Page 42 of How to Woo the Undead

“I asked for hair.” He shrugged.

“Oh?” Hyacinth blinked up at him, a bemused smile curling her lips. “As you are lacking follicles, I assume the answer was no.”

How did she know?He pouted slightly to himself, a hand slapped ontop of his smooth noggin. “Unfortunately, this scalp,” he grumbled, motioning at his head with a flippant movement. “Not great for hair.”

“You could have mine if you wanted,” she giggled, flipping her long mane to have it dangle over her shoulder. “Imagine you with my curls.”

“I’d be a pretty princess.” Austin warmed at the center of his chest as she trembled with laughter. Hyacinth’s head lulled forward, shoulders still shaking softly, but the sound was nearly silent. Her hand steadily stroking Snuffles until, suddenly, it stopped.

“Austin,” she choked on his name after a long moment of silence. When she glanced back up, her face was long and grim. “I had a nightmare last night.”

“Oh.” The word felt like a dagger embedded in him.All your fault.His little charm hadn’t worked on her, while hers worked on him. He’d slept so thoroughly.Surely she would have slept fine.The pang of guilt grew to an ache. Austin stared at her, voiceless and without a thing to say.Not like anything I say could make this better.

Her gaze burned through a spot on his chest. “Could…what kind of kiss do you think fixes that?”

Austin frowned, confused. “You still want one?”

Hyacinth let out a nervous, bubbly sound that he wasn’t sure if it was a snort or more giggles. “Ialwayswant them.”

“Really?” he blurted out. Then he stopped to inspect her, trying to decidewhat kind of kissfixed bad dreams. What kind of touch made the strange guilt in his chest cease to exist? He picked up her hand off the blanket by her side and ran the pad of his thumb over her small fingers. He traced up to her knuckles, then over the back of her hand. Hyacinth studied him intently as he brought the back of her hand to his lips. It was delicate, like flower petals in the wind.

“Could I have another?” she whispered, turning her hand over to give him the sensitive underside of her arm. Austin considered kissing her palm, only to press his lips to her wrist. She wasn’t cold, but she wasn’t warm. Much like him, she felt room temperature. And yet, he could have sworn his lips were seared as he pulled away from her skin. Then she spoke again, “Another? Further up?”

Austin kissed higher up on the inside of her arm, lingering there just to inhale her scent. She smelled of the forest, fresh rain, and green shrubbery, but there was something underneath it. Orange blossom, only a hint, like it too kissed her skin. Hyacinth asked for another and he leaned over his lap to press a kiss to her bicep. Then to her shoulder. Austin would have to apologize to Snuffles later as he unceremoniously ejected both the rabbit and the horrid feeling in his chest.

Hyacinth and the feel of her skin against his lips was all that was left. Austin barely had the forethought to kick off his boots before he shifted up onto his hands and knees. She pressed a finger against her jugular and whispered, “Here.”

And there he went. Following her breathy requests as he kissed her neck. It was the first time, however, that his teeth were involved. Nipping at her skin, he earned a hitched gasp. One of her hands snatched him by the arm. Despite his eyes already being closed, they rolled back in his head. He groaned into her skin as she raked her nails down the back of his bicep. They caught on to one of his stitches and he would have begged her to rip him open if it meant she wouldn’t stop touching him.

“Austin,” she purred, and he wordlessly followed her finger across the hollow of her throat to the other side of her neck. Hyacinth didn’t even have to say it as he kissed her skin eagerly. Over and over, harder and harder till her shifting under the blankets was too much for him to resist. Austin spared a hand to the duvet and freed them from being pinned beneath him. Only,as his hand headed back to press against the sheets, he found his fingers tracing the side of her thigh.

Her chemise was bunched up around her, and the feel of her uncovered skin undid him. Austin groaned into her neck. He wanted to be wary of his tusks from scoring her skin. But then she breathed his name again and he pulled back to see where he was told to go next. She sat back against the headboard, glistening from the abuse of his lips against her flesh. Eyes blown wide where the lavender barely peeked around giant, obsidian orbs.

Oh…oh I get it now.Austin didn’t know desire like that. All encompassing—so thick it could drown him and he’d happily sink to the bottom of the ocean. His heart pounded in his chest, and he was eager for more.Tell me where to go next. Please.Austin couldn’t get his mouth to speak the words, but then again, it didn’t seem like he had to…not with her looking at him like that.

Hyacinth took in a ragged breath then exhaled as she pulled on the drawstrings at the front of her chemise. The bunches around her shoulders fell open in an instant. Austin’s gaze fell to its taunting edge.As if he had the mental powers to force it to move.

“If I wanted you to kiss me in more places?” she asked as her fingers tugged the front of her dress down. It pooled at her hips and Austin let himself memorize those beautiful breasts again. Dusty rose nipples already hard and calling his name. Her skin prickled around them like goosebumps. Her stitches were a little redder than normal, but other than that her skin was smooth. Soft and supple, as his gaze roamed to her belly, then to the hips hidden by the rest of the dress. “Austin?”

“Yes,” he panted for air, snapping his gaze back up to hers. “Tell me where and my mouth is yours.”

Her lips curled up on her face as she spread her thighs across the sheets. Just the sound of them brushing against the fabric was enough to end him. Yet, he was desperate to see.Show me.He followed her hands down to the fabric covering her lap. She raked it up her legs.

“I know what pleasure is. That’s something my body knows. Craves, really, ever since the lab, I’ve wanted you to touch me. To rid me of this tingling feeling between my thighs.” Hyacinth pulled the front of the fabric up to the point he stared at a nest of glinting, auburn curls. They were damp beyond compare. Austin tried to recall any of the words poets used to describe how beautiful a woman’s cunt could be with desire glittering along the seam of it. But all his thoughts were gone. They’d seeped out his ears and dribbled down to the floor without any restraint he’d once had inside his body.

“If I asked you,” Hyacinth continued breathlessly, reaching forward to spread her lips to him. Austin grew dizzy instantly. Her fingers curled into her warmth, spreading herself just for him then toying with a bundle of something near the top. “To kiss me here?”

“I don’t know how,” he confessed. “But I want to.”

“You want me to show you, like I did with the kisses on my neck?” She cocked her head slightly, catching his gaze. He had to damn near rip his head off to stop staring at her pretty cunt. If her fingers weren’t toying with herself, he might have had some reasonable response. All he could muster was a rapid nod of his skull.

Hyacinth giggled, taking his chin with her other hand. “Then follow my lead.”

And he did. His lips followed her fingers up the inside of her leg. Austin crawled up the bed till his face was nestled against her thigh, following her brushing fingertips till she spread openher glistening lips again. That time, however, his tongue swiped across her.No one ever described the taste, not accurately. So many flowery prose, such purple paragraphs full of nonsensical sensations.

Nothing compared to the tangy flavor coating his tongue. First, he pressed the muscle flat, just tasting her from top to bottom. Then he remembered he was supposed to follow her lead. He circled that little bundle at the top of her cunt. Her hips immediately jerked and pressed harder. The more pressure he applied, the more she ground her hips against him. When he found a speed that caused her hands to fall away, he repeated it like it were the only function his body could complete. When her fingers scraped their way across the top of his skull, he thought, just for a moment, that maybe hehaddied. Maybe he wasn’t undead, but truly a spirit existing in a dream. Because there was no other explanation for how he landed in that position.

Hips grinding against the mattress, hands curled around the tops of her thighs, holding them open around his ears, tusks tangled in her curls. It wasn’t till she said his name that he knew all of it was real.