The Rising (The Rising #4) - Kristen Ashley Page 0,115

any need to see my father before we resume our journey home.”

And, in truth, to his surprise, it had been a pleasant sojourn.

He had found that he’d missed this town. The place where he had grown up. Especially the Gorge, somewhere he had gone often, for its beauty gave him succor.

The high, sheer, rugged brown rock covered mostly in fluffy moss leading down to the meandering green of the river, no matter how many times he had done so, it was always breathtaking to see.

And the town they were now in, at the western tip of the gorge, he had always liked, with its thatched buildings and plethora of shops selling all manner of things.

It was not as exciting or sprawling as the Thicket or as popular as The Lights.

But many a Dellish would journey there to see the gorge and then buy their wives filigreed silver-pewter earrings and pendants or purchase rounds of Trevor cheese, while eating in the cafés or sitting in the bakeries and noshing on the pastries.

Teddy found, with his friends around him, it felt nice to come home (of a sort).

But now that he had, he was ready to leave.

“I disagree,” Faunus stated flatly.

Teddy opened his mouth to speak again.

But Moira did so before he could, partly to take them off the subject Teddy had introduced, partly for other reasons altogether.

“Tonight, we dine on the delicacies of the Gorge. But when we’re in Firenz, I will cook for you,” she decreed. And although she appeared anxious when stating her next words, she offered them a shaky, but cheeky grin, her eyes not quite falling on Saturn as she did so. “I’m rather good at it, even though I am the only judge I have. The gravy in my stews…”

She broke off only to roll her eyes in ecstasy.

This, as he watched it, causing Saturn to growl low.

And when he did, her startled gaze went to him.

But now, he was glowering at Faunus. “Let us go to deal with Teddy’s father and then be away from this place.”

“Don’t you like it here, Saturn?” Moira asked quietly.

He turned his fierce glower to her and grunted, “No.”

“You would not wish to come back for chocolate cream and…and…to erm, cuddle under a rug to beat back the cold?” she pressed.

Saturn repeated his grunt of, “No.”

She sat back in her seat, appearing utterly crestfallen.

Oh yes, Teddy wished to shake his very stupid, very blind and seeming very deaf friend.

Gods dammit.

“We can journey to Teddy’s father,” Faunus said slowly, studying Saturn closely.

“Excellent,” Saturn bit off.

“I will…I will just…” Moira touched her hair, seeming not to know where to cast her gaze, and then she took up the plate of pastries and said, “Have them wrap these and send them to our inn. We will eat them for dessert tonight. And then I will freshen up.”

She rose from her chair and scurried to the counter.

“What is the matter with you?” Faunus hissed at Saturn when Moira disappeared down a back hall to find the cloakroom.

“I know you are each other’s chosen,” his gaze pinned Teddy, “but I would request a session this eve where you allow Faunus to fuck me and do this hard and also repeatedly.”

Faunus leaned into the table toward Saturn.

“You do need me to fuck you, you need to do a better job at winning,” he lifted a hand and jabbed a finger toward where Moira disappeared and finished, “her.”

“She barely knows I exist.”

“She is skittish as a doe around you,” Faunus retorted. “You terrify her, and yet she’s so desirous of falling on your cock, she can barely function. She nearly fell into the gorge, for watching how you would react to seeing it, she so hoped you’d like it. She does not wish to cook for Teddy and me, she wishes to cook for you and for you to think she does well at it. And she is Dellish and this is Dellish,” he swung his hand out, “and she wishes you to like this for liking this, and the bloody cheese she enjoys so damned much that her mother bought for their festival, is akin to liking her. But are you indicating any of this, amico? Fuck…no.”

Saturn appeared thunderstruck.

“He is right,” Teddy put in a lot less irately, and Saturn looked to him. “Faunus told her you fancied her. And although that conversation was rife with a number of other things, since then, a woman I have not known long, but in the time I’ve known