“He does now.” At my arched eyebrow, he continues, “He’s sealed all three Racoccin tunnel entrances that Antoni and his crew managed to blast open.”
“So Antoni is stuck in the tunnels with my grandmother and mother?”
“And Justus Rossi, and whichever other poor sod Dante sent down into the earth to guard the women.”
Underground.They’re all right under our feet. “How do we get them out?”
“We?”
Right. I signed a contract to stay put. “You.”
He clasps my chin between his fingers to bring my eyes to his. “Fallon, it’s not a punishment.”
“Ha fios.”
The smile that rises over his face at my use of Crow feels like watching the sun break over the horizon and unleash all of its color and light. “What a gift it is to hear you speak my tongue.” He noses the side of my neck, and holy Cauldron, my bones turn to dough. “Can you make more sentences?”
“I can.” And I do. And although my pronunciation is awry and my sentence structure still poor, he smiles at me with such pride that heat scores my heart.
“Make sure to speak in Crow when your father returns.”
“To distract him from murdering you?”
“Did you read my thoughts, Little Bird?”
“Actually, I didn’t.”
“Do you wish to read my thoughts?”
“Does the serpent wish to swim?”
With a slow smile, he draws down his walls, and I peer inside his mind, and oh the things I see. All of them involve our bodies disrobed and entwined.
A blush touches my cheeks when I pull out of his mind, growing when I realize that I’m still straddling him. I go to slide off but his arm bands around me to keep me in place.
Allow me to hold you a moment longer, Behach Éan. You’ve no idea how long I’ve waited to touch you.As he speaks into my mind, his submerged hand strums up and down the runnel of my spine.
Although I stop moving, thus consenting to his caresses, my conscience pesters me about how poorly I’m behaving. If Nonna were here, the points of her ears would shrivel from shame.
“You’ve touched me plenty of times,” I point out.
“Not in this form.” With a sigh, he says, “Soon enough, we’ll have to get out of this pool and return to real life.”
“What willreal lifelook like now?”
Lorcan Ríhbiadh brings his mouth closer to mine. “Like this, Little Bird.” He erases the gap between us, fusing our mouths and gripping me bruisingly tight.
Like a human high on sprite urine, I go from shock to ecstasy in a single heartbeat. And . . . why must I think of sprites and urine at this moment?
Lore chuckles against my mouth because, as always, my thoughts spill into his.Twice now that you’ve mentioned sprite urine.
I swear I’ve never tried it.I nip at his lip.
He hisses, so I pull back, but he slides his fingers through my hair to cup the back of my head and drive my mouth back onto his.
If you ever do, you’ll do so around me.
I curl one hand around his nape, feeling the play of tendons beneath my fingertips.Weird ask, but all right.
