That he was taking his time had nothing to do with his drinking in her curves.Yet his fingers itched to touch her, as he had at the club.His body stirred as it had not in many years.How long since blood had rushed into that particular organ?He was hoping it had atrophied, and this was why.
He dropped the cloth into the bowl and set it on the nightstand, then pulled up a sheet to cover her.He had never been drawn to a woman.Desired one, yes, but never pulled like this, right from his soul.He’d seen the danger of that in Grayson’s haunted eyes and his rage, his experience a warning to all Caidos.
Not that this woman would torture him on purpose.Still, shewastorturing him.
He ran the back of his fingers against her cheek.He would allow himself only this touch.Nowhere intimate that would violate her sanctity.It would be the last time he’d touch her.
You’re weak from the healing.Stop.Don’t give in.
He knew his conscience was right.Where angels feared to tread, that place was here with this woman on his bed.Still, he couldn’t pull his hand away, her warmth seeping into all the cold places inside him.Being in full wing usually numbed the pain he felt from emotions.But amazingly, he could feel it like a low-voltage hum through his being.He indulged in a need he didn’t know he had.
“Beautiful,” he whispered to her, having never uttered those words about anyone before.
With a gasp, she grabbed his hand and shot to a sitting position.“Where am I?”She took him in with wide eyes, and he could see the pieces clicking in her mind.“What were you doing?”
“Cleaning the blood off you.”
The sheet had fallen away, pooling around her waist.She snatched it up again, covering her breasts.She searched herself, her shoulder.“I was cut, badly.I remember the pain.God, it hurt so much.”She patted all along her skin.
“You’re fine now, though in need of some clothing.”He got up and opened the drawer where he kept things for his short stay.He located a button-down shirt and blindly handed it to her, remaining turned away.
“You healed me?”
Thankfully she hadn’t seen the cost.He faced her again, and the sight of his big shirt draped over her body tightened his stomach.“Yes.”
She brushed her fingers across her cheek where he’d touched her moments before, a puzzled expression on her face.Could she feel the echo of his touch?Then her eyes went to his wings, and her voice softened to a reverent hush.“I’ve never seen a Caido’s wings before.They’re luminescent, like smoky silver.You have a glow all around you.”
She wanted to touch his wings.He could see it in her eyes, the way they caressed the width of them.The thought shivered through him, not painful but…tempting.
Her wonderment fled.“You’ve been hurt, too.Can you heal yourself?”
Archer looked at the cut on his side.It wasn’t bleeding anymore, only crusted with dried blood.“It will heal on its own.”
Lyra took the cloth from the bowl and wrung out the water.As she stretched to reach him, the sheet fell away.The shirt covered her hips and ass but left her long, creamy legs bare.She hissed in pain at the same second he saw the red, angry line on the back of her thigh.
She twisted around to see it.“Bastard ripped out one of my scales.And tried to slice my throat with it!”
“Calm down.”Now her anger pulsed.“I’ll heal it.”He sat on the edge of the bed and waved a hand over it.
“You put me to sleep, didn’t you?”She winced but never took her gaze from him.Which made him work harder to keep his expression neutral as he took her pain.
“Consider it a sedative.”
The line disappeared from her skin, burning on his thigh for a few seconds before fading.
She was watching him.“You take on the pain.”
He lifted a shoulder.“It’s just a sting.”
She sat in the truth of that for a second.“Thank you.”
“It’s nothing.Really.”
She started to reach toward the cut with the washcloth but paused.“You don’t like it when people touch you.”
He shook his head.“No, we don’t.”
She bent her legs to the side, a demure position, yet still provocative.“Let me get this straight.Your energy draws women—people—to you, but you don’t like anyone to touch you.”
