A compliment like that made it hard to deny him.

She started going through them, trying to decide which one she should start with. The feather that the Witch Owl had placed inside it was still present, like a bookmark, and Reia paused when she got to the marked tale.

I might as well, I guess. She started with Beauty and the Beast, feeling remarkably silly for reading it to him.

Reia was only a quarter way through it when she lifted the book away to check on Orpheus to find his glowing orbs had turned black. Waving her hand in front of his face, she understood he’d fallen asleep.

She continued to read it out loud, allowing him to stay how he was.

It was a relatively short folklore tale, and she was done within a few hours, placing the book down to think.

Belle and the Beast, huh? She placed her hand over the top of Orpheus’ long snout, between his eyes and nose, and gently stroked the hard bone. She dwelled on this, wondering if perhaps that was why the Witch Owl had told her to take this book, had left a feather at this particular story.

Could I stay with Orpheus? She still didn’t know the answer to that question, but she was feeling less and less inclined to leave. The will for it dying with her growing fondness of his home and of him.

She continued to stroke his face, peering down at him as he gave a deep huff, like he could tell she was petting him. I still don’t know, but what would have happened in the story if Belle had fucked the Beast before he became a human?

There would be no magical transformation for Orpheus, and she knew that. She tried to imagine what he would look like as a human, but she couldn’t see him any other way than what he was.

A Duskwalker, with an animal skull for a face, who expressed himself through his ethereal glowing eyes and his actions. Someone who was unbelievably sweet, who was trying his hardest to make her like him even though he was sometimes a little stupid and aggressive.

How many times has he tried to eat me? But she was still here, and she no longer was worried he would.

What if Belle... She stopped that train of thought to really ask herself what she was trying to. What if I had sex with Orpheus? She wanted to. She dreamt of it, thought of it when he touched her, ached for it.

The only thing holding her back was that she feared there was no return from it. But wouldn’t there be? I could still leave if I wanted to. It’s not like I’d be giving him my soul.

And-and I’m not in love with him or anything.

She’d almost begged him to in the forest. Having him face her while he delved his fingers, watching her, holding her, had been more intimate than any other time and she knew that was what she’d see if they did. And she’d liked it. His purple orbs filled with obvious desire staring into her was dragging her further and further under some kind of spell.

Enchanted and not wanting to be woken from her hypnosis.

Reia hadn’t realised she dozed off until she felt Orpheus’

head moving around erratically on her lap.

She opened her eyes to find his were still black, but he was now clutching her legs, one of his hands underneath her skirt with his claws digging into her inner thigh.

She knew exactly why she could hear sniffing sounds and shot her hand down to cover her pubic mound right before he tried to bury his snout against it! Thinking about sex had made her dream it, and now she was turned on.

As always, when she now dreamt anything sexual, it was in that floating darkness with Orpheus floating around her and touching her.

His head reared back sharply when he punched himself with the back of her hand, his eyes flashing open to blue.

“Sorry,” he said, grabbing his snout with his hand like he’d lightly hurt himself – to find he’d lifted her skirt with it. He threw his hand out from underneath it as his eyes turned a reddish-pink. “I fell asleep? I was too comfortable.”

“I guess you were tired,” she said, trying her hardest not to laugh at the predicament he’d found himself in because of his sleeping state. “It’s okay, I fell asleep too.”

The fireplace now only had embers, and the candles around them were low in wax, telling her they’d both been out for quite some time. Outside was pitch black.

He turned his head to look that way, figuring what she had as well.

Her eyes ran over the long twirling spikes of his horns.

“You know, I never gave you your gift before we left.”

His orbs flashed bright yellow. “May I have it now then?”

“Here, let me up. I’ll go get it.”

He released her completely as he’d still been crowding around her lap. She went to her room, collected what she needed, and then came back to find him standing. Pointing to his own chair, she got him to sit and made him hold out his hand.

She placed her gift inside the palm of it.

He examined it with his other hand while pulling on one of the items to lift it into the air. On a thick length of twine were beads that had been threaded with a black bead, then a sky blue one, and then a purple one, repeated three times until it reached a jingle bell.

At first, she’d planned to make him a bracelet or something he could place in his room, but then this idea came to her.

“I thought maybe you could tie them to the centre of your horns.” She worried the inside of her bottom lip. “But if it’s too noisy, you don’t have to.”

“Could you put them on?” he asked, gesturing for her to take them. “I cannot reach that far properly.”

She took them, and just as she went to walk around him, he grabbed the back of her legs and pulled her onto his lap.

She released a small squeak of surprise since she’d never sat on him before.

Her thighs were spread over his with her knees tucking into the space between his legs and the chair. He turned his head to the side to show her his intention. She carefully attached it to his horn, halfway between the base of his skull and where the first spiral began.

It rang quietly when he turned his head the other way so she could attach the second one.

“So, what do you think?”

She sat back onto his thighs while placing her hands on her lap and awaited his response with uncertainty.

“They are distracting.” He shook his head, making the bells ring. “But they will make me think of you when they jingle.”

He shook his head some more, even nodded up and down just to make them ring. Reia’s chest flooded with a heavy emotion she couldn’t distinguish. His words had gouged at her heart – like he was trying to reach into it and take it for himself.

She grabbed his snout with both hands and kissed the very tip of it with her eyes clenched shut tightly.

How can a Duskwalker be this charming?

When she started to pull back while opening her eyes, her eyelids fluttered to see his orbs had turned bright pink. It was odd to see them this colour, how blazing it was. This was only her second time seeing them like this.

“Your eyes are—” Before she could finish, Orpheus placed his hand around the back of her head and drew her closer to

swipe his tongue over her lips to return her kiss.