Page 65 of Faun Over Me

Avery and Cricket had left the dwelling after dinner with her parents, both of them flush with laughter and acorn whisky. Without any particular heading in mind, Cricket led her human through the woods.

One glade melted into another. The deer trail she followed took them over a stream, through a cluster of blackberry bushes, and out into a field. On they hiked, chasing the last of the setting sun. She hadn’t planned to catch that magical hour of twilight when the fireflies danced and a cool breeze teased mist from the creeks running into the valley, but Gods be damned if she wasn’t going to take advantage of it.

Stars twinkling overhead, and a pretty girl holding her hand? Yeah, Cricket was absolutely going to take advantage of this.

“Where are we going?” Avery huffed. A light sheen of sweat coated her skin, giving her freckles a luster that shone in the moonlight.

“No idea.” Cricket pantomimed scanning the wood, and thrust her arm in an arbitrary direction. “There!”

“What?” Avery stopped short, peering in the direction she pointed. “I don’t see anything.”

“There, castle,” Cricket drawled, then cackled when Avery playfully smacked her arm.

“How the heck have you seen Young Frankenstein?”

“How have you?” she retorted. “It has a man playing God and boob jokes. Isn’t your dad, like, super Evangelical?”

“It has boob jokes,” Avery leveled in a flat tone. “And in case you haven’t noticed”—her mouth curled wickedly, and she tugged Cricket’s arm, drawing her in close—“I happen to have a thing for boobs.”

That said, she brushed her knuckle over the curve of Cricket’s breast. She sucked in a breath, ears flicking as an accompanying shiver ran down her spine. “You’re feeling bold.”

“Acorn whisky,” Avery mumbled, her eyes dropping to Cricket’s mouth. “Pretty company.”

“Pretty?”

Avery flicked her gaze up. Moonlight reflected in her eyes, twin pinpricks ringed in blue, bright enough to hold even the strongest faun captive. That knuckle trailed lower, brushing the row of her nipples, one by one, through her thin cotton tank.

“Beautiful,” Avery whispered and closed the distance between them. Her lips brushed Cricket’s in a soft kiss, less than the brush of a butterfly’s wing, and somehow, it was more than any deep sweep of a tongue or tangle of limbs could ever hope to be. In that brush was a wish and a promise. It was a statement, hopeful in its brevity and everything Cricket could have asked for.

She wrapped her arms around Avery, refusing to let any space between them, and returned the kiss. Soft against her cheekbone, a dusting on the tip of her nose, and then she caught her mouth, swallowing the moan that rose in her throat at the taste of strawberry chapstick.

Time fell away, the meadow and the stars vanishing as Cricket’s world became the human in her arms. She chased every sensation brought on by the heat of Avery’s mouth, the slide of her tongue, and the deft caress of her fingers. The soft curve of her shoulders and hips, how Avery’s body melded into her as if she’d been made to fit every one of Cricket’s hard angles.

Warmth pooled between her legs, every swipe of Avery’s tongue and tease of her fingers feeding the low, steady throb in her groin. With shaking hands, Cricket tugged her shirt from her shorts, sliding her palms up Avery’s waist to cup her breasts and groaning at the soft weight.

“Gods.” She broke away from the kiss on a pant, sweeping her thumbs over hard nubs. “Aves, you’re so—”

“Shh.” Avery pressed a finger to her lips, smirking at Cricket’s wide eyes. She trailed the shape of her mouth, the touch as soft and teasing as the caress of her nipples had been. It was a subtle sort of magic, this light caress, hauling every nerve ending to life and drawing all of Cricket’s attention to the so-soft-she-thought-she-imagined-it touch.

Her lips quivered in the wake of Avery’s finger, chest heaving as she cupped her breast and swept the nipple, pinching lightly before moving lower. Again and again, teasing every one of Cricket’s nipples until the muscles in her stomach were tense, her body a tightly wound spring.

Her ears stood fully erect, the soft breeze tickling fine hairs. A shudder built in her core, and with a groan, she chased Avery’s mouth. Slipping her hands up, she cupped her cheeks and held Avery in place, nibbling and sucking her lower lip before delving deep to swallow the tiny whimpers clawing up from her throat.

Gods, this human. Avery. Her Avery. In a matter of weeks, she’d driven Cricket wild with lust and met her every step of the way. She’d never known the magic of her home world, and she had never known what it was to feel the flow of healing power through her limbs, but she imagined it would feel a little something like this.

Avery was pliant beneath the force of her kiss, letting herself be walked backward and grunting softly when her back hit a nearby tree. She squirmed against Cricket, and half a thought later, her hands were in Cricket’s hair, tugging the curls and—

“Oh, Gods.” Her legs trembled as Avery circled the base of her ears, squeezing gently before rubbing her thumbs up the inner curve. “Fuck.”

“That’s the idea,” Avery murmured against her throat, hot breath raising goosebumps beneath the down. Her nails scraped down Cricket’s ears, and a warble of pleasure dribbled into her core.

This was it. This was how a human bewitched a faun and turned her into a puddle of goo. A gentle stroke, a scrape of nail, and that plush, plump mouth sucking on her pulse.

A throaty moan escaped, and Cricket buried her face in the crook of Avery’s neck, trying and failing to think clearly enough to reciprocate. But what were thoughts when her brain was boiling and her pussy throbbing?

“Avery, please,” she managed, kissing the words into the sweet salt of her skin. “Please touch me.”

“Where?” Her nails scraped again, and Cricket twitched against her, pussy clenching.

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