“Is that you?” I ask with a little gasp, unable to stop myself from staring.
Romulus reaches for my waist with both hands and pulls me to him in one swift motion—right up against his hardness. The rigid length of him presses against my belly through our thin layers of clothing.
We both groan—I think. I’m not quite sure because suddenly our faces are close to one another, just inches apart. His breath is hot against my lips.
His body feels so familiar—the same body I’ve already been intimate with—and mine instantly reacts. Heat floods through me, pooling low. My nipples tighten against the silk.
Romulus’s eyes are dark and wild, pupils blown wide with want. Both of us breathe heavily for several charged moments, the air thick between us.
Is he about to—? Do I want him to?—?
My eyes dart down to his lips—full but not as wide as his brother’s, I notice—and my tongue darts out to wet my bottom lip in anticipation before I can think better of it.
But then reality crashes in and I jerk away, turning with a strangled, “Wait.”
“Good night.” He’s gone before the words fully register, and the door to the den slams shut with enough force to make the sconces flicker.
I stand there staring at his closed door for probably longer than I should, breathing hard, heart pounding. Waiting. For what, I’m not sure. An apology? For him to come back? For the world to make sense again?
And when I finally drag myself to bed, I toss and turn, my mind on overload. My body still humming with unfulfilled want. The sheets feel too hot, then too cold. I can’t get comfortable.
Just when my eyelids finally start to feel heavy, and I think I might actually be able to fall asleep, I hear the soft creak of my door opening.
With a start, I sit bolt upright in bed, heart leaping into my throat.
And there he is—the shadow of Romulus’s massive form headed toward me in the darkness, wings creating an even larger silhouette against the moonlight streaming through my window.
My hand fumbles for the lamp on the nightstand, knocking over something that clatters. He’s nearly at the bed before I find the switch and turn it on, warm light flooding the room.
When I do, my heart leaps to my throat when I see the face of the man who’s come into my room.
“Remus!” I cry, throwing my arms around his neck. Thank god. Thank god.
“Shh,” he says urgently as he embraces me roughly in return, his arms like steel bands around me. “I don’t want to wake him. I’ve only just gotten myself back. How long have I been gone?”
But before I can answer, he shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter.”
And then he’s kissing me, and I’m kissing him back desperately. I’ve missed him so much—the ache of it a physical thing in my chest. It was so easy to question everything while he was gone, but now that he’s back in my arms, solid and real andhere?—
Half of me is sure I fell asleep and this is a dream. I don’t want to question anything too much in case I wake up, even though I want to ask him a thousand things.
But he’s holding me in his arms again in that way that is so distinctly Remus. Possessively, like he’s claiming me. Like this is the way we were always meant to be together.
“I’ve missed you,” I breathe out against his mouth.
And then his lips cover mine completely, swallowing any other words. We kiss each other with more passion than I knew a body could possibly hold—desperate and hungry and almost violent in its intensity.
I groan low when his hands wander down my body, mapping every curve like he’s memorizing me. The flat end of his soft, leathery tail whips around to slide up the inside of my thigh underneath the nightgown, lifting the silk.
When he starts kissing down my neck to my breasts, I grab his broad shoulders, loving the strength in them. Knowing I should make him pause.
“There’s so much we need to talk about,” I whisper, half whimpering from the rising excitement of his body pressing against mine as he crawls onto the bed between my legs, settling his weight.
God, even just the weight of him there against me almost has me coming. The pressure. The heat. The familiarity.
“So much has happened. I’ve met your family, and Romu?—”
“I don’t want to talk about him,” Remus growls, the sound vibrating through his chest into mine. “It’s just you and me here.” He lifts his face toward me, expression deadly serious for a moment before he extends his wickedly long tongue to lick my nipple through the thin silk of my nightgown.
