Castiel let out a faint moan.
My breath stuttered. I’d never been so close to another person before. I’d avoided it, even when I’d allowed myself to be kissed by boys. It was…beautiful. It was frightening, yes, but beautiful and comforting, too.
Our breathing filled the room. Was he as affected as me?
Castiel shifted, and I drew back so he could easily pull his wing off my lap and fold it back where it belonged.
A sense of loss gripped me as the wing left my lap, and my legs turned cold without his comforting weight. It was foolish, really. It’s just a wing. It’s just one time. I shouldn’t be so troubled.
He turned to finally look me in the eyes. “Thank you,” he said simply.
“You’re welcome,” I stuttered. “It was my pleasure.”
Castiel smiled. It wasn’t his carefree teasing smirk, but something gentle. “Would you be willing to do my other wing?”
My heart leapt. I schooled my face to remain impassive. “If that’s what you wish.”
I must not have done a good job, because his eyes brightened and his smile turned sharp, as if he was holding back a chuckle. Before I could retract my offer, he turned on the bed and unfolded his right wing, draping it again across my lap.
As my fingers sank into the primary feathers at the bottom, he said casually, “In Aerie this is something very intimate, something we only do with people we trust.”
My hands stilled. My heart beat faster. I didn’t know how to reply.
“My mother did this for me when I was a child, when my wings were still downy and soft.” His voice ached with something. Longing, maybe? “Lovers do this for one another, too.”
The silence between us grew thick. I swallowed, trying to think of how to respond to that. I forced my fingers to keep moving.
“Does it trouble you I’m doing it then, if this is only something you share with people you’re close to?”
His gaze swung to meet mine, and gone was the lazy, drowsy posture of his body. His eyes burned with desire and unstated passion, pupils blown wide. His hand reached out and cupped my cheek, his thumb sweetly caressing my skin. “Lilith, you are someone I would share this with.”
My eyes widened. “Oh.” I tried again. “Oh.”
Words failed me. My fingers dove into his wing, higher up, and he shivered. His hold on my jaw tightened, and his eyes flared even hotter.
“Did that…did that hurt?” My voice was ragged, a thin, fraying string leading somewhere I didn’t know.
A muscle feathered in his jaw. “No.” His voice was even rougher than mine. “The closer you get to where my wings meet my back, the more sensitive it is.”
I nodded, pretending a calm I certainly did not feel. “Sensitive in an, uh, arousing way?”
He just looked at me.
“Ah.” The way he admitted his lust shocked me. But then, he was well over a hundred years old. I was the naive, sheltered one. His plain speaking—or perhaps plain gestures—made me want to be brave and honest, too.
I straightened, watching him closely, and ran two fingers up his wing, then around to the underside, and grew closer to where his shoulder blade should be.
His breath stuttered, and the heat in his gaze turned molten. When my fingers reached the seam of where his wings met his back, his eyes closed and his body went rigid.
“Lilith,” he gasped, and he was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen. Harsh control, lush lips, lavish wings, and desperate desire trying to break free. “Stars, Lilith, you’re—you need to be careful.”
I smiled as my fingers swept up and down the crevice.
Castiel’s eyes snapped open and he tucked his wing away so fast it knocked my hand away. He smiled, something altogether different than I’d seen before now. It was slow, curved, and wicked. “Oh, Lilith,” he murmured in a seductive voice. “That was a bad idea.”
I tossed my hair back, pretending bravado. “Why’s that?
Castiel
