Текст книги "Berries and Greed"

Автор книги: Lily Mayne

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Текущая страница: 21 (всего у книги 33 страниц)

I’d read about making sure subs rehydrated after playing, and Greid had certainly lost a lot of fluids.

“Um, the front one,” he said tiredly.

I managed to grab it and hand it to him, taking the glass back once he’d drained it. “Good boy. Now you can sleep, Greid.”

“Will you stay here?” he mumbled, and I knew he really was tired and sated when he didn’t follow it up with any nervous rambling about how I didn’t have to.

I smiled, resting my cheek on the top of his head. “Of course. I’m not going anywhere.”

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Chapter Thirty-Four

Greid

“This is so good,” I mumbled around a mouthful of chicken stew.

I was cocooned in several blankets on the couch, still loose and boneless from earlier. Drowsy with the hum of total contentment, but wide awake after my nap with Beryl. I’d slept hard, dropping off quickly to the sound of her heartbeat under my ear, but thankfully not for too long, because Beryl hadn’t looked all that comfortable when I woke up. She’d been dozing with her head tipped awkwardly against the headboard, and when I moved off her with an apology, I’d seen her wince as she stretched.

I’d almost blurted out an offer to give her a massage. God, I couldn’t think of anything better than getting to have my hands all over Beryl’s soft body. But I’d been rendered speechless when she stretched her arms over her head with a yawn, and her small breasts had thrust out toward me. All I could think about was the taste of her skin, the feel of her stiff little nipples in my mouth. They were smaller than a demiurgus female’s—small and the nicest pink colour and perfect.

When my cock had twitched and started filling, I’d scrambled off the bed and grabbed my onesie to cover up. I wasn’t embarrassed about being naked in front of Beryl—that ship had sailed and was nothing but a tiny dot on the horizon—but I didn’t want her to think I was too greedy. Even though I was.

It had been the best sexual experience of my life. Like, hands down. Nothing came close to comparing. Which made me feel a little mean toward my past partners. Most of them hadn’t even known what I really wanted, so it wasn’t their fault I’d always been left feeling dishearteningly unsatisfied and almost a little depressed after having sex with them.

But what Beryl and I had done… I’d been nothing but a bundle of nerves, not having to think, not having to worry that I wasn’t pushing back enough, trying hard enough to get the upper hand, because Beryl didn’t want me to. She wanted me submissive and pliant and eager to follow orders.

Honestly, I’d almost cried after she finally let me come. It had been the most satisfying orgasm of my life, not just because she’d made me wait for it, but because she’d been in control of it. Of me. I’d been blissing out the entire time, despite the desperate unfulfilled need to come that had wracked my body. But that had made it so much better.

Beryl had cupped my face, given me a long kiss and told me she was going to get changed—or, at least, redressed in different clothes—before gently suggesting that I have a bath to unwind. I’d needed one anyway, my skin sticky with patches of dried cum despite Beryl using her shirt to clean me off. I’d grabbed it before she could, saying I’d throw it in with my washing later.

I almost fell back to sleep in the tub. I usually smoked while I was in the bath, but I’d already felt languid and relaxed, my mind still blissfully blank. After getting out and putting on some sweats, thick socks and my onesie, I’d wandered out of my room to find Beryl.

She’d been in the kitchen dishing up two big bowls of stew, which smelled amazing. My stomach had grumbled immediately, which had made her laugh as she jerked her chin toward my reheated coffee waiting for me on the counter.

We’d retreated into the living room with our dinner and curled up on the couch, spending about ten minutes trying to figure out what to watch before settling on a zombie movie. Beryl was tucked up into my side, and we were sharing the same blankets.

This was the freaking best.

Beryl peered over at my bowl as I shoved in another mouthful of stew. She chuckled. “You must be liking it, because you’re even eating all the vegetables in there.”

I grunted. “I’m liking vegetables more, I guess.”

Seeing as a piece of lettuce had been the catalyst for Beryl kissing me for the first time. Thank you, lettuce. Pretty sure I’d never thought that before in my life.

She perked up. “That’s good, because I really want to try making ratatouille.”

I paused. “Isn’t that just vegetables, though?”

“Yeah.”

That sounded… less good than a stew that also had meat and gravy. But I cleared my throat and mumbled, “Sounds nice.”

Beryl chuckled, as if she knew I wasn’t so keen on that, then leaned forward to set her empty bowl down on the coffee table. “That was really good. I never knew how satisfying it was to eat a meal that you’ve made yourself.”

“Yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t know. The last time I attempted to cook was…” I cocked my head. “Trying to make shade brownies a few years ago. They were fucking awful. I don’t know what happened, but they did not get me high.”

“Well, my one attempt at baking didn’t go so well,” Beryl said thoughtfully. I stayed silent, trying not to remember the taste of those breakfast muffins. “But maybe I could try making shade brownies for you.”

