He means on the street. “Thank you for asking anyway,” I say mildly.
Not that the hand he offered was an invitation without expectations.
He snorts as if he hears my unvoiced thought, and his arms slide against me until he’s gripping my upper arms in his hands like he could just hold me up like that. My hands and feet break out in a clammy sweat, because no matter what my head believes, my body knows I am hundreds of feet in the air with no cushion under me.
I clench my hand on my wand, and then Nariel spins me sharply. There’s an instant wherenothingis holding me and Ibarely have time to gasp let alone perform a spell before he’s wrapped his arms around me again, this time holding my torso from behind.
I breathe deeply a few times, my heart hammering.
“See?” Nariel says in my ear. “Isn’t this more comfortable, with your wand at the ready?”
I did just think that I understood his sense of humor, didn’t I?
I drawl, “Trust me, the man says, while throwing me around in the sky.”
A big flap of his wings that I still can’t see. We appear to be going sideways now, rather than justup. “And so you should,” Nariel says flippantly.
“You’re not telepathic, are you?”
“Would you trust me if I told you I was not?”
Hah. “Depends on your next answer.”
A beat, then Nariel sighs and says testily, “I’mnottelepathic, but are you sure you want to see them?”
I burst out laughing. Against all evidence, thisdoesreassure me. “Yes,” I manage breathlessly. “I’m sure.”
A long moment.
Then the shadows around us clear, and when I tilt my head, I can see Nariel’s wings for the first time.
They’re not feathery like angel wings. They’re like bat wings—or dragon wings—enormous and black with shades of charcoal, the edges shadowy like his hair, and my breath catches.
“Can I touch them?”
A pause, and I think I’ve offended him. Which is fair, he’s not, like, apet—
“You don’t have to force yourself. You’re afraid.”
What? “No, I’m not.”
“Your heartrate accelerated, Sierra,” Nariel says tightly, because of course plastered together as we are he can feel that.
He reallyisn’ttelepathic. “Of course my heartrate accelerated, you moron, you’re beautiful.”
That shocks him silent for a moment, and his shock makes me awkward about it too in a way I wasn’t waking on the plane to discover I’d latched onto him like a limpet.
I lower my non-wand hand to pat him impersonally on an arm wrapped around my stomach. “Don’t worry, no matter what you look like, I promise I can control myself well enough not to throw myself at you in a lustful haze.”
Nariel snorts. “I’m overcome with relief.”
He sounds amused, not relieved, so I dare to tease, “Business first, after all.”
“Oh?” he asks in a low voice, breath right at my ear. “And then what?”
I shiver again, and while that could totally be because of the wind, it obviously isn’t.
“Hey now,” I mutter, leaning my head away from his, and Nariel laughs softly.
