Her pussy sparkle rocketed right up to Ruby level.“I think I should take that bath.”
“Let me help you,” he practically purred.Sweeping her up into his arms, he stood at the same time with effortless strength.
“I’m pretty sure I can walk now,” she said, a little embarrassed.
“You don’t like me carrying you?”
She nearly gave a flip answer, to deflect the intensity of the moment, then remembered the whole honesty thing.With a sigh, she admitted, “I like it too much.”
Though she’d rather expected him to tease her, he instead gave her a long, fulminating look.“I know what you mean.”
She decided not to question that as he carried her into a bathing chamber as elaborate as the bedroom had been.He set her on her feet next to a sunken pool of amethyst-dark water.“Why is everything purple?”she asked.“Like, is it a branding requirement, that you must uphold the realm theme in everything around you?”
He regarded her with some amusement.“It’s the magic.Our realm generates a vibration of magic that you perceive as shades of purple.It doesn’t look that way to us.”
“Oh.”Well now she felt like a stupid human, like a dog capable of seeing only a few colors compared to her more sophisticated superiors.Human pet.She narrowed her gaze at Azul, who watched her intently.“It’s a wonder you can put up with us at all.”
A slow smile spread over his face, his wings expanding in an eye-catching way.She supposed he had to have big rooms just to flex them, and she absolutely supported him flexing those wings as much as possible.“You have your appealing qualities,” he replied, nimbly unbuttoning her jacket.
“Uh, you’re undressing me?”she asked, since she hadn’t been exhibiting her denseness enough already.
“Demonstrably,” he answered smoothly.“I’ve been wanting to do this almost since we met.”
“Why are you being so nice to me now?”
He paused on the jacket, raising his cobalt-blue gaze to hers, then settled his hands on her hips.“This might be all we have, Arantxa.You have to know that, right?”
Well, she did, but that hadn’t been something she’d wanted to contemplate too closely.“You won’t be my first one-night stand,” she answered glibly, “and I doubt you’ll be the last,” she added, just to make herself feel better.
“Then we understand one another.My situation is…complicated.After this one-afternoon stand,” he said with a sly smile, “we might never have another opportunity.”
“Will you still marry Lenorae,” she asked with intense curiosity and an annoying stab of jealousy, “after all that happened?”
“That remains to be seen.There are…things to sort out.But the reasons I agreed to the marriage in the first place remain.I am not the master of my own fate, in this regard.The most I can do is seize this time with you.I would like it to be ‘nice.’”His smile turned almost shy.“If that’s all right with you.”
“I can do nice,” she said, feeling a bit silly about the insistent way she said it.“I mean, I like nice.I can be nice.”
“Don’t strain yourself.I find I’m perversely attracted to your mean streak.”
“I don’t have a—” His lips cut off her words, hot and silky, fanning the excitement racing through her body like high-test pixie dust on a perfectly inclined race course.Oh yeah.This worked.He busied himself with her jacket, sliding it off her shoulders and letting it fall.Rather than immediately proceeding further with the undressing, he smoothed his hands over her shirt, tracing the curves with what seemed like reverence.
“Mean and sweet,” he whispered against her mouth.“The perfect combination.”
Oh wow, she hadn’t expected to feel like this.She wasn’t a woman who indulged in the softer emotions.Sex was sex and they were better keeping it that way.Levering him away from her, she smiled into his concerned frown.“My turn,” she informed him.“I want to see these wings without a shirt in the way.”
“You’re kinky for wings,” he accused, but amusement quirked his lips and lightened the frown.
“Put it down to one of my human failings.How does it come off?”
“I’ll do it.”He stepped back a bit more, clearly enjoying giving her a good view, judging by his smug expression, wound long fingers into his shirt and pulled, ripping it clean off.
~37~
Wings and Things
Cha had oftensaid that she wasn’t easily impressed.Certainly not by a hot male body, as she’d seen—and caressed—any number of fine specimens in her day.But Azul as he posed for her, shirtless, wearing only tight, dark pants that rode low on his slim hips, those deep violet wings framing his lean body and that gorgeous chest muscled from flying… Well, he made her mouth go dry.
“I wish I had a painting of this moment,” she said artlessly, fresh out of chill, and unable to think of anything saucier to commemorate the moment.Then she compounded the misstep by adding breathlessly, “You’re so beautiful.”