“You don’t have to.” I scraped up the last bit of stew and leaned forward with a groan to put my bowl down, grabbing my smoking tin before sitting back. “Um, is it okay if I smoke?”

“What?” Beryl’s brows twitched. “Of course it is. You don’t have to ask for permission, Greid.”

I fiddled with the tin. “No, I know, but…”

Were we going to have more sex tonight? I wouldn’t say no to more sex. I’d forgo getting high for more sex.

As if she could tell what I was wondering, Beryl chuckled and leaned in to kiss my cheek. “Smoke and relax, Greid. You need a good night’s sleep.”

Okay, so no more sex tonight. Not that I felt like I needed it after how hard I’d come earlier, but… you know. That didn’t mean I’d turn it down if she made the offer.

I rolled a few joints for the rest of the evening, then lit one and waved the smoke away from Beryl as I let out a contented sigh. As we watched the movie, I shifted around at her insistence until I was stretched out along the couch and she was tucked up into my side, her head on my chest. I felt her ruck up my onesie until she could slip her hand underneath and rest it on my belly. She hooked a leg over my thigh, the press of it a pleasant weight against my balls, making my cock twitch lazily with interest. But I was happy just to lie there with her, warm and comfortable under the blankets.

God, I was so freaking happy.

When the movie ended, I felt around in the folds of the blankets for the remote. “What time are you working tomorrow?” I asked as I started scrolling through DemiTV.

“Late shift. Seven ’til one.”

“I’ll make sure I’m there by one to meet you.”

She lifted her head to smile at me. “You don’t have to. I know you’ll be working hard to get that headpiece finished tomorrow, so you might be tired. Ron and Kayr always offer to walk me home when they’re working, and I think one of them is tomorrow.”

“It’s okay. I’ll be up.” Of course I was going to meet her.

“Thanks, Greid.” She kissed my chest before settling her head back down. “You know, you don’t have to wait outside when you come to meet me. You could come in for a drink. I’m sure Mani would give you one on the house, given how much I talk about you.”

My belly warmed with pleasure at hearing that, but I winced at the thought of sitting by myself in a rowdy bar while Beryl finished up her shift. “I don’t mind waiting outside.”

“Okay,” she said easily, smoothing her palm up and down my stomach under my onesie.

“Unless you want me to go in,” I blurted, a stab of anxiety tightening my insides.

Beryl shook her head without lifting it. “Whatever you prefer, Greid.”

And just like that, the anxiety melted away. Agma had hated it when I’d waited outside somewhere to meet her when she’d been out with friends or work associates. More than once, she’d come out to hiss that I was being antisocial and embarrassing her, telling me to just go and be friendly for once.

I knew I shouldn’t keep comparing them, but it was hard not to. Beryl was just so different from Agma. She didn’t try and push me to do things I didn’t want to. She just accepted me as I was—an introverted goblin who preferred staying in because I got tongue-tied and anxious and mentally exhausted when I was out in public for too long.

Beryl was a lot more sociable than me, and I’d already worried that I wasn’t offering to take her out into the city enough. Or doing more than just spending our evenings chilling out together and watching TV. Maybe she wished we went out to bars or restaurants for dinner. Or to see shows or something. Maybe she just didn’t bring it up because she knew I wouldn’t want to.

“Do you want to maybe go out somewhere soon?” I said, unable to stop myself from threading my fingers through her curly hair. “Like, out to dinner or just for a drink. We could go to a different bar than the one you work at.”

She lifted her head, and I saw her trying to tamp down the excitement in her eyes. “We don’t have to, Greid. I’m happy spending our evenings doing this.”

“Well maybe I could, I don’t know, take you on a date,” I said awkwardly, my ears fluttering. “Wherever you want.”

Her eyes softened. “I’ve never been on a date.”

I almost told her that they usually sucked—for me at least. I’d always found them awkward and uncomfortable as I frantically tried to think of things to say, at least when dating someone new. But we already knew each other, and I was so comfortable with Beryl. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

Besides, we’d done all this in a weird order. We were already living together, and now we were… progressing into a romantic phase in our relationship. While sleeping in separate rooms in the same house. I wanted to ask her to sleep with me in my room, but I didn’t want to freak her out by moving too fast.

Beryl deserved to experience everything—all the things she’d missed out on. I smoothed back her hair, cradling the back of her head as I gazed down at her, hoping I didn’t look too lovesick. “We’ll go on a proper date.”

She grinned with excitement, stretching up to kiss me. “That sounds wonderful, Greid.”

For her, I could withstand an evening out in the city. Because it was her, I wanted to.

