My eyelids slowly lifted as the sun rose through the curtainless windows. As much as I would have preferred to spend all morning lying abed with Aveen, there was pain to inflict.When I’d returned to the castle last night, I’d found her drunk as a lark, laughing and giggling with my brother and his pet. I’d managed to extricate her from their dreadful company and bring her up to my chambers, where she’d proceeded to strip out of all her clothes and torture me with her curves and silky-smooth skin.
When I insisted that I wouldn’t touch her when she was drunk, she’d edged closer, her legs grazing mine, putting my nerves on high alert. I’d promised to make her life hell in the morning.
And now morning had arrived.
I tickled her cheek.She swatted at me.I did it again, and she mumbled a sleepy protest.
When I flicked her beautiful nose, her eyes flew open, red-rimmed and glassy. If she thought she was miserable now, she was in for a big surprise.“Good morning,” I said brightly.
“Leave me alone.” She stole all the covers, leaving me as bare as the day I was born.
I flicked her nose again. “Not a feckin’ hope. Wake up.” One way or another, she would be out of this bed in the next five minutes, or I’d shift a bucket of water and dump it on her beautiful head.
“I don’t want to,” she whined, frowning as she rubbed her reddened nose.
“And I don’t care.” I couldn’t resist one cuddle, because I’d gone soft and the idea of waking her with anything but kisses caused me physical pain. “The sun is shining, and we are going out for a long, strenuous hike. At least ten miles.”
She rubbed her arse all over me.
Not a hope would I let her win this game. My cock could wait its turn.Aveen giggled as if victory was already hers, so I gave her nose one more good flick.
“Ouch! That hurts.”
If she wanted to talk about pain, I’d gladly go into explicit detail of the pain she’d caused me last night. “Fair’s fair. You torture me, I torture you.”
She stretched her hands toward the headboard, the quilt slipping low enough to leave me reconsidering my method of torture this morning. I reached for her breast, but the knowing smirk on her lips was enough to keep me on my original path. “Out of bed, hungover Aveen. There’s walking to be done.”
Like every other time I left the castle grounds with my human, I wore a glamour. Any time my hand brushed hers, I could feel the barrier between us, and I hated it.
I never slowed my strides, not even when she fell behind. After a moment or two, she usually caught up, out of breath and cursing. And when she didn’t, I grabbed her hand and hauled her along behind me.
“It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it? Just look at that sunrise.”
Aveen stubbed her toe on a rock, swearing and stomping around like a child having a tantrum. “You are far too happy this morning.”
“Torture is my second favorite thing to do.”
“And the first?”
“I’ll show you when we get back to the castle.” The fact that I had to use Ruairi’s voice to make the suggestive comment gave me a twitch.
“Where are we going?”
“Down the coast.”
“Why?”
“Why not?”
“I can think of a million reasons,” she groaned.
“I take back what I said about miserable Aveen. She is quite entertaining. Maybe you should remember this next time Tadhg asks you to go drinking.” We all enabled him at one point or another, but she’d think twice the next time.
“He didn’t ask. I offered.”
“Why?”
“He’s my sister’s husband. I should try to get to know him.”