“A Gleaner,” I corrected. “That’s what I was—what I am. A taker. A thief.”
Raewyn raised her head and drew back to look at me, keeping her arms wrapped around my neck. In this position, we were eye to eye. Hers were clouded with confusion.
It was time to clear it up for her. She needed to know just what kind of man she was dealing with.
“Itookher glamour, just as I took my shadow glamour from someone else I got killed,” I explained. “That’s what a Gleaner does, siphons glamours from other Fae. That’s what the symbol on my foot—and my chest—represents. The mark my father hid from the world? I had it reproduced at the grandest scale I could manage, in a spot that could not be overlooked, especially by me. I see it every time I take my clothes off, every time I pass a mirror.”
“You did it to punish yourself,” Raewyn whispered in understanding.
“Nothing my father has done to me—or will ever do—could come close to what I deserve for killing her and taking away his eternal bond-mate, not to mention causing my siblings to lose their mother.”
Raewyn’s small, cool hands came to the sides of my cheeks, holding my face as we shared searing eye contact. I couldn’t look away as she spoke.
“You lost her too, Pharis. She might have perished in that battle anyway, even if you hadn’t been there. It is not your fault. You did what she commanded you to do.”
My head shook back and forth, but Raewyn didn’t let me go.
“I shouldn’t have,” I said. “I shouldn’t have even been there. I’ve avoided going into battle since then, though I’m certain there are those who consider me a coward—or lazy—for not doing so. I never wanted anyone to see that I have her glamour now in addition to mine. I never wanted my brother and sister to see the evidence that I caused our mother’s death.”
Blinking rapidly, I tried again to turn my face away, not wanting Raewyn to see the threatening tears. She refused to allow it, holding me in place with her hands and her exquisite brown eyes.
“Don’t you see?” she said through tears. “It’s evidence of your mother’slove. She is part of you now—and you will always have a part of her inside you. That is a beautiful gift.”
Unable to stem them any longer, I felt hot tears spill over and stream down my face.
To my shock, Raewyn leaned forward and kissed them. Then she began unbuttoning my shirt.
I looked down, my breath deserting me in a whoosh of shock.
“What are you doing?”
Raewyn didn’t answer me, only kept at her task, and then she bent her head… and pressed her lips to my chest.
For a moment, my mind went utterly blank. I was no longer a thinking being but a creature of pure physicality and sensation.
I couldn’t move, I couldn’t speak.
My heartbeat thundered in my ears as blood rushed to the surface of my skin, making it hypersensitive.
A trail of fire burned in Raewyn’s wake as she moved across my pectoral muscles and upper torso, kissing the tattoo, showing me the forgiveness and acceptance I could not give myself.
And then she started moving downward, following the spiral shape of the glamour mark as it narrowed and descended toward my lower abdomen.
The shock and wonder shifted to blazing desire.
As innocent as she was, Raewyn had no idea the reaction her sweet mouth was eliciting.
Everything inside me wanted to let her keep doing it, to see how far she would follow that shameful mark’s path.
The last shred of decency remaining in my body impelled my hands into action. I grabbed Raewyn’s shoulders and hauled her upwards again. For a moment, I just held her there in front of me, my mind wiped clean and struggling to process rational thought.
Then the irrational took over.
I surged forward and kissed her, the motion pushing Raewyn over until her back was on the blanket and my body covered hers.
While the blindfolded kiss earlier had been erotic, this experience was mind-altering.
Beautiful, sweet Raewyn was beneath me, in a position I’d sworn never to allow again after the sparring incident, and it felt even better now than it had then.