After watching a few episodes of Gloom Falls, I realised Beryl had fallen asleep on top of me. Her breaths were deep and even, her lax body a slight, pleasant weight on my chest. I was still playing lazily with her hair, and I would’ve been happy to stay like that until she woke up in the morning, but I remembered her wince as she’d stretched after I’d fallen asleep on top of her earlier. She needed to sleep in a proper bed.

I wished it could be mine, but at least my sheets would still smell like her. I’d probably have to jerk off again when I got into bed, and I would definitely be thinking of Beryl while I did it, just as she’d whispered to me earlier.

“Beryl,” I murmured, giving her back a gentle rub. She stiffened slightly as she started waking up, head shifting on my chest. “You should go to bed.”

“Yeah.” Her voice was hoarse, green eyes tired as she propped herself up and rubbed them. “What did I miss in Gloom Falls? The last thing I remember is Huna arranging to meet up with a hitman to have Marish bumped off.”

“I’m not gonna spoil it. We’ll watch it from there tomorrow.” I turned off the TV and started pulling blankets off her.

She snorted, climbing over my legs to stand up. “I already know they manage to take out Marish.”

“Yeah, but you don’t know how,” I said slyly, then accidentally blurted, “And it’s not through a hitman.”

“Damn. Now I’m intrigued.” She held out a hand to help me up. “We need to find a show you haven’t watched yet so we can be surprised together and you’re not sitting there all smug because you know what’s going to happen.”

“I’m not smug,” I protested, even though she was right. “And I’m really annoying when I watch something new, because I talk all the way through it trying to guess what’s going to happen.”

“That wouldn’t annoy me.” She chuckled, then cocked her head. “Well, maybe it would a little.”

I grinned down at her, giving the back of her head an affectionate scratch with my claws. “We’ll find something new to watch so I can annoy the shit out of you.”

And then maybe you can punish me for being bad.

I coughed awkwardly as the thought popped into my brain. It wasn’t that I wanted to be bad—I wanted to be good for Beryl. So good. But… wondering how she’d reprimand me for not obeying her to the letter was more arousing than it should’ve been.

A loud yawn from Beryl snapped me out of my thoughts before she asked, “Are you going to bed too?”

“Nah, gonna stay up for a while. Might do some work.”

She rested her small hands on my chest, rising up on her tiptoes to kiss me when I ducked my head. “Don’t strain your eyes too much.”

“I won’t.” I gave her another kiss, unable to stop myself. “They feel better.”

“Okay.” She stepped back with another yawn. “Goodnight, Greid.”

“Night, berry,” I teased, hearing her chuckle as she left the room.

I listened to the sound of her padding up the stairs and pausing every few steps to blow out the candles, before stretching and gathering up our dirty dishes from dinner. After carrying them into the kitchen, I’d just placed them on the counter to tug open the dishwasher when a bloodcurdling scream came from upstairs.

I jumped violently, and my socked feet slipped over the floor as I turned to race out of the kitchen, my hearts already pounding with terror for Beryl. I moved faster than I ever had in my life as I sprinted up the stairs, tripping several times in my haste.

I burst into her bedroom out of breath. “What’s wrong? What happened? Are you okay?”

She was standing in the centre of her bed, face pale as she cried, “There’s a huge spider!”

I froze, then sagged in relief as I tried to catch my breath. “What the fuck, Beryl.”

Her face turned bright pink. “I didn’t mean to scream. It shocked me because it—” She shuddered. “—it ran across the floor when I came in here and now I don’t know where it is.”

Shoving my hair back from my face, I looked around. “How big is it?”

She shuddered again, wrapping her arms around herself and not moving from the bed. “Fucking massive, Greid. I won’t be able to sleep in here if we can’t find it.”

“I’ll find it.” I crossed the room to her bed and got down on my knees to peer underneath at the narrow strip between the frame and the floor.

“Aren’t you scared of spiders?” Beryl asked from above.

My mouth twitched. “No, I’m not scared of spiders. I can’t imagine many demiurgus are, given our natural inclination for being underground. Around dirt and nature and stuff. Lots of insects and arachnids underground and in the dirt.”

“I’m fine with everything else,” she blurted a touch defensively. “Like beetles and ants and crickets and stuff. It’s just spiders. I hated working in the underground vineyard at the compound because there was a kind that liked to make their webs in the nightberry vines.”

Not seeing the spider under the bed, I straightened up to grin at her. “Did you worry they’d make teeny swords out of the thorns? Little knightberry spiders. Get it? Knight berry. Like an old-timey knight.”

She glared at me. “Keep making fun of me, buddy, and we’ll see what happens.”

“I’m just saying, if this spider isn’t the size of my fist, you’re going to lose major cool points.” I knee-walked over to the dresser to peer underneath it. “What else are you scared of?”

“What, so you can make fun of me more?” she grumbled.

“I mean, yeah. Depends on what it is, but yes.”

