“I’m terrified too,” she whispered. “I’ve never had anyone look at me the way you do. Like I’m fascinating instead of frustrating. Like my scattered nature is appealing instead of annoying.” Her hands came up to cover mine. “I thought I’d accepted that romance wasn’t for someone likeme. That I was too focused on my work, too absent-minded, too much and not enough all at once.”
Lightning flickered through the snow.
“I thought we were supposed to be partners,” she said. “But partners communicate. They work through problems together. They don’t hide for three days because they’re feeling something inconvenient.”
“You’re right.” I rested my forehead against hers, breathing her in. “I’ve been handling this badly.”
“Yes, you have.” But there was no anger in her voice now, just honesty. “So what are we going to do about it?”
I pulled back enough to meet her eyes, seeing my own uncertainty reflected there. “I don’t know how to want someone like this and not lose myself completely.”
“I think you should figure that out.”
“I think I should too. Before I lose all sense of reason.” Leaning close, I kissed her.
The moment my lips touched hers, the world exploded. Not metaphorically. It actually exploded. Lightning arced across the ceiling in brilliant white-hot streaks. Snow swirled around us in a vortex of glittering flakes. Thunder cracked so loudly the windows rattled, and the temperature fluctuated wildly, freezing one second, blazing hot the next.
But I didn’t care about any of it.
I’d wanted this for days. Since she’d climbed into the bath and talked about convection currents while water streamed down her naked body. Since she’d worn my tunic and looked more at home in my chambers than I’d ever felt. Since she’d smiled at me in that corridor and made my carefully constructed walls crumble to dust.
Her lips were soft and cool against mine, and she tasted like honeycakes and rain. I angled my head, deepening thekiss, and she made a small sound that shot straight through me like dragonfire.
She kissed me back. Not hesitantly or politely, but with the same wholehearted enthusiasm she brought to everything else. Her hands fisted my tunic, pulling me closer, and when I swept my tongue along the seam of her lips, she opened for me.
The kiss turned desperate.
I wrapped one arm around her, hauling her against me until there was no space between us. My other hand slid into her hair, tilting her head to give me better access. She was soft everywhere I was hard, cool where I burned hot, and the contrast made my dragon side rumble with satisfaction.
Mine,it growled.
Snow and lightning danced around us in a wild display. The temperature couldn’t seem to settle, swinging between extremes as Adele’s magic responded to whatever she was feeling. Static electricity crackled through her hair. Frost formed on my skin where she touched me. And none of it mattered because she was kissing me like she’d been thinking about this as much as I had.
I walked her backward until her back hit the wall beside the window. She gasped against my mouth, and I took advantage, tasting her more deeply, memorizing every sound she made. Her hands left my tunic to slide up my chest, over my shoulders, into my hair, and when her nails scraped against my scalp, I groaned.
“Raoul,” she breathed against my mouth.
I kissed along her jaw, down the column of her throat, feeling her pulse race beneath my lips. She smelled like rain, and I wanted to drown in it. Wanted to memorize every bit of her skin, learn what made her gasp, what madeher moan, what made her weather magic spiral out of control like it was doing right now.
A loud crack of thunder made us both jump.
I pulled back, breathing hard, and looked around to find we were standing in the center of a localized storm. Snow fell in thick curtains. Lightning arced in branching patterns. Wind whipped through the chamber, scattering papers everywhere.
And Fletcher, still on the sofa, had covered his eyes with his paws.
“Oh,” Adele said, following my gaze upward. “That’s… I didn’t mean to do that.”
With a flick of her wrist, the storm began to dissipate. The snow melted. The lightning faded. The wind died down to nothing.
We stood pressed together against the wall, both of us breathing like we’d been running. Her lips were swollen from my kisses. Her hair was mussed where my hands had tangled in it. Her eyes were wide and dark and filled with emotions that made my chest ache.
“That was…”
“Incredible,” I said.
“I was going to say unexpected, but incredible works too.” A smile tugged at her lips. “Your hair is standing on end from the static.”
I ran a hand through it, feeling the strands crackle. “Worth it.”
