Page 19 of All Hallows' Maze
“You can’t? I don’t know, it seems simple enough. You just pull the back of your collar over your head.”
“I feel like my boobs would get in the way.” I looked at her chest as she grabbed them. Her nipples were perky and pushed through her thin shirt along with the outline of her piercings.
They’ve never been in my way,” I said, shrugging and climbing into the bed with her.
I undressed her, silently admiring the soft curves of her body. My t-shirt was the only thing that would fit her well enough, and even that hit the middle of her thighs. She looked away from me and yawned. I pulled her onto my lap and kissed her head. My hands massaged up and down her thighs.
“How are you feeling?”
“Thoroughly fucked and exhausted.” I laughed at her bluntness.
“Good, good.” Loose hair fell across her cheeks, and I pushed the strands back behind her ears. Her teeth worried her bottom lip.
“Why do you hide it?”
“Hide what?”
“That you’re English.” I sighed. It was a sore spot with my mum, too. I hadn’t forgotten the way Vera lit up when things slipped, and it was just us or when she was over at my house, and I was free to be me with my parents.
“I learned early on that different meant bullying. Shortly after starting school, I switched to an American accent.” Her eyebrow raised playfully. “Okay, something passable back then. I was ten, give me a break.” I laughed and shook my head; it probably was something silly and stupid to do. “If you haven’t noticed, I don’t like the attention.”
“Oh,” she said, sarcastically dragging out the sound as her fingers trailed over my tattoos and ruffled my hair. “Youdon’tlike the attention?” She poked the tip of my fang barbell, and I rolled my eyes.
“That’s different, I likeyourattention.”
“Remember spring break? We’d been drinking and you slipped back into your little posh accent—”
“RP!” I clarified for the thousandth time as she lost herself to a fit of laughter. “It’s Received Pronunciation…it’s notposh.” She covered her mouth and I snickered. “Okay, it’s a little posh.” I laid back, moving her beneath me and kissing her nose.
“I like it though.” She did, and she had.
The earliest memory was when the prissy little girl with pigtails and big purple bows had climbed over the fence. She was short, even for our age, but her personality was large and vibrant. With hands on her hips, she looked at me and with no filter said I talked funny. When I told she did too, she shrugged her shoulders and told me she liked it. That was when purple became my favorite color.
If Vera wanted it, she could have it.
“Do you, poppet?” I asked, embracing the RP. My hands framed her head and pushed into the mattress as I settled between her legs. “You wish to be romanced with lines of Shakespeare and the corniest pet names I can imagine?”
“You’re far better than Shakespeare,” she whispered, reaching up to stroke my cheek.
“You can have this part of me freely.” I traced her lips, watching her chest rise and fall with each breath. “Can I ask you something, love?”
“Anything.”
“Your boundaries for what we discussed earlier, care to expand? Any fantasies you want fulfilled?” I kissed down her neck and across her chest while I waited.
“I don’t know what you’d be willing to do.”
“Anything, everything,” I whispered against her skin. Her hands pushed through my hair and her nails scratched over my scalp.
“When you come over for Victor, I’ve…” Her hands left me, and I looked up to see them covering her face. “I like when you sneak away to my in the middle of the night and I’ve always wanted you to take me that way. It sounds crazy, I know.” I lowered her hands. She rushed it out because it embarrassed her, but I loved the idea.
“And you give me that consent, Veradis?”
“Yes,” she said, nodding gently. I pulled the covers over us and laid on her chest, wrapping my arms around her while she played with my hair and scratched my back.
It was the best sleep I’d had in years.
CHAPTER8
