All For Not - Wednesday

Page 104

Circling his stone figure I pause, leaning up behind him to sniff at his collar before I frown at the lack of his scent. A weird sadness bubbles up in my throat and I back away, chin lowered slightly with a pout on my lips.

"Stupid gorgon," I murmur before moving back around him and turning away, walking over to the bedding pallet where I strip off my athletic jacket, peeling it off my arm before tossing it on my duffle bag in the corner of my tent.

Pulling at the hem of my fitted shirt next I pull it up as the crackles of stone start behind me, filling the enclosed space with a noise that relieves me. I do not stop taking my shirt off, only glancing back towards Kent to see the stones falling from his legs first, working the cracking up his calves' bit by bit.

Huffing without a thought besides the fact it was taking too long for my liking I turned back, finishing with pulling my shirt off and tossing it aside just the same as my jacket before I relaxed my shoulders and let my neck rest, head tilting back just slightly as I sigh deeply.

The splitting of stone is sharp suddenly and it makes my back tense, head tilting to the side as I listen curiously. I however do not turn to look at my siren, instead I wait and force myself to relax once more with another deep sigh, one that receives a question.

"Are you okay?"

Kent's voice rings in my ears and I whip around in surprise, no doubt in my mind that he'd take more time to be released from the gorgon's known curse.

My eyes lock on his face and relief fills my entire being where I give him a soft nod. But then, my eyes lower and I freeze, eyes wide like milk saucers, face reddened, hands smoking and crackling till they suddenly burst into flames and lick up a trail across my arms.

Whipping my head back away my shoulders hunching up and I remember Ajax warning me what would happen, but alas I'd never taken that gorgon seriously a moment in the short year I'd known him.

"You, you are unclothed," I stutter, eyes locking onto the tent wall as my hands clench against my sternum, eyes still wide like a deer caught in the headlights of a truck.

"What?" He asks, confused before looking down and panicking, grabbing the closest thing to him being the tent door flap to cover himself, material pulled in his hands like a towel up against his body.

Of course, I cannot help but to glance back, eyes widening even more before I return to looking at the tent wall and my hands fly up to cover my ears as if it would help. His fit form burned into my eyes as he stuttered his own words, "Shit, I'm so sorry, where, where are my clothes?"

"Ajax has said they would be gone with the stone," my words completely revert back to an almost incomprehensible form as my embarrassment lit up my skin.

"Fuck... Did you see...never mind can you uhm, you know, grab me my shorts or something from my bag?"

His question makes me screech softly like a whining pup before I shake my head side to side in quick repeating motions, "No, no, no it is improper, grab them your own," I spit out awkwardly.

He watches me with his own face just as red, his nerves high as he simply observes me, "...it's okay, it's okay, just um, close your eyes."

Immediately my eyes slam shut at his words, but the images become vivid in my mind and I start pulling at my hair, lowering my chin to my chest. I can hear the shuffling next, clearly, he had moved, dropping the tent flap and grabbing his bag before fishing inside for clothes, clearly, very close to me, with his chest bare and his abs and that thing.

I tug on my hair hard, flames licking and growing over my chest and shoulders as I become more distracted and embarrassed, my mind running amuck.

"Are you decent?" I ask with no answer given. "Kent. Are you clothed now? I really do think this is quite an inappropriate situation, will you answer?"

"Turn around..."

Swallowing I shake my head forcefully again, "Absolutely not, you must clothe yourself, this is, this is unbecoming, improper, completely unacceptable," I stutter on almost every word that pours from my mouth in a babble, voice shaky and soft.

"Turn around..."

"Kent, I will not say this again, I will not turn around until you've dressed and presented yourself appropriately. What if someone intrudes, the tent gives no acceptable privacy if one is bare as the day they were birthed on, please." My voice is almost entirely too desperate, the picture in my mind solely of the siren stark naked as it is completely singed and burned into my memory.

"Turn around flower," he says, once again repeating himself clearly, just behind me now. My skin shivers at his voice so close and then prickles like a pear when his hand hits my waist, sliding around to my front, fingers against my stomach so light it causes my skin to twitch.

Wildly enough my flames immediately dampen, and I relax, shoulders still up and tense but my eyes open wide and I release the grip I hold on my hair. "Just turn around for me flower, I'm dressed," he says, murmuring against the back of my head.

Looking down at his hand on my stomach I see and feel his claws, the clicking coming next and making me shudder and lower my shoulders to calm down before I turn around in his arms.

He has a smirk on his face, teeth showing, a pearly milky white group of fangs glinting at me through his lips.

"Why so shy flower?"

My nose twitches and I narrow my eyes with a pout, "You enjoy toying with me do you not..." I huff out at him.

"No. Maybe. Depends... Did my little bird like what she saw?" My eye twitches at the mirth in his eyes, clearly, he was actively teasing me. "My poor flower, all bothered and hot," he clicks and purrs at me.

Then my eyes dropped to his neck, flickering gold at the sight of his gills. He would be correct if he assumed I was more than intrigued and attracted towards him.

"You...you are being very, inappropriate," I whisper, flushed and watching his gills almost enamored by them.

"Inappropriate?" He hisses, leaning down, "Inappropriate towards what? You're my girlfriend, aren't you? My pretty little firebird?" He growls clicking, hands dropping down my waist and over my but as he leans down and suddenly grasps the back of my thighs to pick me up with a sharp toothed grin.

There was something unholy, sinful as the humans would say about the way he called me endearing terms, something alight about the way he himself called me bird.

Inhaling deeply like I can't breathe without force I stare down at him, eyes unblinking as I wrap my legs around his hips with a coo. Instinctually I wrap my arms over his shoulders and press into him fully, my nails shifting and elongating into my usual talons before digging into the skin on his back, making him groan.

He growls at my shudder; my skin prickled with adrenaline suddenly. Our lips are barely a hair's width apart but yet he doesn't kiss me, he only talks, "I'm starting to think I need'ta mark my girlfriend, can smell Ajax in here. Don't want him anywhere near ya, filthy gorgon can't even smell me on you...won't know to stay away will he...but he'll be able to see me on you wouldn't he..."

The sudden entrance of his sister however stops all potential of the situation, her voice a dead end to any romance that may have been, "Oh my gods, you two are totally having sex...Disgusting!" She hisses, clearly joking. But still Kent sets me down before turning and hissing harshly, clicking like a territorial beast even as his sister glares and hisses back, clearly taking his aggression as a challenge for dominance.

I take another deep inhale, eye twitching at the ruined moment I most definitely was wanting to continue. A shame, I'd not even received a kiss for my hard work...or the burning searing image in my mind that once again returns and makes me raise a brow as I watch the muscles in his shirtless back ripple with possessive anger.

It does in fact draw a coo from my throat, eyes locked onto the way his muscles show just how fit he was in a deeply attracted way.