Page 47 of Moonlight Hearts

As soon as he moved away from me, I knew for sure that I wanted him back, wanted to be close to him again.I sucked on my bottom lip and pulled my bow tie off, letting it drop to the floor as I walked slowly backward toward the living room, never breaking eye contact with him.Then, I pulled my shirt out of my pants and undid the topmost button.

Soyer’s nostrils flared.“What are you doing, Amory?That’s not how running works, did no one tell you?”

“Oh.I thought I was doing it right.”I undid another button, and another.

“Amory.”Soyer took a small step toward me, which made me take two steps back.“Oh, Amory.”

He came at me.I should’ve been able to react, to do something when I saw him move as if lightning had struck him, but the way he went from barely moving to falling on me made me totally freeze up.The adrenaline rush when he grabbed me and lifted me off my feet was intense.

I hadn’t thought he’d lift me.But that wasn’t really what he was doing, it was more like some kind of martial arts move.What, a tackle?I gasped, a high noise of throttled surprise escaping me.I thought he’d put me on the ground, that the next thing I’d feel would be me hitting the floor hard, but it was Soyer tackling me.He’d never do that.

I hit the couch instead, landing on my back.Soyer was on top of me, his eyes like hungry black holes, his body more coordinated than my own, his muscles working in that controlled way I was pretty sure was some Kungfu badassery.Whereas I was just…well, I was just lying there on my back and staring up at him, my mouth open.

“You’re really bad at running.”

“I…I wanted you to catch me.”

He smiled.“Done, my heart.What now?What do you want now, hmm?”

I let out a shuddering breath.“You know.”

“I’ll still hear it from your own lips, my heart.Tell me.Tell me what now.”

I looked away, embarrassed over nothing, but the reaction was so ingrained that it took conscious effort to push away from it.

“Now you make love to me.”

Some of the harshness went out of his gaze, and he bent down to kiss me.“So I will.”

He tasted of cherry pie and desire.With every moment, every shared breath, the distance between our bodies shrank until all I could think about was Soyer above me, strong and demanding and yet fully mine.

“Yeah, like that,” he said when breath rushed out of me, when every last bit of resistance left me.When I was ready to be his entirely.

“Soyer.”

His name was a plea on my lips.I wanted to touch him, feel him, but I didn’t have the range of motion left to do it.He’d stretched one of my arms out over my head, his fingers pressed against the pulse there, and the other one dangled off the couch from where I couldn’t bring it up because the way he was cradling my neck meant my shoulder was pinned on that side.

“I’m here.Open your eyes and see me.I’m here.”

I did that.I looked at him.It was probably nothing more than my own racing heart that pushed me into a memory of when all of this had been new.I thought I could hear huge wings just behind him, just where I couldn’t see because he filled my entire field of vision.

That soothed me.Wings, whether real or imagined, would always remind me of Soyer’s firebird, of the phoenix mark he bore, the one I loved because it had brought him to me and tied us together.

“Can I hold you?”

It was a plea, a need.Soyer smiled down at me.

“You can.But no moving around.I think I like you on your back.”

I sucked on my bottom lip and looked up to where the windows were.“Here?”

“No one can look inside.No one else gets to see you like this.This is mine.”

He brought his hands to my chest, just touching, but with clear intent.His fingertips skimmed past my shirt buttons to reach my skin, and when he got to the ones I hadn’t undone yet, he made a low, unhappy noise, and with a sharp movement, tore open my shirt.

“Hey!”

“I’ll sew them back on,” he said, pushing my shirt aside and kissing just above my navel.“I’ll suck you off for a little bit.Can’t come though, not from that.But you get to hold on to me.”