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It had been a long time since she touched a male like this. Kaine would never?—

Garrik’s breathing surely stopped this time.

Alora’s finger followed the linear line from the tip of his ear, twirling around to the soft skin and nerves behind. She felt his body tremble. Saw the way his chest struggled to rise with air.

He looked completely undone—or was close to becoming so—when he groaned again. But this wasn’t like before. This was primal. Hungry. Edging on something … utterly desiring.

A low, deep curse rumbled from his throat.

His pulse quickened.

Alora felt his body tense before his hand snapped to grasp hers.

Eyes widened, Garrik panted and rasped, “Stop.” That broad hand was so careful, pulling her away, but she didn’t understand what she had done to make him want to end her finger’s chosen path.

“Sorry. I…” Shaking her head, Alora withdrew.

It was some time before his breathing had evened. Before that tension rolling in waves across his body had relaxed. “You don’t know much about High Fae males, do you?”

Alora shook her head. The only males she’d truly known were Rowlen and Kaine. And she never touched either one of them likethis.

And something ever-so-bizarre happened then.

Garrik’s cheeks scarleted.

Furrowing her brows, Alora pulled back entirely. “What?”

Garrik cleared his throat and cracked his neck with a stretched twist. “Our ears are … rather sensitive.”

“Ticklish?” Alora’s shoulders bounced, giggling.

The blush on his cheeks grew a shade brighter. “Something like that.”

“Oh, come on, the High Prince of Elysian has ticklish ears? It didn’t look like I was tickling you.” It almost looked like…

Garrik’s brow arched as he chose his words carefully. “I do not wish to embarrass you. But if you would have continued … I would have.” He paused and cleared his throat again, flickering his eyes anywhere but on her. “It is a form of pleasure. Of … sexual release.”

Oh. Stars.Horrified, heat instantly flushed her cheeks as red as his.

“Do not feel embarrassed. It is alright. It is just…” His head bowed. “No one has ever touched me this way. Not like that.” Garrik’s eyes flickered into the night. “I cannot say that I did not enjoy it. But I thought you should know. I would not want to subject you to something so vile, so personal, without your consent and knowledge.”

Is that why Kaine never let her touch his ears? “I’m so sorry for touching you like that. If I would’ve known…” She shook her head, unsure of what else to say.

But Garrik’s breath hitched, his head swayed back slightly, enough to notice the warm sort of relieved satisfaction, of comfort and perhaps deliverance, of careful forgiveness, that flickered across his features. And she thought she imagined it,but Garrik’s eyes went glassy … until he blinked and smiled at her. “There is nothing to forgive.”

Then, those enchanting eyes scanned the landscape below, falling on an amber glow in the distance.

Before long, they both had forgotten her touch and the way his body reacted, and those incredible wings of shadow soberly glided them closer and closer to the dirt. The heights she’d first been terrified to soar at were left behind with a feeling of disappointment, for it had all ended too fast.

Garrik effortlessly dropped his feet into the tall grasses atop a hill just beyond a swaying meadow. In the short distance behind them, that amber glow had brightened and the scents of breweries, tanneries, animals, and the heavy aroma of salt and straw carried on the breeze.

Garrik had settled her in the grass, his hands stabilizing her until she found her balance after the long flight.

He was standing on the edge, overlooking the night strewn across the meadow. Listening to the cold northern breeze tickling the stocks of grass and wildflowers, waving like the surf of a sea when a cold wind ruffled his hair, stirring dark-gray hues and revealing softer tones in the moonlight. Garrik inhaled a deep, long breath. Tilting his chin to the sky as if he were enjoying the scent carried across the hills.

She wanted to know what captivated his senses. So, Alora deepened a breath, too.

That northern breeze offered an alluring scent of leather and metal. A promise of something cold and inviting and utterly perfect in the way, to her, how rain from a freezing thunderstorm would feel.