“I thought you’d disowned me.”
“I said I needed some
He stared at her for a long moment. “You just can’t say it, can you? You just can’t admit that I mean anything to you at all.” He returned to kneel at her feet. “Let me do what I can for your shoulder.”
As he worked, she looked down at his bowed head and admired his long silky hair and the curve of his spine. Even if he disagreed, she thought he was beautiful in his true form. She reached out and touched the back of his neck with one finger, stroking the soft down. His folded wings quivered.
“Ella, stop it...”
She stroked down his spine and he went still.
“Are you finished with my shoulder?”
“Yes.”
“Can I touch your wings?”
In answer, he spread his wings wide. He continued to kneel like an angel at prayer as she went to stand behind him. Using both hands, she started where his wings emerged from his shoulders and traced the long line outward. The span was too great for her to encompass by herself. She leaned in close, her hands spread wide and her breasts pressed to his spine. He shuddered.
“You look so threatening, and yet up close, you’re soft and feathery.” She buried her face in the crook of his neck.
She slid her hands around his chest and felt the frantic beating of his heart. He might look different, and so did she, but at their core, nothing had changed. They were both outsiders in their worlds. It was a hard truth to swallow, but she still wanted to jump his bones.
“Stop thinking about sex.”
“Why?” She found his nipples and used her finger and thumb to shape them.
“Because you said—”
She bit his neck. “I said I wanted time to think about our
“Isn’t that my line?”
She bit harder, and he winced. “Indulge me, Morosov.”
“And if I don’t want to be used as a sexual convenience?”
“Then say no. Take your little fluffy pillow and sleeping bag and go over to the other side of the fire. I promise I won’t come after you.”
Underneath her hands, his massive body tensed. She closed her eyes and nuzzled his throat. “Vadim...”
“I am your mate.” He sighed, the sound echoing in the quietness of the glen. “I’ll take whatever you have to offer me, Ella. You know that.”
She closed her eyes against yet another attack of unwanted emotion and wrapped her arms around him. Sex was so much simpler. A meeting of bodies and an exchange of pleasure, a way to show him what she couldn’t say. Didn’t he get that? Or perhaps he did and was allowing her the opportunity to share how she really felt.
She groaned. God, this caring for someone was
Vadim slowly drew his wings in, their tips brushing Ella’s side until she was almost enclosed. She stepped back and he turned around and drew her against his chest. In his true form, kneeling down, they were almost the same height He stroked the side of her cheek, his thumb angled under her jaw, and tried to remember the real face that lay beneath the mask.
Closing his eyes, he let even that image go and saw her truly, his thoughts marching with hers and their needs entwined. Everything she hadn’t been able to say flowed over him and through him. Why didn’t she have the words? Would she ever admit how she felt out loud?
“It’s all right,” he murmured, and kissed the side of her mouth.
“It isn’t. I
“You’ve had a difficult day.”
“I sure have. I’ve been bitten by dragons, imprisoned, pursued by trolls, shot at—” He stopped her talking by taking control of the kiss. She continued in his head, “—
He skimmed his hands down her sides and rested them on her hips.
“I frightened you?”
“Only for a second, until I realized who it was.”
“I’m glad.”
She kissed his forehead. “I’m not sure why everyone else is so afraid of you, really. You’re like a big fluffy marshmallow.”
He slid his hand around the back of her neck, trapping her. “Only with you.”
She held his gaze. “Is it true that you can kill anything in Otherworld?”
“Yes.”
“Even immortal Fae?”
He nodded. Why did she think he was an outcast?
“Wow. That’s some responsibility.” She kissed his nose. “Will you sit down?”
“I am.”
She smacked his shoulder. “I mean cross-legged.”
“If you wish, Soul Sucker.”
She fixed him with her more usual intimidating glare. He didn’t mind it so much now; in fact he’d even begun to miss it.
“It wasn’t your soul I was thinking of sucking.” Her gaze dropped to his groin and his already erect cock. “It’s a good job I’m not allergic to feathers, isn’t it?”
She leaned forward and rubbed her face against his flat stomach, her tongue sneaking out to lick his already-wet shaft. He placed his hands flat on the ground, taking more weight on them as his hips jerked forward to meet the demands of her mouth. He wanted to grab her and pull her down over his aching flesh, but he’d already done that once tonight. It was her turn to dictate and his to endure.
And she made the most of it, teasing and learning his new body, making him wait and making him beg for her. When she finally shed her clothes and lowered herself over him, he was shaking with need. He wrapped one hand around her hips to hold her close and surged upward, enjoying her every climax along the way until she screamed and came again, dragging him with her in huge pumping waves of need. She collapsed over him and he held her tight. Did it matter that she couldn’t say the words out loud? That she insisted it was just about sex? He knew her on a subliminal level that no other being would ever achieve. He knew everything...
Was it enough? He wasn’t sure, but he’d do anything to keep her safe. He eased her over onto her side, placing his sleeping bag underneath them both. She grumbled something and clung to him. In truth, if he managed to help her retrieve her face, it might be the last thing he ever did for her.
A tremor in the shield caught his eye and he sat back up, pushing Ella behind him.
“What is it?”
He didn’t bother to answer her, all his attention fixed on the male who was materializing in the glade.
“Death Bringer.” The Fae king bowed. “I apologize for intruding on such a tender moment, but needs must.”
Vadim rose to his feet. “What do you want?”
“Dear me, such hostility. Didn’t your mate tell you about my offer?”
“She told me she’d met you.”
“And not the rest?”
His father strolled closer. He wore a flowing red cloak and low-slung leather pants with a silver belt. His hair touched his shoulders and gleamed like spun flax in the moonlight. Power radiated from him, and Vadim automatically raised his shields. It had taken him years to learn how to keep his father out of his mind. It was a lesson once brutally mastered, never forgotten. Of course Ella ignored his efforts to keep her safe and stood
