RENDING AND MENDING HEARTS
Ronan shuddered, wings trembling inside of the gentle net surrounding them, his cock bobbing and weeping a drop into my palm. He looked like a smoking, red bat, and I wasn't sure how well the net would hold up if he couldn't control the occasional flare of impish flames while I teased him. He was always careful when we had sex, but apparently, being left to another's mercy made Ronan especially fired up…all pun intended.
"Louder!" Evie heckled from the audience.
I grinned as Ronan released a loud groan, arching where I had him suspended upside down.
"Tickle his balls again," Alexa hollered through giggles.
"We're rehearsing the blocking, ladies," I answered, rolling my eyes.
"But do it," Ronan rasped to me, pressing his chin to his chest to look up, flashing me a grin.
I snorted and brought the feather duster to his dark sac, teasing gently over the spot, Evie and Alexa both hooting in enthusiasm as Ronan started to buck and thrash. His chest heaved with breaths, garbled moans and sudden flashes of laughter bursting from his lips. God, he'd look pretty in a harness like mine, I mused.
"Wings," I reminded him, but I had to pull the feathers away from his skin before he could focus. "Wings, Ro."
Ronan howled, but the claws at the tips of his wings wiggled and then cut through the delicate net holding them trapped. The vast black stretch of flesh and bone flashed free, net still strapping Ronan's shoulders, and I brushed the feathers over the membrane of one wing, Ronan's gasp drawing a smile to my lips. His wings stretched wide, an invitation to continue my tickling, but I pulled the feathers behind my back.
"Boo!" Evie cried.
"Finish him off!" Alexa crowed.
Ronan laughed in his suspended trap, twisting in the net and harness to grin at me. His cock was stiff and tempting, little dribbles of precum on his chest and jaw.
"Don't tell me you're going to leave me...hanging," Ronan said, eyebrows waggling as I groaned at the terrible pun.
"I'll finish him off, but not for you perverts," I called to the girls in the audience.
Ronan stilled at that announcement, as Alexa and Evie cursed me. I wasn't sure how all of the monsters who worked in the company felt about this week's theme, but us humans were in high spirits.
"Will you?" Ronan asked as I nodded at Billy, who lowered the rope and harness slowly to the floor.
I knelt, wrapping an arm around his back to keep him from landing in a messy heap.
"I have to find Constantine later to talk to him about our act, but I have time," I said, smiling at Ronan.
His gaze was bright on mine, but he was quiet for a moment, his hips touching down and wings spreading out flat. "What about Hunter? He'll smell me."
I blinked at that. Hunter had woken me with his face between my thighs and his fingers slipping into my ass. In the carriage ride to the theater, he'd put me on the floor and let me suck him off. He would be waiting for me tonight when rehearsals ended, and he'd promised to put me back in the harness for the evening. Things with Hunter were...wonderful, actually. Fun and sweet and incredibly erotic all at once. Easy too. We were still in a bit of a sexual frenzy together, learning every little detail of arousal, but the moments of quiet and calm were equally sweet, full of honesty and affection.
It reminded me of how things were with me and Ronan too.
"I've missed you," I said to Ronan, staring back at him, unbuckling the harness—inspired by the one Hunter had made for me—and pulling his arms free.
"Is this the last week you'll spend with him?" Ronan asked, the words simple, carefully placed one after another, and heavy with meaning.
I shook my head, trying and failing to ignore the seize of my heart. I would not be done with Hunter at the end of this week. I didn't want to ever be finished with the orc if I could help it. What that meant for Ronan and me… My heart panged again, and I could've sworn I felt it tear, bleeding a bittersweet poison into my chest.
His eyes closed and that poison burned, teasing through my veins, punishing me for the truth. Was Ronan finally learning the lesson I'd taught myself years ago? That one by one, we all left the theater eventually, and so rarely together.
"Then I don't care what he minds," Ronan said softly.
I had no reason to know, but I got the feeling Hunter wouldn't mind. Not yet, at least. It wasn't as though I'd quit the theater. He knew I was still working, still fucking monsters for work. I could easily pretend he smelled Ronan on me because of rehearsals. But I also knew that if Hunter asked about Ronan, I wouldn't lie.
"You're up," I called to Evie.
"Saddle my beasts!" Evie hollered, triumphant and almost diabolically gleeful.
Ronan's hand clasped around mine, and I tugged him up from the floor, keeping hold of him as I led us offstage. There was a beating, living creature between our clasped palms. Our hearts probably, ready to break when we released one another. I meant to take Ronan down to my dressing room, but we hadn't even made it to the stairs when he shouldered open a narrow door, dragging me inside.
My back hit a shelf as he squeezed the door shut behind us, something metallic chiming as it rattled. The prop cupboard, I realized, as Ronan gathered me close.
"I've missed you too," Ronan whispered, his nose dragging along my jaw. "It doesn't have to be him. You could wait. Myra will find you another. Or—"
I found Ronan's face in the dark and pulled it to me, took his lips in a deep kiss he answered eagerly. A kiss intended to apologize, but what quickly became a plea. A begging press of my lips to his, to forgive me, to pretend with me that I wasn't saying goodbye.
The truth was that I missed Hunter now too, right here in this tiny cupboard. I was thinking of Jude, of how he was the only person who knew the truth of me. Still full of questions for Nireas, wondering why he'd turned away eight years ago. Still curious about Constantine, his intentions and interest, needing to know why he looked at me like he saw right through me and still didn't believe I existed.
It wasn't fair to any of them, and it was entirely unfair to myself to be doing this, pulling my skirts up as Ronan and I gasped and clutched and fumbled closer.
"You like him," Ronan hissed.
"Yes," I admitted, my heart pounding. More than like, I think.
"And you'll miss me."