Shadowburn (2)

Chapter 6

Sin laid across Andreas' chest, her fingers absently tracing circles on his shoulder. Her body felt like liquid, but it was slowly fading, turning into a contented sort of lethargy. Finally, finally, the pressure was gone from her bones.

She'd never admit that she wanted it back.

For all that it had been unbearable, Andreas was right about the waiting... and what came in between. Not that she would ever, ever tell him that. Not any more than she would ever tell him that she'd kept the shirt he'd made her, or that she'd woken up with his name on her lips in the Nox, rather than Thorn's. There were some things she would always keep to herself, because she didn't know how to say them--and also because she could just imagine how Andreas would tease her if he knew them.

But that didn't mean there wasn't something she would do.

He was staring at the ceiling, eyes focused far away from her. She braced a palm against the floor on one side of him, lifting herself so her lips were by his ear. She rested her cheek against his and smiled, ever so faintly, as she whispered, "Thank you, Scotty."

She felt him grin, and he gave a small laugh. But there was distance in it, and she didn't understand why. It sent a flash of sadness through her, and she didn't like that, so she just laid back down, her head in the crook of his neck. She didn't want him to be distant from her, didn't like that she felt as if she'd done something wrong again.

They stayed that way for a long time, neither of them speaking, until energy began to twist its way through her body again and she began to feel anxious and unsettled. She needed to move. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy laying there in his arms, because she did. He was warm and strong around her, and she'd never get tired of the way his hands felt on her body.

But there was something else building inside her; maybe stemmed from the distance in his eyes or the way the silence seemed to stretch and build, she didn't claim to understand it. Whatever the reason, she couldn't stand to be still for one more second.

She stood, pulling herself away from him too fast, and searched the room with her eyes, looking for her clothes. He'd torn her shirt and pants--irritating, in hindsight, as she rather needed them--but her dragonscale shirt should still be around somewhere.

And her pants would probably be moderately serviceable until she could find something else. The room was a disaster, cake and other sweets smushed into the carpet, plates and platters on the floor--some broken. He'd been right in his assessment of it earlier.

Andreas stood as well, looking around the room just as she had. Sin spotted her dragonscale shirt in a corner and strode across the room to retrieve it. She clasped it around her torso, spied her pants not too far away.

But when she picked them up, she sighed. They were completely destroyed--utterly useless. She turned toward Andreas to see that he'd found his pants and put them on--entirely intact, blast him--and was still looking around the room.

After a moment, he waved a hand, and the mess vanished as if it had never existed. Handy trick...

Too bad he hadn't done the same for her--she still had frosting melted into her skin in some places, and her entire body smelled like sweat and him. She was also fairly certain that there were cake crumbs in her hair.

She needed a bath something awful.

She walked toward Andreas, holding up her pants ruefully. "Think you can fix these?"

"I could, but I don't want to."

Sin blinked, surprised. She arched a brow, trying to ignore the nagging feeling in the back of her head that again, she'd done or said something to upset him. He seemed to think that she went out of her way to do that, but in truth, she didn't have even the slightest idea how to control his moods.