Treasure Ch. 10

"Again?" she murmured. He skimmed the length of her back with one hand, drinking in the valley at the base of her spine and that lovely, pert, heart-shaped ass. He clutched her hip and ran his thumb hard over that soft swell of skin, watching the flesh dimple at his touch. With the other hand he positioned himself between her thighs, and then he was pulling her down onto him and sighing when he cut through her like butter.

--

"Why haven't you slept, Adeon?" Catherine's voice came softly from below him. She was perfectly naked and lying on her back in the crook of his arm, propped up on his elbow, and he hesitated before lowering his head towards her. Her arms reached out wearily to entwine his nose in a snug embrace and clasp him to her warm, bare torso. A sigh quivered in her throat. The trek back to the cavern had passed in a sleep-deprived haze for Adeon, and he had looked upon Catherine's sleeping body in his claws with more than a little envy. Upon arriving, Catherine had promptly stripped down and begun a fruitless search for her nightgown before collapsing into an exhausted heap over her napsack. Lacking the strength to dress her again, Adeon had only deposited her into his arms and curled into a lazy spiral around her.

"I worry for you, Catherine. I worry so much," he said after a moment. She kissed his nose.

"You don't let on about it, you know," she murmured. There was still a bit of a slur in her voice. He wondered how lucid she was. "You're always so very, very, very certain..."

"Am I?" One of his talons sifted through her curls, and although his eyes were nearly crossed from the effort of looking at her, he could see her mouth slacken into a bleary smile. "I really do have half a mind to leave you up on a cliff somewhere. Come back for you tomorrow, when it's safe..." He gazed mournfully up at the ceiling. "If it's safe," he finished quietly.

"You wouldn't do that."

"Perhaps." Her hands covered the ridge of his nose in long strokes, and she smiled up at him as his muscles loosened compliantly at her touch. "The thought of losing you was already terrifying enough. I thought nothing could frighten me more. But you proved me wrong." He closed his eyes wearily. "Now there's more to lose."

"You won't lose anything, silly," Catherine yawned. "I promise..."

He snorted dismissively, but after a moment he lifted his head to gaze down at her. "What would you do to reassure me?" he asked softly.

"Anything," she sighed as she snuggled up against one of his fingers.

He paused, but then pressed recklessly onward--spurred by anxiety and sheer weariness. "Even if it meant that you didn't fight tomorrow?" he said. "Even then?"

Catherine waved him away with a limp hand. "Anything," she said muzzily. She took in a deep breath as her eyelids fluttered shut and her head lolled against his wrist. "Anything..." And then her breath evened out and she was asleep again, clutching one of his talons like a stuffed animal. He ran a claw gently down the swell of her cheek, and his heart lurched as she smiled. "I love you," she whispered--half-conscious, like a sigh.

"I love you, too," he said, and then he let his eyelids slide shut.

*****

Hi, everyone! I just want to say that I'm so sorry for the wait on this chapter. I got a little carried away, (it wound up being the length of two chapters, and I probably should have just split it up), as well as dragged behind by a couple of summer vacations.

Anywho, the next chapter is going to be the last one. The. Last. One. I'll fight hard to have it out for you by the end of August, tooth and nail.

All of my love! Thanks for waiting. And sit tight for the next chapter of ACAS if you're reading it--I'm trying to wrap it up this week.