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She swallows again. “I do.” She reaches her hand out.
“Good.” I drop my hand a bit, forcing her to come closer, still. What’s with her being so skittish?
She lunges forward, her hand brushing past me to snatch at the cloak, and I yank my arm back even faster, my smile widening. “Come and take it.”
“Oh, stop. We need to go get the kids.”
“And we will,” I say. “But you should be warm while doing it.” She feints left and then leaps on me, her arms wrapping around my body in pursuit of the cloak.
Something inside of my chest lurches.
I like having her body clinging to mine. I like having her arms wrapped around me. I like her breath against my ear. I’ve never liked this bizarre human form. It’s weak. It’s small. It’s vulnerable. But with her around, maybe vulnerable is, for the first time in my life, a good thing. Maybe being vulnerable means being accessible to Liz.
Maybe it makes her like me more, and maybe she’ll want to touch me more as well.
I drop the cloak to the ground, and I bring both my hands up to cup her cheeks. “Liz.”
Her eyes, when they find mine, are fearful. “Axel, I can’t.” She tries to escape, releasing her grasp, but I’m too fast.
My arms drop underneath her bottom and pull her closer. “You have to earn that cloak.”
“What does that mean?” The fear multiplies.
“Why does that scare you?”
She shakes her head, her fair hair falling forward, across her brow. “It doesn’t.” Her breath fans out over my face, and there’s another, smaller lurch inside my body.
“I think it does,” I whisper. “Your eyes say that you’re nervous at the very least, and so does the bond. It’s quivery.”
She rolls her eyes. “Stop with that nonsense.” She wiggles, trying to force me to drop her, but something about the way her bottom’s shifting in my hands makes my heart beat harder in my chest. There’s probably some kind of problem with this human-physiology. It certainly doesn’t seem very strong. And yet. . .
“I like when you do that.” Now my smile’s broad. “Do it again.”
She freezes. “Do what?”
“Wiggle around. You can do it all you’d like.” I lean closer, planning to sniff her neck, but she turns toward me.
And then she closes her eyes.
I sneak a little closer and breathe in deeply near her neck—pure, unadulterated pleasure. Her smell’s a mixture of blood, sweat, and flowers. I’ve never smelled anything else like it—I could smell it all day and never have enough. But then I shift my face until it’s right in front of her, and I blow on her nose. “Why’d you close your eyes?”
Her eyes fly open, and her hands shoot out, knocking herself free. She falls backward, landing hard on the sweet bottom I so enjoyed holding a moment ago. “Ouch.” She says a few other strange words, and then scrambles to her feet, darting around me and snatching the cape off the floor. “We need to get my siblings. Let’s go.” She snaps. “Shift already.”
“I did something wrong,” I say. “It would help me if you could tell me what it was. I’d prefer not to make the same mistake again.”
Her head whips around and her mouth dangles open.
“You looked almost pleased, and now you’re irritated with me. What caused it?”
“You were groping my butt,” she says. “And then you blew on my nose.” She shakes her head. “What’s wrong with you?”
I step closer, and her heart starts hammering in her chest. “What would Gideon have done in my place?” I can’t help my snarl. I hate thinking about him, but not as much as I hate the fact that he would know just what to do. He wouldn’t leave her glaring at him. He’d have her panting or grabbing or something equally horrible. “Also, what’s groping? I was led to believe it meant feeling around for something, as in groping around in the dark, for instance, but you jumped on me.”
Liz splutters, and that draws my attention to her mouth.
That gives me an idea. “Did you want me to kiss you? Is that why you closed your eyes?”
Inexplicably, Liz draws one of her swords as if she’s preparing to fight me. “Why don’t we do a training session before we go grab the kids? That would be good, since presumably we’re going back to the volcano once we get them settled here.”
