Page 53 of By the Fae

Oh, maybe I was kinky after all! Practically a deviant. I’ll be tying him up next.

Goldie leant on his side next to me, propping himself up on his elbow so that he was almost hovering over me. I didn’t think about it, I just turned into him. Our mouths were centimetres apart. I had to remind myself I hated him.

He was so rude to me.Isso rude to me. And outside of his apartment, he treated me like some sort of wild animal that somehow found its way inside. But he wasn’t rude like the other guys, who simply didn’t respect me. I was sure Goldie respected me, he just—

“Stay present, baby girl,” he whispered, and I dragged my eyes open to look at him. Treacherously, my body sent another bolt of lightning to meet my fingers.

Darn it, he was undeniably beautiful. With his golden hair falling forward. A sheen of sweat across his forehead. His five o’clock shadow. The column of his throat, his Adam’s apple quivering. His muscular shoulder flexing. Oh, those shoulders. It should be a criminal offense for someone as moody as him to possess those shoulders.

Hang about, his shoulder flexing? His arm bobbing up and down rapidly? Was he masturbating too?

The thought sent me from teetering, to sliding headfirst down the ravine, and I broke.

“I think I’m—” I started, but never quite finished. My thighs simply gave up, my eyes slammed themselves closed, my back lifted me from the bed, and waves of ecstasy dragged me under.

Goldie moved his mouth to the crook of my neck and whined into my hair. His hot, wet release hit my stomach over and over while I continued to ride through the bliss of my climax.

The muscles in my back stopped contracting, and I slumped down onto his bed. Goldie stood, and swiftly pushed himself inside his sweatpants. It didn’t remotely conceal the swell at the front, which seemed to be making little effort to retreat. For a few moments, he stared at my prone, naked form. At the mess he’d left on me. A crease furrowed his brow, and something flashed behind his eyes. I wasn’t sure what, but it didn’t look like happiness. He scooped up a towel and carefully, like a genuine lover, wiped me down.

I watched him. Quiet, unable to figure out which Goldie I was currently sharing the room with. The fire was no longer there. I wasn’t sure when it had vanished.

“Oh, Holly Briar, you aren’t making this easy for me,” he said, breathy, resigned.

Two thoughts. One, Holly Briar, my full name, not baby girl or even human. I wasn’t even aware he knew my surname.

And thought two, exactly what wasn’t I making easy for him? What did he want to do that I was standing in the way of? I decided the latter was more pressing.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

Goldie never answered me, he simply closed his eyes for two, three seconds and handed me my pyjamas.

I didn’t push him. My instincts told me he’d shut down completely if I did. I wriggled into my PJs, and he got into bed, his head on the pillow, his arm outstretched in an invitation.

“Stay another night. I’ll drive us to work tomorrow,” he said.

For reasons, none of which I could explain in that moment, I knew cuddling up into his arm would be a huge mistake. That I would come to regret it, even if I didn’t understand why.

And yet, darn it, I wanted to.

I hovered my weight, shifting it from one foot to another. Doubt laying heavy in my stomach.

Do I listen to my body or my mind?

Of course my body won. My mind only realised after I’d backed my bum up into his lap and pulled the covers over us. His other arm wrapped around my waist, and he sighed into my hair, like he had just dropped into a steaming bathtub. And I knew . . .

It wasn’t a huge mistake I’d made by snuggling up to him.

It was a colossal mistake.

“Oh, no,” I mouthed to myself.

Chapter 18.

Holly

“Top up or down?” Goldie asked the next morning after breakfast.

His car was a retro masterpiece. A sporty number from around the year of my birth. Either painstakingly maintained or fully restored to her former glory. It looked new. It had a long, low sloping bonnet, with square headlamps that mechanically lifted. The interior was pristine black leather with white trim, and a sound system that could rival the ones at the local multiplex had been installed into the doors. The super-shiny, almost glittering exterior exactly matched the gold of his hair. I’d never had strong feelings about a car before, but I was besotted.

---