Page 85 of Wolfsbane

But then he’d walked in, immediately noticed, and the look in his eyes . . .

Well, for that expression, I’d gather rose petals and spread them on the bed every single day, even if it seemed silly to me.

Then the way he practically fell into my arms? Well.

After years of holding myself apart from everyone, Daire falling into me was the best feeling in the world. The way he never hesitated before touching me. Never seemed worried about bumping up against “my trauma,” the way my whole family did.

I wasn’t broken to him, and I never had been.

It made me feel less like I was broken, knowing that he didn’t think of me that way.

Then he pulled back, shoved up onto his toes, and pressed his lips to mine, and I couldn’t worry about any of that anymore.

It was just his warm, pliant body against mine as I lifted him up and laid him across the bed.

Mark, the wolf suggested, but I shoved that away. I couldn’t bite Daire. He was a witch. It would take his magic away.

The wolf seemed exasperated by the very idea, and darted over into him and back, as though to make the point that Daire was already as much werewolf as witch. No bite would change what we were, when magic had decided it for us. Daire had a wolf, and no nascent wolf would be born inside him from a bite, taking the place of his magic.

And that was . . . well, it was fair. I couldn’t imagine a bite would change anything, when we were already practically four beings in one.

Fine, so a bite would probably happen sooner or later, but Daire had been through too much, too recently, to press for that sort of thing. We had to give things time to settle.

What if, after a year and a chance to clear his head, he decided that he wanted to move on? Join a different coven, move to a different state, just leave us in general? Being mated to a werewolf would complicate that.

No, I wasn’t sure it was truly possible, with the magic and wolf still loosely flowing between us, but if it was what he needed, I would have found a way to let it happen. I wouldn’t shackle someone to me. I’d spent too long in forced servitude; I would never willingly do that to someone else.

But that wasn’t a thought for now. It was a thought for later, if Daire did change his mind.

Now? That was for Daire in a whole different way.

I stripped him slowly, one piece of clothing at a time, tossing them onto the nearby chair so they wouldn’t get lost, but paying more attention to each inch of revealed skin, glowing with inner light under the candles I’d lit around the room. He seemed perfectly golden like this, smooth and soft, and the way his breath hitched when I ran my fingers over his body was the sweetest sound I’d ever heard.

“This is what you deserved, always,” I told him, drawing myself up next to him on the bed. “Soft light, soft words. Everything you ever wanted.”

He bit his lip for a moment, then shook his head as he turned toward me. “No. I mean, it’s what I wanted because I didn’t know.” His eyes gleamed for a moment, bright green with magic, and he turned again, so that he was straddling me, and started tugging at my clothes. “But we had to go through the cave to get here. This wasn’t a place we could start. We had to survive escaping the coven, because this would have never have happened with them.”

He tossed my shirt onto the same chair I’d been using, then scooted down to work on my fly, grinning up at me. “And it’s beautiful, you know. I appreciate it. It’s romantic and lovely. But if I had to take the cave first in order for this moment to be with you? Then that was totally worth it.”

He tugged my pants down, and clearly growing impatient, just shoved them off the bed onto the floor, along with my socks and shoes, then threw my underwear over one shoulder without a single care. He was smiling like a child opening gifts on their birthday.

“Besides,” he went on. “Maybe I’m romanticizing it in retrospect, but I seem to remember the cave being pretty hot. And you’re always the sexiest guy in any room you’re in.”

Leaning down, he started peppering kisses all over my belly and chest, before coming back up to meet me, face to face. “I love this. And I love you.”

“That’s a good thing, since I love you back. I’m not sure what we’d do otherwise.”

That made him laugh, even as he was reaching for the oil in the nightstand, almost falling off my lap with the way his whole body shook.

He came back with the bottle and moved back to give himself a little room, smearing oil all over me, then his fingers, reaching back to stretch his own hole to ready for me. All the while, those twinkling green eyes held me still. “I’d love to just shove down onto you, you know, but you’re an inconvenient guy. Your dick is way too big for that.”

I snorted. “You wish it were smaller?”

That brought the laughter back. “Not even a tiny bit. You’re perfect just as you are, Viktor . . . um . . . ”

“Novikov,” I offered. “Not that it matters. What matters isn’t history. It’s now. Us. What comes next.”

He smiled and shivered, then offered a little shrug, before lifting himself up above me. Holding my cock in place, he started to lower himself onto it, letting his eyes slide closed as he groaned with the feel of it. I almost did the same, but ended up glad I had not, when he quietly answered. “I dunno. I think Daire Novikov would sound cool.”