“Is this why you held back on getting close to me?”
“Aye. And I still worry. But Grumlin talked me into pushing past my fear.”
“Grumlin?”
“He’s a big proponent of love, it seems.”
Love? My smile feels like it’s going to burst from my face. “Love.”
Archer goes to the floor, kneeling and looking into my eyes like I’m the center of his universe. I am melting. He takes my hands again and smoothes my knuckles with his thumbs, which turns me on far more than such a simple gesture should.
“Grumlin assured me that if Valeria became a problem, he and the rest of the town would defend us. He isn’t afraid of her. I am hoping it’s because he knows how strong this town, and specifically Tully, are. Maybe it’s madness. Probably is, but Colette…”
“Yes?”
“I love you, Colette Amelot. I can’t deny it any longer. But if you don’t want to risk a confrontation with a dangerous vampire female for me, let alone the dangers in loving me, I understand, and I’ll leave after Snowlight.”
My heart is glowing. It’s so warm and bright that I feel as if I swallowed the sun. I take his face in my hands. His jaw is sharp, and his skin is cool to the touch.
“Archer, I love you, and no one is going to come between us if I can help it.”
His eyes shutter for a moment, then he gazes atme, eyes like banked coals. He sweeps me up and into bed and is suddenly over me.
“We will need to go very slowly. I haven’t been intimate with anyone in years and it’s not easy to be careful.” The tip of his tongue touches a fang. He’s talking about the vampire side of him.
“Slow is perfect.”
He supports himself on one elbow as he draws a fang down my throat to my collarbone. He kisses me there and I shudder with want.
Lifting himself, he gazes at me and his dark eyebrows pull together.
“I think I’ve loved you from the moment you jumped on me surrounded by baked goods,” he whispers, tickling my skin.
A laugh bubbles out of me and he smiles against my forehead. I’ve never been so happy.
Moving down my body, he drops kisses over my breasts through the fabric. His hands slide down my thighs, then up under my dress. His fingers make quick work of my stockings. I lift my bottom and he works my lacy underthings off. Throwing them across the room, he slowly moves so that he is poised beneath my dress. My legs tremble. Archer licks his way from the inside of my knee to the center of my heat,and I’m shaking even more as he swipes his tongue upward once firmly. It’s the most sensual feeling I’ve ever experienced. I tangle my hands in his long, black hair, and my hips rise to meet his mouth more completely. His tongue flicks over my most sensitive place. Pleasure courses through my blood.
He pauses in his work and looks at me over the rumpled mess of my dress’s layers. His eyes are different somehow. Darker. And that expression…
“Archer?”
“It’s all right,” he says with a purr. “You’re just making me Hungry in every way.”
“Do you want to, um…” I don’t know how to broach the idea of him biting me. My body pulses with want. “I am very open to whatever you’d like to try.”
“It can be dangerous.”
“I trust you.”
His smile is wicked, but somehow also sweet. I don’t feel frightened of him—only aware that he is a creature that could best me in any fight. But I told the truth. I do trust him.
He eases his way up my body, then pulls me into a sitting position with his stomach to my back. His erection is hard and long against me, and I reach back between us to stroke him over his trousers. Hemoans into my hair, then his hand snakes around my head to snag my jaw firmly.
“You’re certain?” he asks. “You can tell me to fuck off at any moment.”
“No, I want this, Archer. I want to feel what it is to love you as both vampire and goblin. As you, in your true state.”
“You’re wonderful,” he purrs against my temple. “You know that?”
