Page 24 of Fall of Ruin and Wrath

“You can try.” I knelt beside him, and hesitated, the reality of what I was doing striking me.

I was undressing a Hyhborn— a Hyhborn lord.

Naomi would be so jealous.

Biting back a laugh, I reached for the flap on his pants and began to unhook the buttons. The back of my hands brushed along something I also refused to think of, causing him to suck in the deepest breath I’d heard him take that evening. “Hold still.”

“I am holding still, but . . . you’re on your knees, your fingers are near my dick, and you’re currently gloriously nude, so . . .”

Undoing the final button, I rolled my eyes. “You can’t even stand on your own two feet and you’re currently regrowing eyeballs. The last thing you need to be thinking about is me on my knees, your dick, or my nudity.”

“I’ve regrown my eyes,na’laa.”

My chin jerked up. The mess of hair shielded his face, but his head was turned in my direction. My gaze dropped to his hands— to his long fingers pressing into the rim of the sink.

“That’s how . . . I know you’re gloriously nude,” he continued.

Muscles curled low in my stomach, stealing the breath I took.

Good gods, that was the utter last thing I needed to be feeling now.

I quickly finished with the last button, maybe a little too roughly because his low groan burned the tips of my ears. I reached to pull his pants down—

“I got this,” he muttered.

I wasn’t sure he actually did, so when I rose, I stood behind him. I kept my gaze trained on his back as he unsteadily shucked off his pants, and I stepped aside once he finished and pushed off the sink. He took a step and began to sway again. I caught him, folding an arm around his waist. My hand flattened against his stomach, and I tensed.

There were no voices.

No images.

Would it be like with acaelestia,where I would have a few blissful minutes of being able to touch them? Though I still had to concentrate to avoid slipping into their minds even in those brief minutes.

“I was wrong.” The Lord leaned into me, his hip pressing into my stomach. “I don’t have it.”

I helped him toward the stall, unable to ignore the feel of him. His skin was incredibly warm.

“There’s a small ledge to step over,” I warned him.

He nodded, lifting his foot over the ledge as I followed, keeping my arm around him.

And keeping my eyes trained up, on the white tile of the stall.

The fall of water was a bit of a shock as we stepped under the stream, his body taking the brunt of it. I held on, closing my hand into a fist as he turned and braced a hand against the tile, facing the stream. I looked up and found his head tipped back, exposing his face and chest to the shower.

His groan was . . . it was downright sinful-sounding as water streamed over his face and through his hair. Heat returned, creeping up my throat as my stare followed the water coursing down the corded muscles of his back, cutting trails in the dried blood there and the, well, rather firm curve of his ass.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I ordered myself to get a grip. Hyhborn were nice to look upon. I already knew that. Everyone did. It didn’t matter that it was a nice ass. An ass was an ass. There was nothing spectacular about any ass, including his.

Opening my eyes, I wanted to smack myself as the water swirling around the drain became tinted red. “How are you feeling?”

“Better.”

My gaze lifted to the hand on the tile. His arm still trembled. Blue and purple blotches marred his flesh. Anger slithered through me. “They really did a number on you.”

“The Fool’s Parsley had . . . kicked in just as I walked out of the tavern. I think they expected it to have a greater effect more . . . quickly.”

He stiffened as I reached around to grab the soap I spotted. The effort brought my bare chest against his back. The contact was brief, but long enough to send a shiver of awareness through me. I grabbed the bar and leaned back.