She looked out the window. The sun was sinking down the sky, afternoon shadows lengthening across the street.
She couldn’t waste any more time. She had to go. Immediately.
She looked all over the room but couldn’t find any way to leave a note, but she didn’t want Tristan to arrive and think she’d simply left. She took Val’s ring from her pocket and put it on one of the pillows, hoping that he would see it there and know that she would be coming back soon. If she could.
She wasn’t going to think about any of the things that could go wrong. She pulled on her cloak, lifted the hood to cover her face, and took a few breaths. She was ready.
Then she ripped open the door, about to fly down the stairs, and almost screamed in shock. Standing right in front of her, hand lifted to knock, was Tristan.
And he did not look pleased.
He took in her traveling cloak with a glance, his frown deepening. His eyes swept the room and rested for a moment, probably on Val’s ring, as pewter and green scales joined the furrowed lines on his forehead. Gods. That was bad.
He stepped forward, pushing her back, slammed the door behind him, and asked in a rough voice, “Going somewhere?”
She considered explaining that, yes, she had places to be. That she was busy. That it wasn’t up to him whether she left or not. And that she didn’t care to be bossed around.
But she could feel the tension vibrating through him, the strain from the catastrophe in the market and his distress about his friend, all pushed down deep within him. Held so tight that she wondered if he even knew how badly affected he was.
The low rumble was back in his chest as his scales flickered in a gleaming wave from his hands and up his arms, all the way to the short leather sleeves of his jerkin, reappearing over his neck and jaw and up to his temples.
All her thoughts of fighting him fell away. He might not realize it, but he needed her.
She went up onto her toes and ran her nose along his jaw, along those magnificent, primal greens and smoky-grays, and then pressed her lips against his neck, where his pulse beat a hard rhythm.
His body was so stiff that, for a moment, she wondered if he would push her away, and she hesitated. But then he wrapped his hand into her hair and tipped her head back, staring down at her with fierce green eyes. And a second later, he sealed his mouth over hers.
Heat poured into her as he ran his tongue over her lips, and she opened for him, almost whimpering as he surged inside. Owning her, dominating her, until she lost herself in the fever of his mouth on hers.
He spun, lifting her, and pressed her into the door, one heavy leg sliding between hers so that she was balanced, riding his hard thigh as he kissed and nibbled his way down her throat, his breath searing against her bare skin, and she ran her hands up his shoulders and around his neck as he lifted his head and took her mouth once more.
His hands moved to her breasts, thumbs sliding in through the sides of her leather jerkin to graze roughly over her nipples, callouses catching against the cotton of her blouse in torturous tugs. Her whole body responded, as if there was an electric connection between her nipples and her clit.
She ground herself against his leg, but her leather breeches were in the way, and she couldn’t get the friction that she desperately needed. Couldn’t relieve the ache spreading through her core. She moaned into his mouth, trying to get closer, to drown herself in his body.
He responded by stepping back and swinging her into his arms. In two huge strides he was at the bed. He threw her down onto the covers, her back across the bed, her legs folded down the side, and she immediately pushed herself up onto her elbows, watching him as he watched her.
His legs were braced, his face severe, his eyes almost glowing, their green was so intense. She was close enough to see a ring of smoky silver around each iris, leaking into the green, and she knew that his inner beast was right at the surface, driving him.
If she ran now, he would be on her in a second. But she had no desire to run. She let her legs fall open, and he stepped between them, towering over her in a way that should have made her feel small and vulnerable. Instead, she felt power running through her in sensuous waves.
Better than the first time she’d leaped off a high cliff into the waiting air currents. Better than soaring through the air and then diving into a cold mountain river. Better than anything she’d ever felt before.
She sat up fully, bringing her face to the massive bulge in his breeches. He didn’t move, but his eyes narrowed, watching her. She lifted a hand and ran her nails languidly over his cock, loving the way the dark silver bled further across his eyes.
Moving just as slowly, she lifted her hands away and tugged at the string of her jerkin and pulled the laces, shrugging until she was free. Slowly, carefully, she unwound the leather bindings that had strapped her wings down over her blouse, his eyes glittering as he watched her every movement.
Her breasts fell loose, heavy beneath the soft cotton, and her wings unfurled behind her in a sensuous glide over the bed, tingling as the blood returned.
She turned her attention to her breeches, lifting her hips so that she could start to pull them down. The movement broke Tristan’s heavy stare, and he growled as he pushed her hands aside and pulled them down himself.
She lay back and let him tug off her boots and then slowly pull her breeches the rest of the way. He dropped her clothes to the floor and then pulled her down the bed until her bottom was hovering right at the edge and she was completely open in front of him.
Her wings fluttered at her sides as she fought to stay still, locked beneath the intensity of his gaze.
He dropped to his knees on the raised step beside the bed and then put his hard hands on the inside of her legs and pushed them wider, holding her open as he ran his mouth up the soft flesh of her thigh, pausing at the join between her thigh and hip to run his teeth across the straining tendon.
She could feel her legs starting to tremble, her breath coming in rough pants, but he held her still as he ran his chin over her mound, his beard tangling with the curly hairs, tugging with sharp, teasing bursts. He moved to the other side, nibbling and sucking the join of her thigh, his face nudging against her folds but never quite touching.
