I nodded and left him to pull his trousers on, trying to ignore how giddy I felt as I made my way into the kitchen. The fire was burning low, so I fed it a new log before fetching water to pour into the cauldron to heat.
Lonan stepped silently into the room, dressed only in his black leathers as I took two mugs off the sideboard. Still saying nothing, his black eyes swept the room, lingering on me, before he padded barefoot over to the table where we’d sat the very first time he’d visited me here.
I glanced over and saw him staring down at my notebook, long fingers trailing absently over the edge of the mushroom leather cover.
“You can look,” I said with a nod, because for some reason I knew he wouldn’t without my permission.
And for some reason, I wasn’t worried about him thinking I was foolish for copying down the potion recipes I wanted to try, even though the fear of the Folk laughing at me and ridiculing me dogged me. I didn’t think he would.
But then maybe Iwasjust a fool. Maybe I’d already latched onto him and was just projecting what I wanted him to be because I had no one else. Because I wantedhim.
His long fingers flipped open the cover, and I immediately regretted telling him he could look. I busied myself with making tea to hide my hot cheeks, the anxiety getting worse when the room stayed silent for long moments.
“Are these the ones you want to try?” he eventually asked in his soft, husky voice, and I relaxed just a little.
“Yes,” I said, clearing my throat to try and get rid of the hoarseness. Even though I’d had success with my plant potion, I said, “I know they probably won’t work, but I… It’s something to do, I guess.”
“You’ll make them work,” he said simply.
I resisted the intense urge to cross the room and bury myself in his arms, his words affecting me far more than they should have.
Instead, I kept my head down as I said, “Thank you for the coffee.”
If I was wrong, and it hadn’t been him, I’d look so stupid.
I realised too late that I’d thanked him. I froze, my gut tightening with intense fear that he was going to shoot me a sharp, vicious sneer and demand I do something awful as payment. That this had all been a trick to get me to say it so I owed him. So he could demand something of me for his mother.
But he just nodded once, still looking down at my notebook, and quietly said, “You’re welcome.”
After a second, I let out a slow breath as I unclenched. Lonan gently closed my notebook and walked over, hesitating before resting a hand on my bare side once he was standing in front of me. He gazed at me in silence, black eyes taking in my face before locking on my mouth.
I was starting to realise that he did this when he wanted to kiss me, but I could tell that for some reason he was still hesitant. Like a part of him thought that if he did, I would push him off and ask what the fuck he was doing.
I leaned in and pressed my lips to his, going warm all over when his breath hitched against my mouth and he kissed me back fervently. His hands slid round to my lower back as he stepped closer, and then he was trailing feverish kisses over my jaw and down my neck.
He pressed a slow kiss to the bend of my neck, then buried his nose there, going completely still except for his fingers digging harder into my back. I was frozen for a second. I hadn’t expected this. For him to… hold me.
Part of me fearful that he was going to push me off if I touched him, I wrapped my arms round his neck and leaned my cheek into his hair. My eyes slid shut when the scent of him drifted into my nose. Like snow-covered forests. Like the lingering scent of the cold when you stepped into warmth after being outside in the winter.
The cottage was silent except for the crackle of the fire as we stood there. Soon the sweet, unexpected moment ended when Lonan lifted his head and gently raked his teeth over my lower lip before fitting his mouth to mine. I moaned shakily when his tongue slipped inside, thrown completely off guard by the way he’d buried his face in my neck and held me for long moments like I mattered to him.
His breathing grew ragged against my mouth, and then he was pushing me back until the edge of the sideboard dug into my backside. It wasn’t long before he was fumbling with the lacing on his trousers and shoving down my shorts until our cocks brushed between us, already hard.
It was even less time before he was rubbing himself against me, his movements frantic and jerky as he bit down on my lip, his breaths trembling against my mouth before he buried his face back into my neck.
I gripped his ass hard through his leathers, gritting my teeth as I jerked him tighter against me, urging him to grind his hips faster. He was gasping into my neck, biting down with teeth that felt sharp when he shook against me and his cock throbbed, covering both of our lengths with his release. I followed a second later, moaning breathlessly and biting down on my lower lip.
We were both panting as the frantic energy left us. When Lonan took an unsteady step back, I grabbed a cloth from the sideboard and wordlessly handed it to him, letting him clean up before I did the same.
“Do you need anything for the potioncraft?” he asked as he redid the lacing on his trousers, as if that lust-fuelled interlude had never happened. “Any ingredients you don’t have?”
He’d get them for me. I knew he would. His favour burned at the base of my throat, but he wasn’t even looking at it. He was just gazing at me with dark, patient eyes, waiting for me to tell him what I needed.
I shook my head. “I have everything I need. Thank you.”
The words slipped out again so easily, like a part of me had already decided that I didn’t have to worry about what I said around him. Even though out of everyone, he should have been the one I worried about the most. He was the Carlin’s son. She’d ordered him to watch me, to report back on what I was doing.
But he wasn’t here right now because of that. Because of her. He’d said that to me, and he couldn’t lie.