Page 87

“I said I needed somespace.I didn’t say I was running out on you. I’m still a professional. You’re my SBLE partner.”

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 ourrelationship.This is about sex.”

“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 wassoconfusing.

* * *

Vadim slowly drewhis 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. Ihatecrying and I’m being a wuss.”

“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,“—flown away by winged creatures to magical glades…”