Daughter of oblivion: Claimed by four alpha(s)-Chapter 131 - 129: KITSUNE
"Ohhh, you actually look beautiful when you laugh." he grinned. "
"I didn’t augh," she protested.
"You snorted," he corrected. "With confidence."
Athena slapped both hands over her face.
"No I didn’t."
"Yes, you did," he said, nudging her knee with his. "It was adorable. Do it again."
"Absolutely not."
He gasped dramatically. "You wound me. How do you expect me to survive without hearing your cute snort?"
Athena finally broke into a real laugh. A loud, unexpected one.
The sound made Theodore still for half a second... then he smiled, softer than before, eyes lingering on her like she was something he couldn’t look away from. Well maybe she was.
Theodore watched her laugh until it softened into a sleepy smile, then tilted his head.
"You should really go back to sleep," he said gently. He paused for a second. "Or..." His lips curved. "Do you want me to sing you a song?"
Athena blinked, startled. "You can sing?"
He lifted his chin with the confidence of a man who absolutely believes he is gifted. "Yes."
We can’t tell...moon goddess might favour him more.
"Really?" she asked, suspicious.
"Yes," he repeated, chest puffed just enough to be ridiculous. "You want proof?"
Athena hesitated, then nodded slowly.
"...Okay."
His grin brightened like she just granted him a royal decree. "One second."
He rose from the bed, stretching lazily before strolling toward the other side of the room.
Athena’s eyes betrayed her, following every line of his bare back, every shift of muscle, every effortless display of a man who didn’t even know how attractive he was.
He’s so annoying, she thought. And unfairly sexy.
She bit her lips, as her eyes betrayed her even more, by drifting lower to his ass. He had such a firm butt. She wondered, what grabbing it would feel like.
Theodore stopped, cleared his throat... dramatically... snapping her out of her ridiculous thought. Then, with the seriousness of a seasoned performer.
He placed a hand over his heart... and produced the most terrible, overly dramatic "song" imaginable.
"Mmmmm...ahHHhm...laaaaAAAH—" His voice cracked like a teenage boy. He wobbled between low notes and high notes that didn’t exist. At one point he even added jazz hands.
Athena froze. Like completely.
Then burst into uncontrollable laughter, collapsing onto the pillows and clutching her stomach.
"Theodore!" she wheezed. "What...what was that?"
He straightened, completely unashamed.
"That," he declared proudly, "was a masterpiece."
"That was noise!" she shot back in-between laughter.
He gasped. "Noise? Athena, please. I’ll have you know I trained for years."
"Years of what?" she laughed harder. "Tormenting people’s ears? Or your soul?"
He put a hand to his chest, pretending to be wounded. "You’re cruel. Absolutely cruel. Here I am, pouring my heart and soul out in song, and you insult an artist."
She wiped a tear of laughter. "You’re shameless!"
"Of course," he said confidently. "But at least I’m entertaining."
She couldn’t even argue, because she was still laughing. Dying of laughter, of how ridiculous he had sounded.
Theodore sauntered back to the bed with a smug little smirk, clearly proud of himself.
He watched her quietly for a moment, head tilted, eyes unreadably soft.
Then, in that calm voice that somehow carried way too much weight, he asked. "Should I sleep next to you?" he paused for a heart beat. "Do you give me permission to be close?"
Athena’s heart skipped. Her throat tightened in a way, that felt hard to breathe.
She stared at him for a while, to see if there was any trace that he was joking. But there was none...he was damn serious.
Athena exhaled, then turned around and lay on her side, facing the other direction.
Theodore took that as an approval. He exhaled a quietly, and slid under the duvet with her. Actually, he was ready for rejection, but she surprised him.
Athena barely had a second to process his closeness before... He tugged her gently but firmly back toward him.
Her breath caught as her spine pressed against his bare chest, heat engulfing her in a way that made no sense considering Theodore ran cold like winter.
Despite that...She felt hot. Unbearably hot.
"Turn around," Theo murmured.
Athena shut her eyes for a while. Damn her heart for beating this widely.
She hesitated, then slowly turned toward him.
Her eyes met his, and her breath stopped entirely. She might ended up dying from lack of oxygen, if Theo kept doing that.
"Thanks," he whispered. And then he moved.
Theodore dipped his head forward and buried his face into the curve of her neck.
Athena’s soul left her body.
Her fingers curled into the sheets, her mind short-circuiting as his cool breath brushed her skin, sending shivers racing through her spine.
"Okay," she thought wildly. "All of them are weird. Eryx, Azrael, Rhydric...every single one of them. Even Theo."
What was happening today?
His lips brushed her skin softly as he murmured, his voice muffled against her neck "Don’t think too much about it... and sleep, kitsune."
Kitsune? Oww...that sounds good actually.
Eryx calls her princess...
Azrael...Viper...
And now Theo...kitsune?
It remaining Rhydric...she didn’t know why, but she wants him to also give her a nickname too.
She wanted to giggle, but caught herself mid-way.
Instead, she shut her eyes, trying and failing miserably to calm down.
It was impossible when she could feel every slow inhale of his breath against her throat...
Every subtle brush of his nose against the sensitive skin there...
And the way his arm tightened around her waist, possessive in a way that felt nothing like him and yet entirely him.
Gods.
She imagined Eryx barging in to see them like this.
Heaven knows what that man would do.
Burn the room? Break the door? Kill someone? Probably all three.
But right now...
Right now she didn’t care.
She liked Theo’s hands on her. The strange safety that came with him curling around her like he planned on keeping her there forever.
And she let herself enjoy it. At least just for tonight.
