Page 24 of Reflections of Silence

You’ve never dressed a man, have you?

“I’m so glad you find this amusing.” My irritation growing, I sat back.Defeated by men’s breeches.“How do you dress with all this?” Flustered, I gestured to his half-covered form as though he could see me.

You should talk. That dress took far too long to remove.

“Mhmm.” I didn’t dignify that with a proper reply. “Is Charleton likely to be back?”

Perhaps. He’s seen me in worse states.

“This happens often, does it?” I imagined a string of women scooting from his bedroom, terrified and under threat of silence. “Wait, what do you mean,worse states?”

That’s a discussion for when I can speak to you properly.

“What, this isn’tproperly?” I grumbled, expecting a snarky reply, but there was none. “Sebastian?”

The room grew cold, as though his presence had left, though his body remained. Tugging my clothes around me, I surveyed his still form as I rose.

Where do you go?

Silence met my thoughts.

No matter how many times I called out to him, Sebastian either didn’t hear me or refused to respond. Giving it up as a bad job and assuming someone with greater strength than me or the man himself would do something about his exposed body, I towed my worn, exhausted body to the door. I peeked around the hallway, but Charleton and his flock of staff who scampered everywhere together had disappeared.

I crossed the corridor to my own room, closing the door behind me. A shiver took over my body, most likely from a combination of blood loss, exhaustion and the trauma of being a nail bed for my husband's teeth. With that bitter thought in mind, I dropped the tattered material of my ruined dress to the floor.

Not bothering to dress or bathe, I collapsed into the comfort of the bed and fell asleep.

CHAPTER EIGHT

GISELLA

I rolled in the bed, the brick at my feet a comfort against the cool body beside me. Memory of hands and lips and tongue blissed me out for a long enough moment for my body to relax against his harder form at my back.

I smiled in my dozy state—Minette must have heated the brick and pulled the blankets around me—at last thought, I’d toppled on top of the lot, and lay still in my bed as frozen as Sebastian when she came in to check on me.

I slept away the day until sun turned to moon. Then, Sebastian found me, his lips pressed to my throat, sucking in sweet, gentle kisses to reopen the wounds there as his fingers played between my legs, and I opened my body and mind to him, wanton for the all-encompassing pleasure that besieged me.

My cries could have raised the dead, or maybe the household, but he didn’t seem to care. When he was done drinking, his hand curled around my throat, holding me pinned in place while his mouth devoured mine and his fingers teased me until I sank against his body, exhausted yet again.

The last thing I remembered before I succumbed back to the dream realm, was his laughter filled apology for waking me, that he fed and I hadn’t.

His arms left me safe and protected, and I didn't care enough for food to break away from him in my dozed state, my body humming with his touch as he eased me into his arms.

Despite his apology, some part of my mind noted that he hadn’t retreated from the room, either.

Sebastian.

His hand slid along my legs, dipping into the curve of my waist. I already knew his touch, the length and pressure of his fingers familiar. Palming my stomach, he pulled me back against him. I forced my eyes open to see the night sky outside the window—though it wasn’t mine. No small balconette, no arch. This window was square and took up most of the wall space.

I sat, the blankets puddling around my waist. The wandering hand paused on my hip.

“We’re in your room?” I guessed, not turning around.

Waves drew along the coastline below the house. I’d thought he lived inland, but somehow my senses had been turned around during my wine-filled, night time journey. His room must face the back of the house, away from the gardens and forest I could view from mine.

From the mansion’s second story, I couldn’t see where the sludge and forests turned to tepid waters no doubt infected with the same prehistoric reptilian monsters.

His hands slipped around my waist, pulling me around, back to him, and I was met with those eyes that pierced my entire being. A shiver passed over me. I wasn’t the only one unclothed.

---