A guilty ping radiated in her chest, but she would make up for it. She needed to. She wanted to.
“Luxiva.”
She smiled, her heart fluttering. “Yes?”
“Tell me again what this means.”
Lainey fiddled with a lock of his hair and behind him, she saw the sky turn a glorious bright pink.
“It means,” she started, “that I’ll be open to this, to you. That we can take this relationship one day at a time and see where it leads. And I promise I won’t fight with you about it and I’ll do my best not to freak out on you. But just a warning in advance, that if it does happen, I just need you to push against me and tell me I’m being an asshole, okay?”
That crooked little grin returned and Lainey felt like she’d won something when it appeared.
“I like when you fight with me,” he said.
Lainey chuckled. “Fine. I promise I’ll still fight with you. Better?”
“Better.”
“So, we’re all made up, then?” Lainey asked. It was her turn to ask for clarification.
“Tev,luxiva, we are all ‘made up.’”
Bright relief went through her and she smiled up at him in a way that made him growl, his hands flexing at her waist.
Slowly trailing her hands down his chest, stopping at his tight abdomen, she said softly, looking up at him underneath her eyelashes, “You know, when humans make-up after fights, there’s usually make-up sex involved.”
Kirov purred in his chest. “Tev?”
“Oh yeah.”
She ached for a repeat of their time in the meadow, but she wantedmore. All of him. She wanted to feel him against her body, wanted to feel his heavy weight between her thighs, his warmth covering her, as he slid deep inside.
That crooked grin reappeared, making her heart pound with excitement.
“It is unfortunate then,luxiva,” he began, dropping his voice in a way she found irresistibly sexy, “that we will not mate until ourravraxia.”
Cue record screech.
“What?”
Kate had told her about theravraxia. It was the mating ceremony. The one with the Fates entering their bodies, or something like that. The one with theblood bond.
“Kirov, wejusttalked about taking this one day at a time,” she said, her mouth hanging open.
He looked a little smug as he said, “Tev, and we will. You may take all the time you wish to take. But like I said, we will not mate until theravraxia. We can still pleasure each other in other ways until then, but in this, I stand firm.”
“Are you serious?” she asked, still a little dumbstruck. “Because I’m pretty sure you would’ve banged my brains out the other night if I had asked you to.”
“Tev, most likely,” he answered, which further boggled her mind.
“Then why do you want to waitnow?” she asked, incredulous.
His eyes focused on something in the distance, his jaw setting, before looking back down at her.
“Because,luxiva,” he said, “you have forgiven me and I have forgiven you. However, what you said on the terrace that night made me realize that you might not revere intimacy with a mate as I do. Perhaps humans are more lax about these things.”
“Of course I—”
