“You’re very committed to architecture.”
His brow furrows. Good. Let him suffer the confusion.
I slide my hand along his jaw. The scales there are smoother than I expected, warm where my fingers have already touched him.
“Never mind,” I say.
“No.”
“No?”
“Not never mind. Later.”
I stare at him. Then I smile. It sneaks up on me, wild and unfamiliar.
“Did you just steal my emotional avoidance and turn it into a promise?”
“Yes.”
“That’s rude.”
“Yes.”
I kiss the corner of his mouth. Because I can. Because I want to. Because the world doesn’t end when I take one small thing for myself.
Kavor shudders like that little kiss did more damage than falling through stone. Power. Not over him, but with him. A terrifying, glowing little thing.
I kiss his jaw next. Then I kiss the scar near his chin. Then the edge of his mouth again because his restraint is starting to fray and I want to know what he does when he has to hold himself together while I choose piece after piece of him.
He catches my chin gently.
“Sera.” I look at him through the blue-lit dark. His breathing is rough. So is mine. “If you continue,” he says, “I will need more restraint than I possess.”
The words ripple through me. Heat. Fear. Want. All tangled.
“Then tell me what more means.”
His eyes close. The question costs him. Good, because it costs me too.
When he opens his eyes, they are dark again, red held back by will so fierce I can almost feel the shape of it.
“More means I will want to mate you.”
My stomach drops. Not in fear, at least not exactly.
The word strikes something primal, yes, but also something lonely. A cavern with no future. A City with never enough. Him looking at me like I’m not a ration, not a tool, not a strange blood reaction, not a girl who got too good at disappearing.
Mate.
The word should be too big. It is too big. But part of me reaches for it anyway.
“I know,” I say.
His hands tighten, then open again. “No. You know the word. You do not know the bond.”
“Then tell me.”
“The bond is not only the body.” His voice roughens. “It is instinct, blood, scent, and recognition. It can be beautiful. It can also be hunger wearing holy names, if the male is weak.”
