Ascension - Book Eight - Man x Man

Chapter 139

Verando curses, distracting me from my packing with the outburst of frustration as he tosses the blackened phone onto the bed. "Well, bugger all to that plan.." he mutters. Tracking the phone, I note the aged look of it, as if it had been somehow thrown forward in time which had fried it. His hand almost emanates a haze, vapors drifting through the space and yet almost invisible to the naked eye. Something in him had triggered to kill the phone.

I watch him quietly as I finish my second slice of toast, Id been threatened with retaliation if I don't at least try and finish my breakfast. With his current mood, it didn't seem to be the best idea to tempt him. If I could send Fenrir to hell myself, I would. I cursed the man for ruining our morning after such an incredible night, though I'd be lying if I said I wasn't completely exhausted. 

"It's quite interesting that you drove here fine but you fried a phone.. your powers are definitely strange."

"Can we not call them powers..? I'd rather not think of myself as something other than.. a lycan."

The hesitation, the deep-seated resentment towards magical beings, what a difficult transition this was for him. My switch to a lycan had been a simple one in that I felt it was a worthy sacrifice, I had no reason to resent the beasts even though this very man killed my parents. I understood the laws of equal exchange; but for him, there was a part of him that might have preferred hell's fury over this.

Patiently, I nod, remembering my own youth when I'd resented everything about what had been forced onto me. "What would you like to call them?" I would do this differently than I had been taught. I would do whatever I could to ease this transition for him, I owed him that, I wanted him to have a different experience than mine. 

Grimacing, he says nothing, fiddling with the sleeves of his dress shirt as he rolls them up to his elbows. It seemed to be an admittance that he hadn't thought much about the terminology of this new lifestyle. He was uncomfortable with all of it so how could he fathom naming it? This was not something he could hide from me, it was a realm he knew nothing about and he would have to come to me for help. 

Even so, with his stubbled jaw and silver tangles,  it seemed as though he was on some sort of mission to reclaim his sense of self. How did he manage to look like an executive even when we were living out of a hotel with no luggage? Standing, I make my way over to him to adjust two of the buttons on his shirt. Catching my lower lip with my teeth, I feel the weight of his gaze on me, yet his chest is hauntingly silent, his body cold and hard. 

"You look very handsome this morning," I comment. 

My back protests the flirting, warning me that I was not fit enough for another round of indulgence. Everything below my waist was sore, while my back throbbed in a steady reminder that I'd bared the brunt of all that I'd asked for. I wanted him to take me, and so he had.

Glancing up, I catch him watching me with a heavy look of concern. "Are you sore?" 

I shrug my shoulders, pursing my lips as I work my way up to help him with his tie.

"Don't tempt me, I've not eaten breakfast yet and you're mouth watering with my scent all over you." Wrapping his arms around me, he buries his nose in my hair though I note that he's careful not to touch me with his hands. After a moment, he releases me to finish dressing. I casually eye his book, wanting to search through it, but my training taught me better than that. I knew better than to touch something so powerful.

Tucking in his shirt, he fastens his belt with a heavy exhale. 

Wetting my lips, I take in the creases the shirt makes across every plane of his body. I admire the long lines of his waist and hips, how was it that a man could be beautiful? Was this what he meant when he described my beauty to me? Trending upward, focusing on that full upper lip that was no longer marred with the scar from Mother, I grasp his tie as he passes me to encourage his attention once more.