“Say it plain.” My voice had gone rough. No helping that. “I’m a literal man. I don’t guess at this.”
She didn’t look away. That nearly undid me.
“I want you,” she said. “Here. Now. I’m done being careful.” Her hand flattened over my chest, right over the bond she didn’t know about. “Make me feel it.”
Good.
I lifted her.
She made a startled sound as I turned her to face me, settling her over my lap on the edge of the buggy. Her knees went to either side of my hips, and the whole rig dipped under us before the hover field caught.
We floated up a hand’s width.
She grabbed my shoulders and looked down. “That’s going to take some getting used to.”
“Good suspension.” I’d built it for rough roads. For the ridge path. For getting her to town without jarring every bone in her body.
Apparently, I’d also built it for this.
The buggy rocked gently under us, and when I leaned in to kiss her throat, it tilted with me. She gasped, her fingers digging into my shoulders.
The violet scarf was still around her neck. Silk against her skin. Too pretty. Too tempting. I’d been telling myself all morning that it was just a scarf.
It wasn’t.
I got my hands under her shirt.
Her skin was warm and soft under my palms, her waist so small I had to remind myself not to grip too hard. That was always there in the back of my mind. The size of me. The size of her. What I could do if I forgot myself.
I never forgot myself with her.
I drew her shirt up and over her head. The scarf stayed where it was, loose and violet against bare skin, and for a second all I could do was look.
She started to cover herself.
“I don’t–” she said, but it was more nerves than command.
“I’m going to keep looking.” I caught her wrist and moved her arm aside. “You spent four years with a man who never saw you. Let me.”
Her breath shuddered. Then she let me.
Perfect.
I cupped her ribs, thumbs brushing the undersides of her breasts. Her heart beat fast beneath my hands, quick and wild, and when I bent my head and put my mouth to her, she arched like I’d touched her with flame.
I licked her nipple, then drew it into my mouth. She made a small, desperate sound and rocked against me, and the buggy rocked with her.
It almost dumped us backward.
She laughed, breathless, her fingers sliding into my hair near the base of one horn. “This thing.”
“I’ll fix the dampers.”
“Don’t you dare.”
My tail had been moving behind me, slow and restless. I let it curl around her, brushing up her spine.
She went still.
