“Yes,” I said again. “I want this.”
His forehead came down to meet mine, giving me every opportunity to move, and I didn’t move, and the space between us closed by degrees until there was no space, until there wasjust his mouth pressed against mine, our tongues dueling for control.
When we broke apart, I smiled. “I do have one other question.”
Andrek arched an eyebrow. “What’s that?”
“I know you have a ridged tongue.”
“I do.”
“Are any other parts of you ridged?”
He stood, took my hand, and headed down the hallway.
Chapter 15
Dani
Heledmetothe overlook.
We walked through the quiet corridor and out into the night with no need to discuss where we were going or why. The moons were both high, and the air was cold and clean, that mineral-dark scent of the frontier night that I had come to think of as the smell of home.
He didn’t let go of my hand.
We stood at the low wall where we had been a week ago. His wings expanded, and I leaned into his body. I drank it all in: the cold air, the warmth of his body around mine, the moons overhead and the way the light caught the edges of his wings and ran silver along the structures of them.
He turned to face me.
In the moonlight his eyes were extraordinary; the gold deepened to something richer, alive in the light. He pinned mewith his gaze, and I felt like I could drown in the molten gold of his eyes. “Andrek.” He looked at me the way he’d looked at me inside, without the walls up, and I didn’t look away.
“Dani,” he said, and didn’t add anything to it.
“Yes,” I said for the third time. “I want this. I want you.” My answer wouldn’t change, even though he hadn’t asked me the question.
He lifted his free hand and touched my face, the backs of his fingers caressing along my cheekbone. I closed the distance between us, and his wings wrapped around me.
He leaned toward me and I pressed into him. We didn’t stop until our moths met and the world fell away.
At first, the kiss was gentle; tentative in the way we both wanted; a confirmation that this was happening and we were really doing this. His lips were warm and the touch of them was soft and I felt it in every place I’d been keeping carefully closed off.
His hand moved from my face into my hair, and the kiss deepened, and the months of waiting came through with all the wanting that had nowhere to go, all the looking-away and the deliberate distance. We’d both been lying to ourselves. Now that our mouths pressed against each other, I made a sound I hadn’t planned on, and his arms wrapped around me even tighter.
His wings moved, expanding to their full diameter before curling around me. I stood in the dark of his embrace, the golden yellow markings on his body glowing to produce a low light.
I put my hands on his chest reveling at the texture of him under my palms. I’d thought about this; dreamed about it since the day we met. “Ridges,” I murmured. The ridged structures I’d traced on his face were now present everywhere on the muscle beneath my hands when I spread my fingers and felt his breath change.
I moved my hands to his shoulders. His hands tightened at my back.
We kissed until my hands ran up his shirt, and he moaned my name. His hands followed suit, pulling up my shirt, exposing my breasts to his gaze.
He lowered his eyes. “Stars, you’re beautiful,” he murmured. “My wings will keep us warm.”
“I don’t care.” Feeling bold, I pulled the shirt over my head, laughing as he had to help. He lowered his head to my breast, licking at my nipple. “Oh, Andrek,” I moaned. His mouth moved to claim mine again, as both his large hands cupped my breasts, caressing and kneading with gentle pressure. My legs shook, and he rested his thigh between mine, and I ground myself against him as I had last time. “Oh,” I moaned.
Andrek’s hands skimmed the band of my leggings. “May I?”
In answer, I fumbled with the latch on his belt. “Yes.” He helped me shimmy out of one pant leg. The pants dropped to the ground.
