Viola bit down on her lower lip and nodded. Since the wound sat at the upper part of her back, she couldn’t simply raise the fabric without exposing the front of herself, so she slipped her arms carefully out of the sleeves, gathered the shirt away from her back and held it pressed against her chest with both hands, covering herself at the front.

From behind her, Sebastian’s eyes darkened. The rounded sides of her breasts peeked out softly from under her arms, full and smooth. Heat rushed to his groin, his cock twitching to life in his pants. He wanted to touch those mounds but he controlled himself as he didn’t want to frighten her with his desires when she had just woken up.

Nonetheless, the moment the wound appeared, the desire was suppressed almost as quickly as it had risen, his full attention shifting to the wound on her back, and the sight of it sent a slow and controlled fury moving through him all over again.

The wound was healing as it should, but not fast enough for his liking. If she had her wolf it would have been gone by now, closed and fading, and she wouldn’t be sitting with the discomfort of it.

He reached out and traced his fingers carefully along the outer edge of it and felt her jolt beneath his touch.

"Is it painful?" He asked softly.

She shook her head without turning around. "No." She murmured.

She was lying. He could tell it. He had known she-wolves who would have used a wound like this to their full advantage, who would have made him feel responsible and guilty and wrapped that guilt around him like a rope to get exactly what they wanted from him. This one sat here with a dagger wound in her back and told him it didn’t hurt.

Who was she kidding?

"Lie on your front." He said quietly. "I will heal it for you."

Viola turned her head over her shoulder to look at him, color rising immediately to her face. "What? You don’t mean to lick it, do you?"

"There is no other way that works as fast." He said, his hands coming to rest lightly on her shoulders. "Let me treat it properly and it will be gone in seconds."

Viola didn’t move immediately. The idea of his mouth on her skin in any context was doing things to her composure that she didn’t have the energy to manage properly right now, wound or no wound. But the ache in her back had been a constant and exhausting companion since she woke up and the thought of it being gone made the decision for her.

She turned and lay carefully down on her front, settling her cheek against the pillow and letting her hands rest on either side of her head. She felt him shift on the bed behind her, felt the warmth of him as he leaned in close, and then his breath fell against her skin, warm and teasing, and the goosebumps rose across her back and arms before he had even touched her.

Then his tongue made contact with the wound and she went completely still.

’Oh.’ Was the only coherent thought her mind produced.

Her fingers curled into the sheets as the sensation moved through her, the careful motion of his tongue against the wound sending a wave of warmth spreading outward from the point of contact, the healing effect immediate and deeply relieving.

The ache that had been sitting in her back began to lift and dissolve and she closed her eyes and exhaled slowly, letting her body soften into the mattress. Even though he shouldn’t have been licking her in his human form, and usually mates only licked each other in their other forms, she couldn’t help but embrace the soothing effect of it more than feel embarrassed by it.

Sebastian kept licking, making sure every part of the wound was covered, and he didn’t let himself get distracted. But her taste, the softness of her skin, the little shivers running through her... it was getting harder to stay focused.

His cock grew harder, pressing uncomfortably against his clothes.

When the wound finally closed completely, he didn’t pull back. Instead, he hovered there, staring at her smooth back, now slightly glistening with his saliva as it worked to heal her.

He wasn’t entirely sure when the decision happened or if it happened at all, if it was a decision or simply the absence of one. His lips pressed to the skin just beside where the wound had been, and then to the smooth plane of her shoulder blade, and he felt her go very still beneath him in a way that was entirely different from the stillness of before.

"I like the way your skin tastes, always. You are always cool," he whispered against her back, causing goosebumps to rise on her skin.

’Stop. Don’t go too far, or you’ll end up with blue balls, man. We’re all still recovering; sex should be the last thing on your mind right now,’ Muffin, who was still healing himself, spoke from within him, but Sebastian ignored him.

He pressed another kiss to the curve between her shoulder and her neck instead.

Viola’s teeth sank into her lower lip. She knew the wound was healed. She had felt it close under his mouth and tongue. She knew that. And yet she said nothing when she realized he was kissing her skin and whispering words on her back.

She lay there with her cheek against the pillow and her fingers twisted into the sheets and she said absolutely nothing because the feeling of his lips moving across her skin was the most exquisitely distracting thing she had experienced in recent memory and every rational thought she had was staging a quiet and very unconvincing protest somewhere at the back of her mind.

’Tell him to stop.’ She thought.

His lips moved to her other shoulder blade and she felt the warmth of them through her entire body.

She didn’t tell him to stop.

Sebastian trailed his mouth slowly down the line of her spine, feeling the way her breath changed beneath him, and the knowledge that he was doing that to her was not helping him think clearly. His hand moved without full permission and settled on the curve of her ass where the boyshort sat, his palm curving around it, and he felt her sharp intake of breath.

’This is not the right time, man.’ Muffin protested, even as Sebastian’s lips pressed to the soft skin at the small of her back.

’She just woke up. She is healing and so are we. She has been through more in the past week than most people survive in a lifetime.’ Muffin reminded him firmly. ’We have tomorrow.’

His lips stilled at the memory of her looking pale and nearly lifeless just a few hours ago. If he was going to do anything, he didn’t want to be stopped halfway through, and it would be better to wait until she had fully regained her strength.

He stayed there for a moment, not moving, his palm still resting on her ass and his forehead dropping lightly to her lower back as he pulled in a slow and steadying breath and got hold of himself. He felt her waiting beneath him, the tension in her body a mirror of his own, and it cost him considerably more than he expected to pull his hand away and lift his head.

Sebastian straightened up and lay down beside her on his back, staring at the ceiling with his jaw set and his hands flat on his stomach, working at getting his breathing back to normal.

Viola turned her head against the pillow and looked at him from where she lay, her cheek flushed and her eyes carrying an expression she hadn’t fully gotten under control yet.

She watched the line of his jaw and the stillness of him and understood exactly what had just happened and exactly what he had just chosen not to do.

’He stopped.’ She thought to herself, and didn’t fully know whether what moved through her at that realization was relief or disappointment as she had anticipated more.