She chuckled, but it still sounded a little tense as she hovered on the bed. “Not much, I don’t think. Clowns kind of freak me out. The one birthday party I went to as a kid when I was, like, six had a clown. He scared me then.”

“God, yeah, clowns are messed up.” I shuffled over to the armchair to look behind it. “I don’t really like heights. Like, I’m okay being in my workshop or in a tall building as long as I don’t look out the windows, but I could never visit the Grand Canyon or whatever.”

“I’m okay with heights.”

Of course she was. She’d had to live up that big hill with the sex cult.

“And cats freak me out,” I admitted, hearing her chuckle.

“Really? I think cats are cute.”

I looked over at her with a dry expression. “Sure, they look cute. It’s all part of their evil plan. Look all cute and soft so unwitting people let them into their homes, and then what do they do? Moan constantly for food. Scratch up all your furniture. Kill poor, innocent little bugs and mice. Why are they such assholes? They literally have the best life ever. They just eat and sleep. No jobs, no taxes, no need to think beyond where their next comfy sleeping spot is.”

Beryl laughed. “Okay, fine, we won’t get a cat.”

We both went still as the words hung in the air, before Beryl cleared her throat awkwardly and I ducked my head to keep looking for the spider.

“Um, how about dogs?” she asked, voice tinged with embarrassment.

“I love dogs,” I said quickly, not wanting her to be embarrassed and trying not to think too hard about what her words meant. The implication of them. “Dogs are the best. They just love you unconditionally. They’re special.”

“How come you don’t have one then?”

“Too lazy to walk it every day.” Plus Agma had wanted a cat and hated dogs.

I heard the affectionate smile in Beryl’s voice as she said, “You’re basically just a giant puppy dog yourself.”

“I will choose to take that as a compliment.” I sat back on my heels and looked around the room. “I can’t find it, Beryl. Maybe it got out when I came in.”

“No, it’s still in here,” she said immediately. “I can feel it. Waiting.”

I snorted, heaving myself up to check the curtains. “Waiting for what?”

“For me to be alone so it can crawl into my mouth while I’m asleep.”

“I don’t think spiders actually do that,” I said doubtfully, shaking one of the curtains and jolting a little when something small and black fell to the floor.

Beryl screamed, the bed shaking as she shifted frantically in place. I swooped down and managed to grab the spider before it got away, cupping my hands loosely together.

“Beryl, you wuss, it’s tiny,” I said incredulously, feeling its little legs skitter frantically over my palm.

She glared at me as I turned to face her. “I mean, of course it looks tiny in your gigantic hands.”

“My hands are proportionate to the rest of me,” I said pointedly. Except maybe they were a little big. My mom actually used to call me a puppy herself, saying how adorable I was because I hadn’t grown into my giant hands and feet.

“You have beautiful hands, Greid,” Beryl said impatiently, gaze darting to them repeatedly as I held the spider in my cupped palms. “Big, beautiful hands that are perfect for taking spiders far away from me.”

I laughed, heading for the door. “I’ll let it loose in the backyard.”

“The end of the backyard,” Beryl said hurriedly. “As far away from the house as possible.”

“Sure.” My mouth twitched as I added, “Although they do tend to migrate inside when it’s colder, and I’m pretty sure I’ve read that spiders always find their way back to where they—”

“Stop talking,” she croaked. “I’m never opening my window again.”

Chuckling, I headed down the stairs and through the kitchen, managing to get the back door unlocked with the tips of my fingers. After setting it free in the tangled jungle of my backyard, I went back inside and found Beryl hovering near the foot of the stairs.

“Is it gone?” she asked anxiously.

I grinned, making my way over and sliding my hands around her hips. She was a couple of steps up, so our faces were almost level.

“It begged to be taken back to the warmth of its web,” I told her solemnly. “It pleaded with me to think of its children. All those tiny, defenceless slings going hungry as their mama fights her way through a giant jungle full of predators to get back to them. The neighbour has a cat. Bet it stalks the yard looking for poor mama spiders to eat.”

“Shut up.” She gave my shoulder a gentle smack. “Don’t make me feel guilty.”

“Sorry.” I sobered, sidling closer to wrap my arms around her hips. “Want me to go check for any more before you go to bed?”

“As much as I enjoyed watching you bend over to look under the furniture, I’ll be okay.” She wrapped her arms loosely around my neck as my face spikes twitched. “Night, Greid.”

When she kissed me, I shut my eyes and kissed her back eagerly, but couldn’t help saying, muffled against her mouth, “Night, berry.”

She snorted, breaking the kiss and flicking my chin. “Night, greedy boy.”

“That’s mean,” I grumbled as my cock perked up, reluctantly letting go to watch her turn and head back up the stairs. “Be careful on the stairs,” I blurted. “It’s dark.”

“My weak human eyes will manage.” She waved a hand carelessly before disappearing from view.

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