Page 28 of Gemini Queen
“Okay.” He absorbs this with furrowed brow.
Finally, I think we’re getting somewhere. Then I notice there’s a wing of magenta hair falling over his eyes. And it’s all I can manage not to stroke it back. So maybe we’re not getting to that new place fast enough, because my body’s still stuck in the old place.
His hands sear a path up my thighs inch by scorching inch, which I tell myself I’m permitting mainly because I’m still wearing my jammies.
And not because there’s a part of me that doesn’t want him to stop.
Maybe he’s still reading my mind, because another sleepy grin curls the corner of his mouth. “Somewhere else then?”
He has the kind of smile you want to kiss, but I have to resist that impulse. “What do you mean?”
“You said we’re not having sexhere. How about thethermae? That’s the Roman bath downstairs. We’ll have it all to ourselves, since everyone’s already left for class, but you and I were excused this morning, and frankly I can’t think of a better use for the time—”
“No, no, no, for cripes’ sake!” I can’t help laughing at his one-track mind. “We’re not having sex anywhere right now.”
“Which leaves open the possibility we could be having it later,” he points out hopefully. “I guess I can live with later… but only if we’ve ruled out now as an option?”
Looking up at me under that wing of vivid hair, he slides one finger into his mouth and envelopes it with his full lips in a long slow suck. It’s the finger he just had inside me. And I feel the slow hot pull of his mouth like it’s wrapped directly around my clit.
“Later might be an option,” I admit in a throaty voice. Shit. That isn’t even what I meant to say. “But we’re not mated. I need you to hear that.”
“You’re very confusing to me,” he admits with a frown. But at least he stops sucking the taste of me off his skin and obligingly climbs off me. Which I tell myself is totally a good thing. “What you say is different than what you think.”
“I think that’s pretty much the way it works for everyone.” I seize the moment to scramble out of bed before either one of us gets any other ideas about what else we can be doing in here.
My scramble turns into more of a jump, because it turns out this bed’s on a platform a good two feet off the floor, which is probably meant to help with the drafts in this ancient building. In fact, there’s an actual rolling stair backed up to the bed that I missed noticing in my haste. I stick the landing, but the icy floor makes me yelp.
Neo jumps out too—also not using the stair—and trots over to bring me a pair of royal blue slippers embroidered with the Academy logo. These slippers are the real deal, all lined with soft white fur, so I ignore the Academy marketing and get my feet into all that cushy warmth pronto.
He also produces a matching robe, likewise lined with white fur and sporting the logo I’m starting to suspect I’ll see everywhere on this island. But it’s warm and I’m cold, so this isn’t the hill I’m gonna die on. I belt it around my waist and head for the open door that hopefully leads to the john.
“Yeah, it’s a half-john,” Neo says, though thankfully he isn’t following. “All the suites have them.”
I pause at the bathroom door and glance back. “Do you mind not doing that right now? Reading my mind? Because it’s kind of freaking me out.”
“Sorry. I’m not used to it either.” Neo looks adorably contrite as he zips up his pants and wrestles the sweater back over his head.
Which worries me.
Not that he’s getting dressed, but that he looks so cute while he’s doing it. This is one guy Ireallydon’t need to be crushing on, because it would totally confuse this whole fated mate situation even worse than it already is.
I duck into the john and close the door to do my business. There’s a toilet in here and a sink, both pretty modern and impeccably clean. And I’m relieved to find electricity is an actual thing on this island, even though the painted frieze around the ceiling and the tile floor that looks like a Roman mosaic seem to be about a million years old. Still, the setup reinforces what Neo said about there being a full Roman bath downstairs.
Though I do wonder if it’s unisex.
And if all of us are supposed to be sharing it?
Not that I’m planning on sticking around the freak academy long enough to find out.
I find all the usuals behind the mirrored cabinet above the sink, which is lavishly stocked. That bonanza gives me what I need to brush and floss and wash my face and work a hairbrush through the tangled mess of my hair. Natural curls are supposed to be what every little girl wants for Christmas, but I’m here to tell you they’re a total bitch to manage without exactly the right product.
While I’m doing my thing, I notice the various bumps and bruises from my encounter with the tarmac on Wang’s penthouse roof are already half healed. I’ve got a splash of shifter blood along with all the rest, but that’s pretty much all it’s ever been good for. The Geminis heal up fast.
Which is useful, given the whole Gemini lifestyle.
I admittedly take my time with the once-over in here, because I’m thinking it would probably be good if Neo Mercury isn’t still sitting there in my bedroom when I come out. But there’s only so much you can do in a half-bath, and I’m not really the trouble-avoiding type.
When I emerge all clean and minty, Neo’s big body is sprawled across my bed, thankfully dressed, with cute dark-rimmed glasses seated on his nose and his serious face buried in an antique-looking book titledLaws of the Witching World.
