Draziel's POV
She followed closely beside me, her eyes jumping everywhere and on every guard and maid. She seemed as though something or someone was out to get her in the castle, and the only way to prevent that was by staying glued to me.
I didn't need to turn to find her. Her little bare feet hissed softly as she climbed the stone stairs just behind me.
Now that I knew fever meant a human body heating up. I felt the heat from her more, like my mind was conditioned to that single purpose. I felt the hot and stifling heat as she moved and breathed beside me. With the sleeves of my robe folded up to my elbow, just as I loved it, I could almost feel the heat from her scalding my arms.
I pushed the door, and we stepped into the guest room. My gaze fell quickly on the floor—no broken ceramic vases, no splinter of wood, no shard of glasses and metals. Zarek had had the maids clean the room, returning it back to its elegance before the chaos.
The maid filtered in after us, moving for the bathroom. As if by reflex, she shifted to my right, seeming to want to avoid any of the maids bumping into her.
I could understand it was her trauma playing out, yet I couldn't keep out the amusement tickling my mind at the action—it stained my eyes. I turned away from her gaze briefly, and I chuckled.
When I returned to look at her, I gave my eyes and face a rather serious nudge. Then I strolled towards the bathroom, very much aware she was following me. We watched quietly as a maid bent low over the bathtub to turn the faucet, water gushing out of it in a startled cry. Another maid poured in some ice.
She peered over my broad shoulder. "That's enough," she yelled in an almost strangled voice, like she had struggled to get the words out.
The maid paused, turning sharply to me for a directive, and I nodded gently in confirmation.
She held back on the ice, pouring the irregularly shaped blocks back into the bucket she was hurling them from. She stepped back just as another maid sprinkled gel-like leaves into the tub, along with a few doses of rose petals.
"Do you really think it is enough?" I nudged my jaw at the bathtub, letting my gaze flitter over the ice, roses, and leaves combo.
"It is, any more and you will be carrying out a corpse, Draziel," she chimed.
"Okay, get in then," I said. I threw my hand forward in the direction of the bathtub.
Her eyes shifted between me and the bathtub, skepticism crawling into her features.
"It's okay, human… Lyra," I corrected myself quickly, forcing a smile at her.
Then she sighed, and before I could try to look away, she took off my robe she was wearing, revealing a very skimpy outfit and exposing more of her legs. Long, straight, elegant legs sticking out from a round butt, as the tight dress pressed into her body, baring out the contours of her petite yet sublime figure.
I sucked in a breath, the cold air stinging my nostrils. My eyes lingered on her features when they should have been turning away—staring at anywhere else but her. I wasn't wrong. This was a mistake. Perhaps the biggest mistake of my life.
I could feel it, that sudden flush of warmth that ripples through my veins, tinkling every nerve ending. That pull, firing up my loins with the urge to grab her into my arms now and kiss her till forever.
This was the very thing I wanted to avoid. Yet—I was here, unable to take my eyes off her, even as her slim fingers began moving for the hem of her tight outfit.
Her fingers folded on the hem, and she pulled off her outfit with a little bit of struggle due to its tightness. Then I was staring at her slim, smooth, olive-skinned back—a bit dark, nearly as if she was completely tanned.
My eyes fastened on her round ass, watching them jerk as she strolled carefully to the bathtub, sinking slowly into the cold water.
My loins fired up with so much heat—I felt myself shudder as I fought the desire to run to her, pull her into my arms, and never let go. I gripped tight to my robe, feeling it almost tear at the strength of my fingers.
Stop staring like a pervert, fool. I muttered under my breath, rebuking myself. And slowly, I dragged my gaze from her, my veins straining against my skin as I struggled to pull my reluctant eyes away, turning my back to her. I was a fool for ever agreeing to this. What was I expecting? That this pull was just superficial.
She was the woman my future self had fallen in love with. Definitely something about her stirs him up as it was stirring me now. Something about her must have fired up his loins with so much heat, it ached, as mine was aching now.
But how? How could I feel this much connection to a human female when I hadn't even felt any for a demon female? How could this even happen? A demon and a human. Isn't this the biggest aberration in the whole of the universe?
I had taken my eyes from her, but not my mind. My mind strayed to the thoughts of her, memories of her body burning fresh in my mind's eye. I was literally tracing the outline of her back in my head. The urge to turn back to her, to steal more glances at her, fired through me in cool, fine tremors. I grunted, clenching my jaw tight, as I fought the urge once again. There was only one solution to this. I have to leave.
I began to march out of the bathroom, but her soft, quiet voice called me. "Where are you going, Draziel?"
Surprisingly, I found myself stopping just to listen to her, even when every shred of reasoning begged not to.
I couldn't lie even if I wanted to. And how I fucking wish I could. "I have to leave, human," I said over my shoulder, keeping the strain off my voice. I couldn't let her know that even a shred of me desired her.
"What do you mean, you promised me, Draziel?" she yelled. I could almost feel the shock in her voice. "You can't just leave me here with these maids,"
"Well, I think I have fulfilled that promise to the best of my ability. The maids wouldn't dare harm you. They know not to cross me." I said, a bite to my voice, as if to snap some sense into her. And then I continued for the exit.
"Wait, Draziel," she called behind me, urgency making her voice quiver. The noise of dripping water announced to me that she was stepping out of the bathtub. Still, I kept on, steeling my nerves. I couldn't turn back. I just couldn't risk that sight again.
Suddenly, a primal cry tore through the fragile silence that had slowly built up between us. It was from a maid. Yet, I found myself teleporting to her, grabbing her naked form as she stood in the bathroom, and steering her into my arms. Even before I knew I was, even before I knew she wasn't falling, even before I caught the snake, through my peripheral vision, slithering away in the corner of the room—the sight which must have excited the maid.
Her wet, naked body was damp against my robe. I stared down into the warm amber pair, now locked on me, her eyes round and wide, frozen in utter fright.
My eyes trailed down lower to her lips, an inviting pink bundle, shaped almost like a Cupid. Surprisingly, I found myself leaning low to taste them.
Somehow, just before I could go lower and damn myself, my senses slipped back in, in a furious rush, snapping me back to reasoning.
I dropped her as if she burned my arms, and she fell ass-down into the bathtub, splashing water about the bathroom.
Her loud yelp of pain as she hit the water with such force followed me as I teleported to snatch the snake from the floor and teleported from the room with it. This was the biggest mistake of my life. The stupidest thing I have ever done.