Page 107

In the summer my shadows wrapped us both up and held her wrists to this desk. Tonight I couldn't even hide her in them if I tried. All I have is the lamp and the desk and her.

"Hi," she says quietly.

Her knees are bare and cold from the hall when I put my hands on them. I stand up between them and kiss her.

It's slower than anything we've done, because my shadows aren't doing half of it for me. All summer the thread between us told me what she wanted before she knew it herself, so loudly I stopped noticing I was listening. It's still there in my chest, thin as a hair. What comes up it now is quieter than it used to be, slow and easy, and it doesn't tell me what she wants before she knows it herself.

I have to look at her face to know, and I look.

I kiss her mouth slowly, pull back to watch her, and kiss her again. She tastes like toothpaste. Her eyelids are heavy, her lips parted and a little swollen.

When I kiss the corner of her mouth she lets out a breath through her nose—one I've heard before but never paid attention to, because the bond always told me first. I pay attention now. When I kiss under her jaw, she tips her head back for me, and when I move to the side of her neck she makes a small sound and grabs a fistful of my shirt.

"Take this off. You've been sitting in here in that shirt since supper, and I'm really tired of looking at it."

I take it off. She puts her hands on my chest and runs them down my stomach, and her fingers are cold, but I don't care. They stop at my belt. When she hooks one finger behind the buckle and leaves it there, my cock jerks against my zip.

"Later," she tells me. "You first. I want to see what you do without your little helpers."

I take Atlas's shirt off her, lifting it by the hem slowly enough to watch her face while the hem rises over her ribs and her breasts, then over her head.

She shakes her wet hair out of her face and sits there on the edge of my desk, naked in the lamplight, letting me look at her. Gooseflesh rises on her arms, and her nipples are tight from the cold. I've seen her naked before, but I've never seen her like this, with nothing of mine holding her, only the lamplight on her skin.

I touch her with my hands, just my hands. Cupping her breasts, I run my thumbs over her nipples and watch her bite her lip, then lean down and suck one into my mouth. Her fingers go into my hair and hold on. I learn her. She likes my teeth there, very lightly, and she tells me so.

"Teeth. God, yes, like that."

She doesn't like it when I'm too slow about it. When I pinch the other nipple between my fingers she says oh in a small, surprised voice, so I do it again. I learn all of it by watching her face, because her face is all I have.

"Does it bother you?" she asks breathlessly when I lift my head. "Not being able to feel it."

"Yes." I kiss the inside of her wrist, where her pulse is going fast against my mouth. "And no. I've never had to pay this much attention to you before. I think maybe I should have been doing it all along."

She watches me watch her, her cheeks flushed and her eyes gone soft and dark. She doesn't look away.

"You're staring."

"Yes."

"Good." She pulls my mouth back down to hers.

I run my hand down her stomach. She opens her knees wider on the edge of the desk, and when I slide my fingers down between her legs, she's wet. She's soaking.

"You're dripping on my desk," I tell her. "I have to work at this desk."

"Good. Think about me while you do."

I stroke her slowly, up and down, spreading it over her, while she drops her forehead against my shoulder and breathes hard against my skin. When I find her clit and circle it with two fingers, light, her thighs jump. So I go lighter, and her hips rock up after my hand, chasing it.

"Greedy," I murmur into her hair.

I go slower still, and she makes a sound against my shoulder that is very nearly a growl.

"Callum. Don't tease me."

"I'm not teasing you. I'm learning."

"Learn faster." Her breath catches on the last word when I push two fingers inside her.