Page 177 of A Soul to Guide

“Really? You would do that for me?”

Merikh shrugged, not understanding why that would make a slim smile appear on her face.

“Sure. When it’s sunny again, we can swim if you want to.” Wanting a distraction because he was uncomfortable with the way she was looking at him, he reached behind him to obtain what he’d been working on from the stone bench. “I wanted to show you something.”

He handed her two large pieces of thick leather with thinner strips attached to them. She ran her fingers over them reflexively, looking puzzled as to what they were.

“They are arm guards,” he stated as he took one from her so he could strap it on. “The back one is being difficult to create, since I don’t have enough belts to make the straps and I will need to obtain more, but I have tried and tested these. You shouldn’t harm yourself on my arms again if I wear them.”

He rested his arm over her, hugging her, as he used the other arm to move her hand on top of his forearm. The leather guard protected her from his quills, and she curiously brushed her hand over it.

It wasn’t perfect. If he were truly enraged, he’d rip them to shreds, but he doubted that would happen.

“You were making these to wear for me?”

She turned her face to him with an emotion he couldn’t decipher, since she was a little swollen from crying, but it was one that definitely bruised his heart.

“Once I make the back piece, I should be able to lie down with you. Since I doubt I will need to defend us within my ward, I can wear these for now.”

She was silent for a long while as she touched his arm, feeling the guard and how it was made. It wasn’t tan, since he didn’t care for the usual leather colouring made by humans. He only desired functionality. It was two layers, thick and sturdy, and attached to belts he’d threaded between the two pieces so he could strap it to his arm in three places and stop it from shifting.

When her face turned mischievous, he should have prepared himself for her next words.

“Does that mean you can wear them during sex?”

Merikh nearly choked on his on saliva. He grunted in answer.

That had not been his intention when he’d begun making them, but yes, they would be very useful for her to have more freedom during that.

I don’t think I want her to have more freedom.

He was already smitten with touching her. If she were able to be more forward without fear of being harmed by his quills, how was he meant to survive this toxic lily? Especially when she was already poisoning him.

His bull tail curled in apprehension.

It wasn’t even her fault anymore. She’d ceased trying to seduce him, since there was utterly no point. All she had to do was flash him a certain sweet smile or brush her hand over his knuckles, and Merikh was lost.

She’d opened a gate, showed him it was okay to crave her like an ache, and he finally felt comfortable enough to just be himself. Unfortunately for her, it meant she was experiencing all sides of him, especially those of his long-denied desires.

Every time he touched her, tasted her, fucked her, Merikh knew he was infecting himself with her. Every time she allowed him to hold her as he was now, which he tried to do often, the more he was succumbing to her gentle poison.

And Merikh didn’t give a single damn if it killed him.

Merikh licked at his snout while his hand reached outwards, allowing Raewyn freedom to swim with an anchor: him.

The silly little dress she’d cut far too short did very little to hide her shapely thighs and backside. If she turned to her back, it gave him fleeting little peeks of the tuft of hair on her pubic mound, her hip bones, her navel.

With the golden sun shining over her beautiful, rich-taupe skin, the water made her glitter with sparkles of light and warmth.

If he hadn’t licked almost every inch of her legs, hips, backside, and torso, he may have preferred she’d worn one of the longer, heavier dresses. Now, instead, he just marvelled at the pretty mermaid swimming in his own private lake.

She wasn’t very elegant, otherwise he might have thought she were a swan. Then again, his little fairy could become whatever she wished to be.

Her hair was tied up into a ball near the top of her head, keeping it safe and dry.

He had no desire to playfully splash her or dunk her. They were deep enough that the water was almost to his shoulders, and he’d rather just peacefully watch her.

They’d already learned his vibration was impossible for her to hear like this, so if she disorientated herself, he just tapped at the surface of the water. He barely moved, just allowing her the comfort of his presence while she swam around.

---