Page 32 of Shattered Jewel
“Sit down, you stubborn ass,” Wilder chides Kaspian as he wanders in last, pointing at an armchair near the fireplace, but still where I can see them.
“Elara,” I murmur. “Come here.”
She huffs like she’s reached her limit on taking orders tonight but obediently perches on the edge of the bed, close enough for me to feel the warmth radiating off her. My eyes roam over her appreciatively before returning to hers.
A villainous grin tugs at my lips.
She slants her eyes at my study. “What?”
“I want you.”
The words slip out effortlessly, and a startled silence blankets the room.
Her eyes widen slightly, then quickly harden again. Elara’s lips part to say something?—
But I beat her to it.
“I mean it. I want to fuck you, right here, right now.”
My hand shoots out to grip her wrist, my fingers curling around the fragile bones there.
She makes an annoyed sound in her throat but doesn’t yank herself free from my grasp. Instead, she asks the room, “When was the last time he’s had his fever treated? Or drugs?”
“Mmm. Drugs and partying and fucking. That’s what I like to hear,” I purr back at her, staring deep into those fiery orbs as if they hold all answers to this fucked-up world. “That’s what normal college assholes do. Let’s do that instead of … instead of …”
The memory of what happened, what I endured, starts to leach into the edges of my vision.
“Axe,” Wilder says sharply from across the room. “Grab some ice water in case we need to cool him down.”
Axe’s mouth tenses grimly, but he leaves the room without protest, leaving the four of us remaining in uneasy, I dare say worried, quiet.
Well, if I’m good at one thing, it’s breaking the silence. I glance over at Elara again.
My smirk deepens. God, how I long to trace every inch of her skin with my fingertips.
“Now,” I murmur, my thumb gently stroking her wrist, “let’s deal with this fever the right way.”
My attention shifts from her flushed face to my own aching body. The pain is a distant, dull throb as I guide her hand past my angry chest to the large tent of my cock beneath it.
Elara’s gentle hand on mine pulls her wrist away, her fingers tracing lightly over the blood-soaked bandages. Her touch is careful, but it’s enough to set my nerves on fire. I hiss through gritted teeth but make no move to recoil.
“Easy,” she murmurs, her fingertips moving from the bandages to ghost over my skin, leaving trails of delicious tingles in their wake.
My vision tunnels with need as I watch her every movement. The way her lips part slightly as she concentrates on refreshing my bandages and treating my wounds under Wilder’s guidance and how her strawberry lips purse with concentration. It’s fucking thrilling.
Wilder clears his throat, shifting his attention from my cock to my face with a look that says he’s seen far too much for one evening. Kaspian merely smirks from his spot by the fire, his eyes flicking between Elara and me with the kind of amusement that tells me he was recently in a similar situation with her.
Axe returns with a pitcher of water, refreshing the untouched, room-temperature one on my bedside table. He takes in the sexual tension in the room with suspicious eyes, keeping the pitcher aloft like he’s willing to douse me in it should I get too out of control.
I beam at his discomfort before returning my attention to Elara.
“Did you miss me while I was cooped up in the basement?” I ask her, my voice dropping lower, something ominous lurking beneath my tone.
Elara rolls her eyes, but not fast enough. I catch the lash of pain my question causes her as she comes face-to-face with my mutilated chest before she retorts, “You wish.”
Ignoring the twinge of my consciousness at the utterly destroyed look in her eye, I return my focus to Elara’s touch as she applies the ointment to my wounds. Her hands are cold against the fevered skin of my chest, but they bring relief—a sweet torture I can’t get enough of.
I lean in closer, ignoring the sharp stab of pain that shoots through my ribs from my wounds. “I want to make you blush so hard, your pussy turns a different color, too.”