The Goblin's Heir

Chapter Five: Spoil Me

The smell of old books: rotting paper and dust. It really should be a sickening smell like that of other decaying things, but it had become the scent of home as much as that of smoke and earth. That smell permeated Knut's study, where he and I spent great portions of our days. In the beginning, it was a good place to hide from toddlers. Still was, even if those toddlers were now taller than me. I was never a huge reader. I didn't enjoy fantasies. I was much more interested in the books that held real knowledge of the world outside of the small piece of it I knew. I only rarely came here to lose myself in a book. Most of the time, I came to sit in the quiet and distract Knut from his work with dirty talk. 

I slipped through the towers of books choking isles between towering shelves, making my way over to where he was hunched over his desk. A map of Boggart, a new city currently being built in The Winter Branches, was laid out in front of him. He was scribbling notes on the margins with a black feather quill. 

Lifting my skirts, I put my quiet steps to good use. I snuck up behind him and slammed my hands down on his shoulders. 

To my delight, he jumped with a yelp. "Bloody hell!" 

"Did I scare you?" I laughed, looping my arms around his neck and kissing his cheek. 

"One of these days I'm going to buy you a bell, Mouse."  He teased, rubbing his fingers across my arms. A grin cracked his face. "Ooooh, is that the one I gave you for our twentieth anniversary?"

"It is." I stepped back and did a little twirl for him, swinging fast enough my hair flew behind me and my skirts wound around my legs like the petals of a flower. 

"The last time I saw it I was lost in the skirt." He purred, conjuring the memory in my head and expertly setting my skin on fire. "For what did I earn such a treat?"

"I just felt like spoiling you, but if you're just going to tease me about it, maybe I shouldn't have bothered." I settled myself in his lap. He'd left his hair down and it was somewhat mussed from a recent nap. I ran my fingers through the small tangles as he stole lazy, long kisses. 

"Forgive me. You're just so lovely when you blush." He murmured, making a happy growling sound as his mouth moved down to my bare throat. 

"Keep playing your cards right and we can have a reenactment later." 

"Then I'll have to bite my tongue and hope it doesn't get me into trouble." He chuckled. "I'll need it later."

I hugged him tightly to me, playing with his hair, digging my fingers into his back. I rested my cheek against his head, breathing in his smell, committing the feeling of him pressed against me to memory. "I love you." I whispered and instantly regretted it as my eyes began to sting again, threatening tears.

He lifted his head and looked at me questioningly. "I love you too." He said, sounding more than a little bewildered. "What brought that about? Is something wrong?"

"No," I cleared my throat and broadened my smile. "I just don't tell you enough." I pushed lightly against his chest and he leaned back from me. "What were you working on so diligently?" I asked, looking toward the paper on the desk to bring his focus there and away from my eyes. On top of another pile of papers, there was one covered from top to bottom with Ib's distinctively pretty penmanship.  At the bottom was scrolled his signature in bold flowing letters. "What is this?" I asked, snatching it up. 

"A letter from Ib."

"I can see that," I smirked. "What does he want?" His writing was so sickeningly pretty, it made it difficult to actually read, at least for me. I suspected that it may have been on purpose.