"Doorways In Truth"
an excerpt

Entering into his home, Ashley managed to let out an audible groan. Even the main hallways were warm, a blessed relief from the wind, just as the carriage had been. His cheeks had started tingling, fingers and toes burning with life as they returned to him.

He'd changed instantly, tossing some clothes over his shoulder towards Daniel. The angel was watching him, his gaze intense. Ashe didn't like it, so he turned around to change – feeling the warm clothes shiver over him, and trying to get his fingers to work on the buttons of his over-shirt.

They were slippery, and his fingers were so slow, he thought, glaring at the enemy black buttons as he worked them in the firelight. “Need some help?” Daniel offered. Ashe didn't turn to look at him, and so he nearly jumped out of his skin when Daniel's arms swooped around the blonde's torso, fastening each button with only vaguely more speed than Daniel had done.

“Privacy,” Ashley grumbled, sinking into the embrace despite himself. Somehow Daniel was warmer than he was, warmer than the fire. Ashe was definitely beginning to feel envious of that particular blessing the Others had. “I need to start instituting better privacy rules.”

“Perhaps,” Daniel noted, finishing and then letting his head dip to Ashley's ear. Warm air burned through it, definitely echoing a blush on his face. “Do you need help with your trousers, too?”

The word, the idea of the angel's fingers at the fly of his trousers seemed so delicious in that second that Ashley immediately snapped out of whatever cold weather-induced haze he'd been trapped in. “I can handle them just fine.”

Stepping away, he pulled the thick and woolen pants up, fastened them, and then turned around. Daniel's face held a wicked grin, and Ashe hated him for it. He was a killer, a psychopath, how dare he look smugly at him? “Just be glad I haven't forced you back --”

His pronouncement of maze-binding doom was interrupted with Emily flouncing through the door, in a pale rose dress, thicker this time than what she'd been wearing earlier. “Beatrice says she has some supper for us, downstairs, since you missed it earlier,” she explained, head turning carefully between Ashley and Daniel. With a sniff, she stepped closer to Daniel. “She even said she'd dig up some blood for me.”

Nodding, Ashley rubbed wearily at his luke-warm eyelids, before leading the group of home invaders downstairs. Perhaps they could set some base rules over dinner.