Chapter 161 A grand reveal
“Does she make you ache like she makes me?” My provocative lover breathed in my ear.
I balled my hands into painful fists and pushed them in my pockets. We were still standing in the corridor, one of the transitional ones with polished stones that led to the courtyard.
And right now, he was standing close enough to feel the hard evidence of my desire, but his body was turned slightly to the side, in a way that wouldn't feel inappropriate if someone suddenly walked in on us.
“I made her send me a picture of her pussy this evening. Want to see?”
“Goodness, Hale.” There was an instant throb in more than one cord of muscle in my body, and an inferno of desire that was heightened by the well of rage I still felt.
I clutched his jacket and yanked him closer. “Stop it. You're asking for trouble.”
He angled his head and brushed his lips against my neck. I cursed, trembling at the sharp jolt of electricity ran down my tail bone.
“Throughout my meetings today, I could not stop thinking about last night.” His voice was velvet, alluring. I have always known Hale had that dark voice that made bad decisions irresistible, but right now, the voice was testing my limit. "It was so bad the Lebanese minister spotted my hard on while we debated gas policies.”
“Fuck.” My hand on his jacket trembled.
I wanted to feel it now. I knew he would be just as hard from the memory of it, as erect as I was. I wanted to back him against the wall and take him in my hand till those clever words became slurs.
“I know.” He chuckled, still crooning in my ear. “That was all I could think about, the word fuck in that rich girl voice that excites you…” he brushed against my cock as he pretended to dust down my suit.
“Hale…” my hunger was beginning to override my anger. But I had to go in already. I had to make sure my eyes were on my wife even though her manager was right that she could protect herself well enough. “For your sake, I hope this is not all talk. I plan to shove my dick in you while your fairy watches.”
He groaned, and stepped back. His eyes burned, and then he bit his lip hard.
Fuck it.
I grabbed his face on both sides and pressed a searing kiss against his lips. Those strong arms lifted to clutch me, protesting about culture and respect and someone walking in.
But I did not care.
I backed him against a wall and pinned him with my hips till he relaxed, and those hands started to pull me closer instead. It was easier to brand my rage on him, to possess this man I had always known, this man who did not come with terms and conditions. He was mine.
Always has been.
I held on to him like I was scared he would run away, because I actually was. I was not sure anymore, just much longer we had together.
How much longer before he finds out the truth and we become enemies.
When I finally pulled back, his eyes were dilated, dazed but hardly sated.
I chuckled and leaned in to press a lingering peck on those red lips. He held on to my hand, staring in my eyes. “I love you.”
My eyes stung as I stared at the man I first kissed in his prime. “I'll burn the world for you.”
He beamed and then pushed away from the wall. The smile was still on his lips as he brushed down my suit and righted my bow tie. “You're supposed to say I love you too,” He then turned, making his way towards the courtyard.
Even before the Matron ruined my night, I had been feeling quite indifferent, if not a little chaotic. So, I had Finn move to our table.
It was the last day anyway.
He looked up at us now as we settled into our seats with those beautiful eyes that stopped my heart every damn time. And I saw a flicker of jealousy in the aqua colored twin pool as he took in our flushed faces and swollen lips.
Good. My wife and I were not the only ones cursed with this misery. Call me evil, but it felt more tolerable this knowledge that the jealous rage was a shared thing between the four of us.
We could share the hurt if we could not share the love.
The lights went out then and the hall fell silent.
I spotted her immediately, hanging midair like a real life fairy. Watching Lys Grunder perform, you immediately saw why she was the star of her company, always booked and busy.
It was the same reason these snobbish dignitaries watched only her performances with rapt attention. There was something about her mere presence that arrested a crowd, that made these guests, who had probably seen a thousand ballerinas in their lifetime, stop everything just to watch her.
My eyes scanned the courtyard now with its underfloor heating and overhead heat lamps that made it convenient to sit out in a courtyard even though it was the middle of winter. I could not find him. It was no surprise because I could not feel him either.
But if his mother said he was lurking, he was.
The audience started to clap, pulling my attention back to the performance. I followed their gaze to the foot of the wall. Her dance partner and dear friend was climbing up towards her direction now, his hands gripping the stone wall.
In the shadowed lighting of the room, he simulated the mirage that he was climbing without an aid or anchor.
“What is this called again?” Hale asked then.
I stiffened as Finn leaned into me to respond to Hale, who sat to my right. The smell of warm musk and cedar wood made my pulse start to beat. I swallowed hard and kept my eyes on Hale instead.
“Spirit lover returning.” His voice came out more husky than usual. I glanced between them, taking in their locked gazes.
“Get a room.”
Hale chuckled, and Finn relaxed in his seat again, his cheeks the shade of habanero. I felt a pair of eyes on me, and glanced across the courtyard to find the Matron’s eyes on me.
The collective gasp of the audience jerked my head up again. My wife was drifting further into the middle of the courtyard, her chest toward the sky, her body bent like a bow drawn backward.
Floating on just air like that, she looked magical. And as a few people raised their phones to take pictures, I thought how even more mesmerized they would be if they ever saw her in her true form. Not that wolf, but the actual creature she was.
A creature she herself was yet to meet.
She and the young man, Kade, were moving around each other now, their bodies slowly rotating in a dance that mimicked the art of courtship, walking on air without really touching.
And then they were touching, clinging to each other, twining like a yarn of rope. “How can you watch this?” Hale said in a strained voice like someone was pulling his tooth out.
When I looked at Finn, he had the same pained expression. I relaxed with a satisfied smile. The shared misery was delicious.
That was the moment Hale stiffened, eyes wide like he had just seen a ghost.
Finn seemed to have been watching him because he leaned over me immediately. “Hale?”
Silence.
“Hale? Are you OK?”
He was still staring up, face frozen in a mask of terror as Lys, who had drifted from her dancer partner, was now spiraling downward, her face more visible.
“Night take me,” Hale gasped. “My love, it's Nymphaea. She's Nymphaea.”