“What are you sorry for, Shemhazai?” he asked, his tone even but serious. He wasn’t justasking.He wanted to know if I knew why I needed to apologize for what I’d done.
“I’m sorry for kissing that witch. If you want to be exclusive, I… I’m willing to try.”
He frowned, brushing his thumb gently over my cheek.
“I don’t mind sharing, Shemhazai. What I have a problem with is you running off with someone else to punish me. I would never ask you to be monogamous. Eternity is a long time, baby. And you are very prone to boredom.” He smirked, and I wondered where the fuck this perfect man had come from and what I had done to deserve him.
“I’m willing to share you, Shemhazai, if that’s what makes you happy. I just ask that I be invited.”
My eyes were burning, and I swallowed, nodding.
“I can do that,” I whispered, and he gave me a gentle kiss on the forehead.
“I’m still sorry I hurt you.”
“Are you ever going to do something like that to me again?”
My eyes filled with tears, and I shook my head.
“No. Never.”
Gabe smiled and rubbed the tip of his nose against mine, his fresh air scent soothing away any guilt I might have still been harboring.
“Then there’s nothing to apologize for.”
He wrapped his hands around my waist and gently turned us around, his wings never breaking their protective circle around us.
He walked me back toward the bed, and my heart rate sped up.
Gently, he pressed me back onto the bed and crawled over me, spreading his wings so they created an ebony canopy above us.
Between us and anyone that might try to judge me.
He held himself over me, and with the hand that wasn’t supporting his weight, he began to unbutton my shirt.
“What are you doing?” I whispered.
I was frozen with a potent mix of fear and anticipation. His gentle fingers worked deftly through the buttons, and he met my gaze, his face serious.
“Taking this off, is that okay?”
No one had ever asked if it was okay before. So I nodded.
“Yeah. I guess.”
Gabe smiled and helped me shrug out of the shirt. Once I was fully naked and lying beneath him, he leaned back, his golden eyes slowly traveling down the length of my body.
He saw everything.
He took in the scattered tattoos that I’d gotten during the years I spent in Egypt. He traced his fingers over the scarab beetle on my chest, and I shivered as he traced lower.
He looked at the scars on my legs.
My shame.
But it didn’t feel the same way it did when Raz looked at me.
Instead of disgust, his face was filled with wonder.
