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“It’s just so…Fey. Like we’re animals, and you’re about to wrestle me to the ground to rut.”

Skye didn’t mind the image that conjured. “What do you want to call me then?”

A shrug. “Boyfriend?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re not human anymore, and I don’t have to pretend that I don’t find their words for things stupid andunspecific. I’m not a boy, and I’m not your friend. I’m the man who gets to take you home and fuck you.”

Heat flushed her cheeks, desire soaked her scent, and Skye looked—nope, she was still only halfway through her coffee.

Next time, he was going to bring a smaller cup.

“There’s always… élan.”Beloved. It was a term commonly reserved for the bonded, and at the mention of it, her expression sobered.

“Do you think it would hurt?” she asked. “If we broke it?”

“Yes.” Severing the bond would be excruciating. And the longer they waited, the worse it would be.

She’d never given him an answer. Back in the garden, she’d never said just what it was that she wanted. After last night, after he’d felt her reaching for the bond, he’d thought… “Do youwantto break it?”

A pause. A breath. “I feel like I should.”

Which meant that she didn’t. She was just being Taly and thinking about everyone else before herself—focusing on what he stood to lose rather than what they might gain.

He pressed a finger to the frown forming between her brows, smoothing it away. “It’s not selfish if it’s what I want too.”

Taly attempted a smile, batting his hand away. “Get out of my head,” she said with none of her usual bite.

Skye peeked into her cup, then to her. Back to the cup. “I think you’re done.”

She held it out of reach. Or tried to—his arms were longer.

“There’s still at least two swallows left!”

Not anymore. He downed them, wincing at the Shards-awful taste. How the hell did she still stomach this stuff?

“Now you’re done.” He tossed the mug toward the nightstand. It landed right-side up with a clattering rattle.

“Oh, don’t look so impressed with yourself.”

He just grinned and dragged her beneath him, moving aside that flimsy bit of lace.

“Stupid, smug, shadow mage asshole,” she muttered, but her hands were already working between them.

Skye lifted his hips as she pushed down his trousers, hissing when her fingers wrapped around him and squeezed. His aether flared, and he grabbed the headboard, white-knuckled as heat tore through him.

It had been years since he’d had to think about his own strength—since his grip or the tension in his muscles felt like something that could go wrong. Every time she caught him off guard, his body just…reacted.

“We talked about taking me by surprise like that,” he bit out.

Her mouth skimmed his jaw, lips brushing the sensitive hollow beneath his ear. “You did the talking. I never agreed.”

Wood groaned, threatening to crack.

She didn’t know. How could she? To her, his strength was justthere, something steady, something to lean into. She didn’t see how his instincts shifted around her, how he was constantly recalculating.