The Empty Ones (Fantasy Romance)

72. Substance abuse

It's dawn, I think. And terribly hot, a scorching, sticky heat.

My eyelids are still lead heavy but I try to open them slowly. Strands of copper colored hair appear before my eyes and my whole body starts to hum.

"You are back," I say and my voice fails to convey all the emotions I am feeling.

Theon leans over and brushes the back of his hand against my cheek.

I can't hold back a sigh as I can barely hold his gaze.

"Missed me?" he whispers against my temple.

"Yes," I confess. He looks disarming, dressed in that oddly revealing shirt he was wearing that day in the library when I couldn't take my eyes off him either and couldn't help tracing with my eyes the outlines of his chest and arms.

"Yes?" He raises his head a bit and smiles mischievously.

I nod. I am lost and he likely knows it.

"I hoped you would."

His right hand moves over my cheek until his thumb and forefinger are tracing the outline of my lips.

It's sending tingles down my spine and I reach up to touch his face too.

His skin is smooth over the hard edges of his sharp features. My palms are itching to touch him more. All over.

I acknowledge I wanted to do this for a while. That night in the library I was frightened but he made the fear damper and now it disappeared completely. He made me trust him and this is the aftermath.

And now when he lowers his head I know he wants to kiss me and I don't want to move away anymore just stay expectantly and tangled my fingers in his hair.

He tastes spicy sweet on my tongue. It's intoxicating.

"You are beautiful," I stammer.

"Am I? And what about it?" he answers again in that playful tone raising an eyebrow. It's disarming. Again. "What do you feel when you look at me?"

"I want to touch you. Badly," I confess. My thoughts have no filter. Maybe they should but they don't.

He smirks, revealing his slightly pointy quizm canine.

"And I want you to touch me too," I state acknowledging my feelings, surprising even myself but my whole body is burning and aching for that.

His hands are very precise and skilled when he is writing or making potions and it seems they retain the intentional accuracy when he unties delicately the sash of my night shift and then lovers his head to place a kiss in the middle of my chest, over the sternum, close to the heart.

And I feel I am combusting.

"Theon, please!" I sigh.

There is weight on my shoulder. Movement. It's disturbing.

Something changes. The room is drenched in sunlight and a dark figure is looming over me.

My vision clears. Mute is moving my shoulder to wake me up.

Theon... ? It was just a dream? A very, damn real one. I can still feel his smell in my nostrils and his touch on my skin.

And I wanted to do... things. I wanted him to touch me.

I am drenched in sweat and there is something wet and sticky on my inner thies. Lifting the sheet, I see it's not blood. So even my body has a physical reaction to what just happened.

I... The damn potion. It might just have worked.

And then there is this other thing. I am not sure what I said and how much Mute understood of what just happened.