Unhallowed (Rath and Rune #1) - Jordan L. Hawk Page 0,63

bad as they’d seemed only a short while ago. He didn’t have to run, not tonight.

He could sit here on the edge of Sebastian Rath’s bed and wait.

He’d removed the tatters of his shirt and vest, but left his trousers on. The bathroom was conveniently located next to Sebastian’s room, and Ves had splashed water on his face, used his finger to scrub dentifrice across his teeth, and slunk back to the bedroom. A few minutes later, he heard someone else slip into the bathroom. Sebastian, perhaps, or Bonnie.

When the footsteps approached his door, he knew it wasn’t Bonnie.

“Come in,” he said in response to the soft knock.

Sebastian stuck his head inside. “Would you like to talk?” he asked, keeping his voice low. “Or would you prefer I leave you alone to sleep?”

Gods. He should tell Sebastian to leave now. Not make things any more complicated.

“What would you like?” he asked.

“That doesn’t matter.”

“It does. Very much,” Ves protested.

“This isn’t a test, Ves,” Sebastian said with startling gentleness. “I’m fine with either of the two options I offered. You’ve had a difficult time, and I want to do what’s best for you. That’s all.”

A part of Ves wanted to laugh. He’d had a difficult time, when Sebastian was the one who’d had a gun held to his head.

Another part wanted to cry, though he wasn’t certain why. “It’s just…a lot,” he said at last. “I’ve spent my entire life living under this curse, believing that no one could ever know. That if anyone saw me, they’d try to kill me for being a monster.” Like the children in the glen, but he didn’t say that part aloud.

“I’m sorry.” Sebastian shut the door, then sat beside him on the bed, the mattress dipping under his slighter weight. “I can’t imagine how isolating that must have felt. But it’s all right. You’re safe here.”

A terrible, dark knot seemed to unravel inside of Ves’s chest. He leaned forward and buried his face in his hands, while a flood of commingled emotions rose in him. Grief and anger, and a powerful relief.

Sebastian didn’t try to interrupt, only stayed with him quietly. When Ves finally sat back, wiping at his wet face, Sebastian put a hand to his bare shoulder.

The touch sent a pleasant shiver through him. His skin pebbled, and embarrassment flashed through him as his nipples drew up into tight peaks. Perhaps Sebastian wouldn’t notice.

“Are you cold?” He’d noticed.

“No.” The word came out husky, and Ves cursed himself.

Sebastian nodded, then said, “Would you like me to leave?”

“No.”

“Would you like me to touch you?”

Ves closed his eyes. “Yes.”

Sebastian very gently ran his hand across Ves’s shoulders, brushing the ends of his soft hair. The muscles beneath his fingers were tense, and Ves’s breath hitched. He continued down, tracing the path of Ves’s spine, keeping the touch non-sexual and using the opportunity to get a truly good look at Ves’s back.

The scars there startled him more than the two patches of dark skin running down either side of the spine. It looked as though someone had whipped Ves, and more than once given some of the scars crossed over one another.

He ignored them for the moment and turned his attention to the dark skin whose texture looked smoother than the rest of Ves’s back. The only other sign of the tentacles was four fleshy knobs on each strip, three larger and the lowest pair smaller. How did that even work? Where did they go?

“You can relax if you want to,” Sebastian said. “I don’t mind.”

Quite the opposite, though he didn’t want to say that aloud and sound as if he had some sort of sexual fetish. It was more that if he’d thought Ves attractive before, seeing him coming down from the tree had taken Sebastian’s breath away. In that moment, Ves had looked…whole. Complete, though Sebastian hadn’t even realized before that something was missing.

For a moment, he thought Ves would refuse. Then he sighed, and something seemed to go out of him.

The tentacles uncoiled in a single, smooth motion that somehow looked as natural as a man stretching out his arms. They appeared black in color at first, but then the light caught a patch of skin, and Sebastian realized they in fact had a beautiful blue-gold iridescence to them.

“May I touch?” he asked. “Only if you’re comfortable with it.”

Ves swallowed audibly. “Go ahead.”

The skin was dry and firm. He’d expected it to feel rubbery, but instead the tentacle was startlingly muscular. He ran his