Maybe some of this will make sense. Maybe all of it will.
“Don’t,” he rumbles the word again.
I lean closer. “Why not?”
His jaw ticks. “You are a devious girl.”
He releases my wrists and clamps his hand around my neck, holding me against the monument’s wall. He pins me there, and his gaze leisurely roams up and down my body. Aroused by his attention, I arch my back.
His face nears mine, mouth parting into a fanged snarl to say something more, something about the wrongness of this, but I interrupt him.
“Kiss me,” I whisper.
His glinting gaze drops to my lips.
He stares at them. “Kiss… you?”
Denied, my hips writhe. “Yes. Kiss me!”
“I need to brand you.”
My brow furrows. “Then brand me with a kiss.”
He lifts his eyes to mine, his gaze confused and frustrated. “It does not work like that.”
I cup his sharp cheeks and draw him toward me. Letting me lead him, he leans down slowly, loosening his hand from my neck.
Our mouths touch, and our kiss burns with frost. My eyes shudder closed while I clasp my arms around his neck. He yanks me against his chest, pulling my feet off the ground, and presses me harder against the wall. I curl my legs around his hips, trapping his cock between us, and it slips past my ruined sweater, sliding against my skin. His ridges dig into my tummy.
Our kiss starts soft, uncertain—like everything has been thus far—though tender. Brushing over mine, his lips quell my frenzy while fueling my need. I lean into him, loosening my hands so my fingers dance down his arms with a caress. His flesh is stiff, yet he shudders under my simple touch. His mouth is cold, slowly warming up. Rubbing my lips across his, he pauses to rest his cheek on mine and burrow his nose against my ear. He breathes me in, setting my fogged glasses askew.
When I look, moonlight brightens his face and deepens the blue of his long hair. His gray horns shimmer like silver. He swipes his mouth over my cheek, whispering light kisses along my face as he traces his way back to the corner of my lips.
Our gaze locks.
He lowers me to the ground and rights my glasses.
This feels like something new, something more than desire, and far, far more terrifying. It’s longing and loneliness, and endless, torturous solitude. There’s no end or beginning, only right now. It’s a moment that is desperate to go on forever because, once it’s over, it can never return.
I inhale a shaky breath, knowing I’ll never take in as much air as I need.
His brow lowers to mine, and I tremble.
“Summer,” he whispers my name.
He lifts me away from the wall and lays me out on the ground, amongst the leaves and dewy grass. Kneeling over me, he lifts the bottom of my ruined sweater and slides it up my chest as his wings drop to either side, blocking out the moon and the evening breeze.
Hands glowing, he slides my bra up, baring me from my breasts to my pelvis. Shuddering, my nipples peak under his gaze. He stares at them, at me, his expression strained. He licks his lips, licks his fangs. However, he doesn’t say a word as he sets one of his hands over my left breast, slipping his fingers under my bunched clothes and settling it there.
He places his other hand above my navel. “By this mark, I strengthen our bond. I grant you the use of my power for your protection.”
The light shines from his palms, heating my flesh. Warmth floods me, driving ripples of bliss through my chest. The light brightens, and I close my eyes, arching, and digging my heels into the ground.
I’m warm again. So much warmer than before. I’m being filled.
Reveling, buzzing sensations pools between my legs, and pleasure bursts, hot and hard. I cry out and thrash as his light fills me, driving between my thighs. He keeps me pinned as my body dances, writhing as my whimpers escalate.
“Summer,” he invokes my name.
