Page 34 of Goblins Don't Count
“Can I, though? It’s definitely not feeling like it. What was that, Sashimi?! That’s not unwinding, it’s giving me a heart attack!” I finally let go of his waist and slid down him to the ground, onto the gravel path between the large pots of plants. My knees were shaky as I walked away from him, trying not to show how freaked out I’d been.
He touched my arm and then pulled away. “I should mention reciprocation.”
“I’m not carrying you up any buildings.”
He chuckled. “Snuggling. You came and snuggled me today. It’s like when you wrote me a letter. I had to write back, or I didn’t have to, but it felt like it.”
“The binding?” I turned around and stared at the shadowy goblin. “You’re saying that the binding compels you to snuggle with me because I fell over on top of your chair? That’s not snuggling.”
“You didn’t immediately remove yourself. You pressed your face into my neck.”
I raised my hands. “I had a raccoon eating rotten liver and beetles in my head. I was trying not to throw up.”
He nodded, a shadow among the rustling fronds. “I only have one lounger. We can share, or I can stand here trying not to eat your dress. You’re still wearing it.”
“Because touching me helps you remember how much you don’t want me,” I muttered. “You should put me back in the alley where I was happily feeling sorry for myself.”
He moved closer. “You could feel happily sorry for yourself snuggling on the lounger with me.”
“But the stars are too pretty up here. How could I feel sorry for myself when I’m distracted by beauty? Also, earlier, that wasn’t snuggling. Sprawled over you like that wasn’t snuggling.”
“Because you’ve snuggled so much in your life.”
“I have. We used to snuggle in bed every Saturday morning, us kids and my parents. My mom would be sleeping, and we’d have cartoons on, quietly so we wouldn’t wake her up, and dad would read his paper.”
“I see. I don’t have any blankets. True snuggling requires blankets.” He tugged me so I stumbled into him. But when he released my hand, a thread of my dress caught on one of his buttons, and it ripped up my arm. The scent of my skin was so potent it made my eyes water. Seriously, I smelled that strong?
“Sorry,” I said, edging away from him. But that only made the rip larger. He took an edge of the dress, like he was going to put it back together, but then he bent his head and nibbled it, working his way up my arm until the sleeve was entirely gone.
He raised his head, looking glazed, confused, and unsteady.
“You ate my sleeve,” I said, looking down at my arm. It was shinier than usual, but there was no under layer. It must have melted off, and my arm smelled so strongly of me, it almost stank, but not quite.
He touched my shoulder, where the edge of my dress rippled in the breeze. “Did I mention that saramac flowers have drug-like qualities?” His voice was slow, heavy, apparently affected by eating my sleeve.
“You did not. How am I going to get off the roof if you’re drugged?”
“It’ll wear off,” he said, leaning closer and then his breath was on my shoulder. There was another rip, and half my dress was disappearing into his mouth, including most of the skirt.
I watched him gobble up my dress with the weirdest feeling, like this was too bizarre to be real, but then he looked at me with eyes that were still so hungry. I felt a very real alarm as he looked at me, at the bare skin eating my dress had left behind.
I took a step away from me, but he followed, body languid and lazy. But those eyes were intense hunter’s eyes. “You shouldn’t eat people’s dresses,” I said, backing away from him until I hit the edge of the lounger.
“You aren’t people, Rynne, you’re Lady Justice,” he murmured, fingers grazing the side of my neck before he had the last sleeve, the last side in his fingers.
“You especially shouldn’t eat Lady Justice’s dress,” I said, covering his fingers with mine.
He studied me, eyes confused for a moment, before he smiled. “That reminds me. You kissed me during the second dance. I need to reciprocate that as well.”
I lurched away from him and landed on the lounger, leaving the rest of the edible dress in his hand. For a long moment he stared down at me in my purple goblin skin, then absently ate the rest of the dress in one gulp before he crouched down in front of the lounger, very close to my feet.
I gasped at how close he was, how suddenly skanky my outfit was. “I’m cold. I need to go home because I’m cold.” I sounded as unbalanced as I felt. He wasn’t really going to eat me. Probably. But he was looking at me like he was still hungry. Like my dress had only been an appetizer.
He took off his jacket and put it over my legs and then ripped off his shirt and wrapped it around my body, tying it at the front, all without taking his eyes off mine. And now he was only wearing pants. “I think I need to kiss you.”
“No, you actually don’t.”
“Why did you kiss me if you didn’t want me to kiss you back?”
