whispers of tearooms and ballrooms, nothing could have prepared her for the true impact the sight of him would have had on her.

It almost made her smile how nervous he had seemed standing on the threshold of the room, studying her in earnest as she returned the same scrutiny- sizing up his differences as he did hers. Such a big, self-assured man seemed to have very little clue about how to broach this particular situation, and she couldn't blame him. Neither did she. With long, thick hair that varied in shades of brown and copper, contained in a unkempt topknot, his features were ruggedly handsome, a dark beard covering the lower half of what appeared to be a strong jaw, and his face had expressed open intrigue at his own perusal of hers.

Millie reached for the document that he had reviled so much, that he had thrown to the side in distaste, as she knew he would.

She could not marry Blayne Leowyn, nor could she encourage a match- it would be too detrimental to her overall goals, a man like him. And she couldn't stomach the thought of using him for her own ends... it didn't seem right. If Millie could, she would have convinced herself that she had refuted his intentions for her own sake, that continuing a courtship with Blayne would be time-consuming and she already admired him far too greatly from their short conversations previously- she needed to maintain control and a level head in the situation she found herself in... with him, it was easy to ascertain just how difficult that could be.