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Nine’s voice goes low. It’s still soft, still beautiful, but it has an almost abrasive edge as he confesses, “I’ve waited a lifetime for my ffrindau. For you. You’ll be my first.”
“Your first what?”
“Everything.”
Oh.
When I’m silent too long, he begins to pull away.
Hang on. Does he think that’ll change anything? Does he think I’ll care?
I lean in, placing an open mouth kiss against his shoulder as I lower my hand to snag one of his off my hip. I squeeze his fingers, silently telling him that that’s perfectly okay.
I want to be his first everything.
I can’t say the same thing about him, though. He knows he can’t. He was my Shadow Man, my nighttime visitor, and before he disappeared when I was fifteen, there were times as an angry, careless younger teen when I threw my conquests in his face.
I wanted to get a rise out of him then. I’m not proud of that, but I did. Nine was my only constant, the only one who cared, and maybe I wanted to make him jealous. I don’t know. I’ve always loved him—even when I was way too young for it to be the kind of love that I have for him now—and maybe I was looking for some kind of sign, any sign that he cared for me, too.
The more Nine seemed nonplussed, the more guys I picked up.
Never at night, though. When I could avoid it, I never slept with anyone else at night.
Those hours of darkness were for my Shadow Man and me and that was it.
I don’t have a number. Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell him. As far as I’m concerned, anyone else I’ve ever touched simply disappeared once Nine claimed me in Faerie. That was just sex. Something I did because I was bored or lonely or because sometimes I ached for someone to touch me with kindness.
I’m standing here on the precipice of something so much bigger than that. I’ve given away my body before, but not my heart. Definitely not my soul.
I want Nine to have it all.
Pulling on his hand, smiling when I see the small flicker of surprise that I’m initiating contact, I lead him toward the bedroom. With his magic and his strength, I wouldn’t be able to move him unless he wanted to go.
He knows what I want. He knows that I want him.
We’re not going in there to sleep—at least not for a while, I’m hoping. And when he sends a pulse of pleasure to me through his touch, a tiny taste of what I have to look forward to, I spur Nine on a little faster.
If we’re lucky, we’ll make it in time to christen my new bed. Me? I’m not picky.
I
t’s time for him to claim me entirely. And for me to claim him.
14
Wow.
So that was just… wow.
Nine might not have ever done that before, but he was a natural. Seriously. Maybe the fact that I actually cared about him, too, had something to do with it, but that was the most amazing lay of my life.
And, until the prophecy catches up to me—or the Fae Queen does—I have that to look forward to.
Go, Riley.
Nine is sleeping next to me, sprawled out on the bed. A proud smile curves my lips. I really gave him a work-out, didn’t I? My century-year-old fae… after everything we just did, he’s earned his rest.
I prop myself up on my elbow, watching him sleep. There’s something so vulnerable, so serene about his expression as he slumbers. I have the strongest desire to touch him again.
