The touch of my lips on Roman’s has the effect of a gunshot on him.
He jolts, and his fingers tangle in my hair as he draws me closer, his lips crashing against mine for an intense moment that sends waves of pleasure thrumming to my core. His ability to use his power to reach every inch of my body with a single touch overwhelms me.
The guard he usually keeps around his energy is gone and his power floods my senses. The first time he lowered his walls around me in the hotel, my energy was at a low and I’d soaked up his power like a lifeline. This time, my energy is still high and his power is like electricity, sparking a dangerous need. The kind that won’t be satisfied with a kiss.
I drink in his touch with a moan against his lips.
At the sound, he jolts apart from me, his eyes black again.
His fingertips brace against my back as he draws in a deep breath, and I sense he’s reining in his power, the energy fading from his touch.
“I shouldn’t have lost control just now,” he says, regret flashing across his expression, hardening his jaw. “My power will be too much for you.”
My lips part, tingling from the slight stubble on his chin and around his mouth. I search his eyes and drink in the growl in his voice like I just drank in his power.
“You can’t break me,” I say, the briefest challenging smile flashing across my face. My breath is coming fast from the contact with his body, the power within his hands, lips, and arms igniting my deepest desire. It’s taking all of my willpower not to rock against him, the flex of his hips promising to ease the need tightening low in my stomach.
Still, he hesitates, his dark gaze dropping to my lips, following the curve of my neck, then rising back up to my glowing eyes.
“We could break each other,” he says.
I lower my voice and speak in a snarl that combines my wolf’s growl with my demon’s darkness. “I might be only beginning to understand and control my power, but I assure you, Roman, I can survive any power you want to unleash on me.”
He answers me with a rumble in the back of his throat, the same kind that used to remind me of a wolf. Damn, there is still so much about him that I don’t know, but I’m ready to explore every nuance of his being. All of him… except the parts that will cause him pain.
The realization that I care for him only fuels my body’s need to be with him because it’s more than physical now.
Despite the ferocity in his eyes, the touch of his lips on mine is brief. Not enough. “Do you understand what you’re saying?”
“If I’m asking you to show me your power, then yes,” I say. “If I’m asking you to share your body with me, then yes.” My pulse increases, my heart hammering. “And if…” I hesitate, but I have to speak my thoughts aloud, however much they challenge me. “If I’m telling you that I trust you with my body… then, yes. I know what I’m saying.”
With a groan, he pulls me upward to kiss me, the touch of his mouth on mine strips my awareness of everything but the play of his tongue, the soft, heady push and pull as he demands full access to my mouth.
When he breaks the contact, it’s a fleeting departure, only long enough to give me a dangerous smile before he rips at the front of his shirt, slipping the material away from between us even while our bodies remain pressed together.
I’m startled to see that his chest and hands have changed color to the deepest amethyst before they return to the usual bronzed appearance as he discards his torn shirt into the breeze.
My hands slip across his chest, breaking the full contact between our bodies to flex against his muscles and follow the hard contours up across his broad shoulders and then down again toward his stomach.
Before I can reach the top of his sweats, athumpin the air makes me catch my breath.
His dark wings spread on either side of him, the same deep amethyst color as his claws. In the light from the artificial stars, each of his feathers gleam, the snowflake pattern in them shimmering. I was so focused on his chest that I barely caught the strike of the rune he used to create his wings. The first time I saw them, when we were invading the goblin’s territory, I had to stop myself from touching them, but not this time.
Pressing forward, I’m fully aware that my center grinds against him, making his eyes darken to impossible depths of black. Stretching my arms out to the sides, I slip my fingertips across the tops of his wings. Without taking my eyes from his, I allow my hands to drop slowly, my palms gliding lightly down the surface of the feathers at his sides. The sensation beneath my fingertips is multi-layered, his feathers are soft but with firm edges, while my touch sends shimmers rippling to his wingtips at the corners of my vision.
When my arms are fully lowered, dropping to my sides, he wrenches me forward so that I’m arching a little over his arm, and I make myself breathe through the spirals of pleasure that radiate from his touch.
“Not here,” he growls, the shadows growing across his face when some of the stars disappear from the false night sky above us. “There’s somewhere I want to take you.”
He gathers me around him and I tighten the hold of my legs around his hips, slipping my arms beneath his wings. Just like sliding onto his lap, it feels completely natural.
As soon as I’m secure, he beats his wings twice to lift us into the air. The breeze swirls around me, gently gliding across my exposed skin. Lifting my hair and plucking at the loose tendrils around my face. I nearly kick my boots off because I want nothing more than to run my toes across the backs of his legs. In truth, I’d love to remove all of my clothing—every last barrier between us. My present position above the ground is all that stops me.
Roman’s eyes are pure black as he wraps his wings around both of us, cutting off the starlight completely when his feathers close across my shoulders, enfolding my hair, brushing across my spine and my backside.
I’m not sure how we remain airborne, but this entire environment is of his making and must be under his control. His power sparks like electricity in the air, an amethyst rune appearing in the space between our faces, a swirl of shapes that disintegrate as he blows on them.
As his whispered breath tingles across my cheeks, I’m conscious of a deep pull, a shift around me. The hairs on my arms rise and goosebumps prickle the back of my neck. Nestled within the cocoon of his wings, my head tucked into the crook of his neck, I can’t see beyond his feathers, but I’m aware that our surroundings have changed. He pauses and I sense his feet return to solid ground, but he doesn’t open his wings yet.
