“Afterwhat?”
Giving her hair a playful little tug, he said, “Our date!”
She made a face. “This isn’t a date. Those are outside.”
“Says who?”
“Says… my books. And Alex!”
“A date can be anything, as long as it’s something you do with a person you care about.” His expression darkened, and she caught the motion of a lashing tail out of the corner of her eye. “I will take you on another date after this. The best date you can imagine.Outside.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to say this was already better than anything she could imagine, but she kept the words in out of pure stubbornness. It wouldn’t do to let him think he’d been forgiven just because he’d given her everything she yearned for.
Even if itwastrue.
“Well, if we aren’t going to see the library, then whatarewe doing?” she asked, feeling suddenly quite mulish. What in the world could be better than a library?Nothing.
He released her hair and stepped around her. His skin, shifted to a deep red-violet with the sunset, looked otherworldly in the pale blue-green glow of the pool. She tilted her head, admiring him unabashedly. She loved that Vael had two tiny gold hoops in the lobes of his ears. They flashed against the darkness of his skin.Like my sparks.
He swept his arm out toward the pool and he told her, “I’m giving you a swim lesson.”
ChapterFourteen
“Get in the water,taht.”
“No.”
The warm saltwater flowed around his wings as he drifted toward the edge of the pool. It was incredibly tempting to reach out and cover her bare feet with his hands, slick and warm from the water. Then he could just slip his claws up, over the slopes of her delicate ankles, and up, up, up…
Not now.
Vael smothered his low burning arousal with ruthless efficiency, just like every other time he enjoyed Hele’s company in the two years he’d known her. It was never easy, but now that he knew she wanted him, and he’d finally given himself the freedom to woo her, it took every ounce of self control he possessed to keep the touch-hunger at bay.
Gods, I want to devour her.
Even when she stared down at him with that scowl, her arms crossed and her brow crinkled, he wanted to slide his head between her thighs and greet paradise.
“The water is warm,” he cajoled, voice roughened with lust he couldn’t quite contain. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
“I. Am. Electric.” Hele bit the words off of the tip of her tongue. “I do notswim.”
“And I’m built for flight. I’m not supposed to swim either.” To prove his point, he tipped backward, spread his wings, and began to float. He had to bite the insides of his cheeks again to withhold a smile when he watched Hele’s attention drift down his body and back up again. Where her gaze lingered, his skin tingled, desperate for her touch.
His chest swelled with pride even as a new, more potent shot of lust forced him to lower his legs back down to the bottom of the pool. It wouldn’t hide anything, really, but it wouldn’t shove his half-hard cock in her face either.
Vael inwardly blanched.Do not picture that!
Blessedly, Hele distracted him from that devastating mental image by crouching down near the edge. Her dress pooled around her as she carefully rested her palms on her knees. Eyeing the water warily, she asked, “Whydoyou have a pool? I don’t know any dragons who swim.”
As much as he loved looking at her, Vael found his eyes moving away. He stared at the ceiling, covered in tiny reflective tiles that seemed to move with the rippling image of the water below, and watched the dark shapes of his wings flex in the water.
His throat felt tight with remembered pain when he quietly answered, “It’s good for my wings. Water therapy is the only reason I can still fly today.”
There was a brief pause, then, “Why? What happened to your wings?”
Why?He loved that word. It was the first real one she said to him. That didn’t mean he was excited to answer her, though.
A surge of wild affection twined with deep reluctance. He hated telling the story of his injuries. It meant he had to share what happened to his clan, and that subject would always be too painful to bear. Mostly, he preferred to keep his silence. It was in the quiet moments that he felt them most.
