“What’s wrong?” He hadn’t let go of me.
“Uh, nothing. Let’s go that way.” I tried to turn him in the direction I wanted him to go, but he didn’t budge. Instead, to my horror, he looked in the direction I’d come from and tilted his head.
“I see.” He looked down at me and smirked. “There’s no need to be embarrassed. It’s natural.” I didn’t have an answer to that. Iwas mortified by what I’d seen. The fact that I knew both of them made it that much worse. His eyes glittered, and he leaned close. “Do humans hide when they mate?”
“We don’t hide, we just don’t typically doitout in the open or with others watching.”
He snorted a laugh and slid his hand down my arm to take my hand. “Then come, dhysa. We’ll indulge your sensitive nature and go somewhere without the sounds of pleasure.”
A thought came to me and I froze. How had I never asked this question before?
“What’s wrong?”
My stomach dipped painfully, and I suddenly didn’t want to know. “Nothing.”
“Jacqueline?” His voice was low, intimate. “Tell me.”
“I just…” I steadied my breathing and told myself it didn’t matter. “I just wondered if you had someone.”
A frown stole over his features and he studied me. I couldn’t hold his gaze. “It’s personal, sorry, I just wondered since…” we’d kissed.
Strong fingers gripped my chin and turned me to face him. “Do you believe me to be a male that would touch you the way I did and then have someone else? Just because we don’t feel the need to hide the act of mating doesn’t mean that we don’t honor those who we spend our lives with.”
I tried to hide my relief, but he saw it, I knew he did. He released my jaw and trailed his fingers down my neck. Closing my eyes, I shivered at the pleasure that coursed through me at the light touch. His other hand cupped my face, and a claw scraped across my bottom lip. I parted my lips, gaze hooded as I tipped my face up to him.
Pulling me flush against him, he cupped my ass with one hand and tangled his other one in my hair, holding me to him as he dropped his lips to mine and we explored each other’s mouths.My hands drifted, and I marveled at the sheer size and power of him. And yet the way he held me, the way he moved his mouth over mine, was gentle, and I wanted to stay wrapped in his arms all night.
He pulled away first but continued to massage the back of my head, scraping his claws across my scalp in a way that made me want to moan.
I rested my hands on his chest. “How do you have this effect on me?”
A laugh rumbled through him. “You are not the only one asking that.”
The only reason I parted from him was that I heard voices getting closer.
Two males came into view. When they saw us, the smile disappeared from one’s face while the other looked uncertain. Arrazyl twitched a wing in acknowledgement of them. Instead of continuing on, the cranky looking one came marching toward us while the other followed more sedately.
“He looks friendly.” I murmured.
“Being difficult makes him good at his job.”
“Which is?”
“He’s one of my advisors.” He raised his voice as he neared. “Hello Ihyl.”
The vorpyr didn’t even look at me and responded in vorikaan. His voice was grating and there was something about his demeanor that made my hackles stand up.
Arrazyl said something in a tone that brokered no argument and the vorpyr both clapped their wings and turned to go, but not before the more vocal vorpyr, Ihyl, cast me a derisive glance.
“You’re a busy man.” I commented, watching them walk away.
“You missed one thing.” he tucked his wing around me. “I’m no man.”
I grinned up at him, “that’s obvious.”
“What gave me away, the horns or the wings?”
“Your fangs, hands down.”
