Page 29 of A Soul to Touch

Faunus growled in satisfaction at her when a desirous spark speared him in the gut, but thankfully hedidmanage to control his damn lusty purr before it burst from him.

His tail curled behind him before it swayed to the left.

Never, in all his imaginings, had he thought Mayumi would befriend him so easily. That she would be comfortable with him within the span of a day. That she would give him that wicked face that immediately had his body heating.

And Faunus wanted to share that heat with her.

Her light, fawny flesh looked delicately smooth. It was difficult to resist reaching closer and touching the only exposed parts of her body he could see – like her face, her softly shaped jaw, the delicate column of her neck.

Her eyes were a hidden gem, nearly black pools that, when hit with light, were such an alluring molten brown that it waseasy to be sucked into them. They tried to do that to him now, although mutely because of the lack of sun, but there was enough light pouring through the clouds to show it.

Her thin but cupid lips were pale in their pinkish colour, but they stood out as feminine against her more sharpened features, such as her high eyebrow arches and cheekbones.

Faunus had noticed there were many kinds of humans in the world, varying in their shapes, colours, and features.

He’d rarely seen others, besides her parents, that shared traits similar to hers – especially her monolidded eyes. He was sure there were many, but they seemed to be more uncommon in comparison to those of darker or pinker skin in this region.

But it was her he deemed the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen on Earth, and he’d seen hundreds. Her features, every single one of them, from her feet to her hair, deserved the silent praise he was currently giving them.

Had been giving them for years.

From her thick, unruly black hair that she had in a ponytail to her small, rounded ears that were pink on the top edges due to the cold.

He’d seen just enough of a glimpse of her body when she’d tossed herself into the snow naked a few mornings ago to know her body was slim but strong. Under her thick and bulky clothing, Mayumi was hiding a leanly muscled body that had instantly appeared delectable to him.

It was as though the world had decided she be short of height, even in comparison to most humans, so it could be deceitful to how staunch she truly was.

“After we remove its leaves, I’m really going to test what that strength of yours can do,” she said almost impishly, as if she thought he wouldn’t be able to complete any task she gave him.

Her words weren’t enough to distract him from gazing upon her. No, he fell deeper into his trance when her eyes almostsquinted to be spiteful and then grew rapt in the way her long, straight eyelashes became more prominent.

He found himself wanting to draw one of his fore-knuckles across them to know if they were as lush and soft as they appeared.

I am doomed.He’d been attracted to this female long before he’d returned here.I should not have allowed myself to be found out by her.

Faunus,as she had renamed him, already couldn’t contain his ravenous thoughts for this human woman now that she was so close to him – just within reaching distance.

Just withinlickingdistance.

How did I end up in this position?Faunus thought as he gripped Mayumi’s thighs that were wrapped around his neck from behind.

The task she was unsure if he’d be unable to complete? That was Faunus dragging the already pruned dead tree on the ground and the one he’d freshly chopped down back to her home. She wanted her firewood closer to where she could obtain it.

When he’d asked why she didn’t just chop down a tree near the cottage, she said it was because the forest acted as a barrier of sound and scent. She believed if they cut more of it down around her home, it would make them easier to find.

He thought perhaps that might be true.

The task had been strenuous, and she’d offered not a single ounce of help, but he’d completed it. All the while, she rudely told him to hurry up and that he was being too slow when he lagged because the branches snagged.

Once they’d returned to her cottage, she demanded he start cutting up the dead tree for her firewood. Mayumi had disappeared while he did this, but he knew by the scent coveringher that she’d eaten something.

She was rather bossy and commanding, but he kind of liked this. It was just strange that she was bossing him around, a Duskwalker, but he preferred this over her trying to shoot him in the face with an arrow – which is what he’d expected from her.

Then, just when he thought he could catch a break, she’d asked him a question that had his head cocking. Not because of the question itself, but because he hadn’t understood why she was asking him.

Mayumi wanted to know if she could trust him.

Faunus had shrugged and confirmed that she could, then she demanded that he allow her to sit on his shoulders.

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