Page 86 of Brimstone

It was Onyx.

He jumped to his feet when he saw me, letting out a squeal. I dropped to my knees just as he leaped into my arms, squiggling and squirming, licking my face.

“Oh, hi. Hi, hi, hi!” I’d been with him just minutes ago, and he was reacting like he’d been waiting for me to show up for years. “How—” His tongue went into my ear. I pulled back,trying to block him with my shoulder, but he quickly skirted around it and did it again. “Ahh! How ishehere, too?” I laughed. Onyx bolted across the room and snatched something from the armchair by the window. He shook his prize as if it were a squirrel he’d just caught, then deposited it into my lap: a length of green silk ribbon. A present, it seemed.

Still hovering in the doorway, still unbelievably shirtless, my mate sighed, folding his arms across his chest. “I don’t know. The damned thing’s been following me around in my dreams for a couple of weeks now. Even when he was back in Cahlish.”

I looked back at Fisher, raising an eyebrow. “You know, the fake annoyance isn’t necessary anymore. I know you love him, and so does he.”

Onyx went to town, licking my wrist. His pink tongue rasped against my skin. Fisher watched him at work, shaking his head. “I’d say wetolerateeach other at best,” he argued.

“I’ve seen you with him when you think I’m not looking. And why would he already be here with you, in this, what, this dream space, if he didn’t love you?”

Kingfisher spent another drawn out moment studying the ceiling again. “I don’t know. Maybe he’s just been waiting here foryou.”

“Fisher.”Onyx jumped up, putting his paws up onto my shoulders, and started rubbing the top of his head against my jaw. “Just accept it. My fox is your fox, too.”

He didn’t say anything, just growled, making a face as he kicked the cottage door closed.

The simple act of him crossing the room to stand by the fire had me holding my breath. How could you fall in love with someone because of something so simple as crossing a room? Was it because of the way his skin was dotted with goose bumps now? Was it the way the muscles clenched in his jaw as he stooped down to tend to the pot that was bubbling over thefire? Or the small lines that formed between his brow when he was concentrating? Or the way he caught me watching him and gazed at me over the top of his shoulder, smirking?

Holy shit. I was so fucked. Every single thing this male did made me want him. Made me want to scream. Made me want to—

“Haven’t you learned your lesson yet, Osha?” Fisher rose from the fireplace and slowly paced across the threadbare rug toward me. He stood before me, his powerful thighs at my eye level. I looked up at him, trying not to get caught up in the fact that I had to bypass the wall of muscle that made up his stomach and his chest before I could reach his eyes. It was a miracle that I found them at all. His smirk had gone from slightly amused to deeply interested. “Your heart’s racing, Saeris Fane. Why mightthatbe?”

It was, too. Now that I couldn’t control whether my heart even had to beat or not, the fact that it got away from me so often when I was around him seemed to entertain my mate even more than it already had.

“You look so pleased with yourself,” I said. But I was blushing.Hard.

“Oh, really? Let . . . me . . . see.” His eyes were full of sin. Moving very slowly, he reached up and dipped his thumb into his mouth, sucking on it. I couldn’t take my eyes off him as he lowered his hand and brought his thumb tomymouth, rubbing it across my bottom lip, wetting it with his own saliva. “The most unique, most beautiful creature in the entire realm, on her knees in front of me, looking up at me like she’s feeling feral and might just like to fuck me? Yes,” he said, “I’d say I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself.”

My nerve endings buzzed with electricity.

This male.

This. Fucking. Male.

Was this what life was going to be like now? Falling more and more in love with him? Just wanting him, and needing him more than anything else I had ever needed? I hoped with every fiber of my being that it would be, because this felt . . . whew. I didn’t even know how to describewhatit felt like to have this male looking down at me, like he was feeling everything I was feeling. Like he was feeling feral and wanted me, too.

Onyx saw a moth and darted from my lap, pouncing after it, forgetting me for the moment. I reached out for Fisher, wrapping my hand around his ankle, just needing to feel his skin against mine. His pant legs were wet. The tops of his feet were cold. He studied the point where I held him, smiling softly as a tendril of black ink swirled down my fingers and pooled on his skin, twisting and turning as it chased around his ankle and then disappeared underneath the cuff of his wet pants.

I looked up at my mate in amazement. “What the hell wasthat? DidIjust give you a tattoo?”

He smiled, arching a dark brow at me. “Looked like it.”

“I thought . . . wait, so that doesn’tonlyhappen when we’re having sex?”

Fisher chuckled as he tugged the bottom of his pants up as high as they would go over his muscled calf, revealing half of what appeared to be ornate inkwork of a dagger. He nodded approvingly, shooting me a wink.“Nice.”

“Fisher! Is this going to happen every time we touch each other?”

The bastard was trying not to grin. There was really no need for him to be so godsdamned smug right now. He stroked his fingers along my jaw, curling his index finger and using it to lift my chin higher, so that my gaze met his. “No, it won’t happen every time, Osha.” His smile grew in size, despite his visible efforts to leash it. “It’ll only happen when you’re thinking”—he ran his tongue over his bottom lip—“verybadthoughts.”

After everything we’d done with and to each other, how was it that he could still make me blush like a little girl? Why did I want to hide from the suggestive, raw lust on his face? “I wasn’t thinking anything!” I protested. “I just touched yourankle!”

“Hey, it’s okay. Some people have a thing for feet. And mine aren’t as hairy as most people’s.”

The wicked glint in his eyes let me know that he was teasing me and loving it, but I couldn’t let it stand. “I do not have a thing for feet!”