Page 44 of Changelings
He didn’t like that.
“Won’t you read another? I’m not quite tired.”
“All right,” she murmured. Clearing her throat, and without looking at him, she found another story to read.
Balar settled back against the cushions, his exhale rushing out of him. Shadow yawned and curled up at Imogen’s feet.
It was such a warm, domestic scene they all made. Balar could just imagine many more nights like this, tucked away with hiskigara,warm beside the fire. Of course, in his imaginings, she was in his lap rather than her chair, and his hand would be up her skirt so he could pet her soft skin.
Yes, that was just how he wished to spend every evening from now on. Her sweet voice in his ear. Her strong body pressed against his. They would spend pleasant hours together just like that, until finally, when the hour drew late, he would press a kiss to her temple.Won’t you come to bed?he’d croon, his hand running up and down her thigh in gentle persuasion.
When she finally nodded yes, he’d take her mouth in a gentle but passionate kiss. He wouldn’t need to look as he lifted her in his arms and carried her off to bed. There, they would make love, keeping time to the percussive rain as the fires slowly died.
So strong were his visions and desires, he was almost startled when Imogen finished her story. He couldn’t say he remembered any of it, taken as he’d been with his own fantasies.
They spent another hour or so in companionable silence, listening to the storm outside.
As Imogen’s lids grew heavier, Balar’s need became sharper. He could see how tired she was, yet his own body hummed with need. Just a word from her, a look, and he would be beside her.Ready, willing.
Let me,urisá. Give yourself to me.
His plea was a drumbeat in his head, so loud, he thought she surely must hear.
Balar’s heart was racing nearly as fast as his thoughts by the time Imogen drew in a long breath, stretched her arms above her head, and stood.
“I’m going to bed,” she told him quietly. “Are you sure you’ll be all right?”
He watched her, unable to help that he likely looked predatory. Hefeltpredatory then, seeing her hover in the threshold to her bedchamber.
Trying to keep the worst of the growl from his voice, he assured her, “I’ll be just fine. I have the fire and the blanket.”
She nodded slowly, looking about the cottage before fixing her gaze somewhere around his throat. “Good night, then.”
“Good night,kigara.”
Until tomorrow.
16
Imogen stared at the open threshold into the main room of the house. There’d never been a need for a door before to separate her bedchamber from the rest of the cottage. Across from the central fireplace, her bedchamber was warm and cozy, and she could keep an eye on the fire throughout the night.
On this night, she also watched the top of Balar’s mane and his ears. They were just visible at the edge of the threshold from where he laid on the sofa.
She hadn’t waited to see how he’d arranged himself there, instead fleeing into the far corner of her bedchamber to hastily change into her long-sleeved nightgown. Imogen wasn’t proud of the way she’d dived under the covers, pulse beating frantically at the thought of the big, flirty,virilemanticore on the other side of the wall.
Imogen’s body buzzed and burned with desire long into the night, but she held firm. She didn’t dare bring herself any kind of release, sure that not only would those sensitive manticore ears hear it but his nose would scent it, too.
After all his heated stares that night, she doubted it’d take much to see him barging into her room to join her in bed.
Which would be bad. She definitely didn’t want that.
Right?
The whole day had been…a new experience. Her cottage was so obviously unfit for a grown manticore male. Most of her furniture came from her parents’ home and had been made for a much larger house. Imogen navigated it with ease, but Balar was far bulkier, with three more limbs.
It was a wonder he hadn’t knocked anything over.
With him being so big and strange in her space, he’d seemed to take up all of it. Everywhere she turned, there he was. She’d run into him so many times, she began to think he was doing it on purpose.
