Page 95 of Veil of Blood and Bone

Helene shakes the web and sets the strands free. “Wren. Why are you looking at me that way?” she whispers. “If you’re hungry I can make you something to eat.”

“Oh, I’m starving.” But not for anything good.

A hint of a blush pinks her cheeks as her tongue darts out to lick her lower lip. She bites down on it, a combination of nerves and arousal, equally tantalizing.

Don’t run. I might actually lose my mind.

Resting my hand on the side of her face, I usher her backward toward the couch until her knees brush the cushions. Helene’s chest catches.

When I kiss her, she doesn’t push back. Relief hits me so hard it’s almost anger.

My mouth glides to hers like the first touch of summer, blanketing and delicate. A test to see how willing she is to drown and how deep I’ll force us both.

Her sigh is the green light. Her lips part to make space for me.

Well, shit.

This is going to be harder than I thought.

I change the angle of the kiss and brush my tongue over the seam of her lips. She opens further, reaching for me. Her nails bite into my shoulder, not to force me away but to keep me in place. Her opposite arm wraps around my waist.

And because she is open and willing, because my desires are my master, I let my shadows out to play.

They skim across my skin to caress her. Darkness tangles with her sunlight hair and streak along the delicate column of her neck.

“Wren—”

I break the kiss to drag my nose up her chin, inhaling deeply. Helene arches closer. It’s passion and longing set on fire. It’s everything.

I’m a selfish male. I bury my face at her throat and bite her there, heat spearing through me. Helene trembles.

Her heartbeat spikes.

Spending the night was a risk. Being with her here, now, makes me forget the suffering. Or how we all will again.

Her mouth finds mine again, and I devour her, demanding, her tongue hot and urging me to open for her.

She wants a taste as badly as I do.

She moans when I nip her lip, huffing out a harsh laugh. I kiss her deeper as shadows tangle in her hair.

We’ve always brought out the softer side of each other. In a world designed to harden people into diamonds, moments like this are salvation.

She pushes against me, and I hold her, my body strung as tight as a bow. My hand drifts to her temple, pulling her back to stare as she stokes the flames.

Her eyes are pools.

“Darkness looks good on you, monster.” I maneuver her forward to whisper. “You’ve always been praise wrapped in shadow.”

She shivers. “I’m not one for those stupid, cutesy words.”

“You haven’t heard the correct ones then.” I kiss the whorl of her ear and massage circles on her scalp. “You haven’t been told the right compliment by the right person.”

“And that’s you?”

One of three. My girl was never satisfied with one sole facet of anything. Not life, not love, and not death. She always had to experience everything offered, and if she couldn’t find completion in a single person, well…

Who the fuck am I to tell her no?