Page 46 of Nightshade

He was damnably patient, just lying there, waiting for me to put myself back in order while his rough, broad hands rubbed my back. I looked down between us, at my leg tucked between his and my hand curled around his hip. I liked the way his skin looked against mine—like milky moonlight against burnt umber. I liked the softness of the hair on his chest, bending beneath the bridge of my nose as I nuzzled into him.

I liked him. I was so fucked, but I did, and I wished so much that everything about me didn’t make his life demonstrably worse.

“You won’t let me—” My voice broke, which wasn’t fair at all. I didn’t have to breathe, so my throat ought to just cooperate, but it’d turned tight and dry, so I tried again. “You won’t let me hurt you, will you?”

I looked up at him, lifting my head, because I needed to see the truth. I needed to know if he was placating me or not. I needed to know that he could do what needed to be done if it—if it came to a choice between us.

Leo certainly looked like a man who could defend himself. He had dense, well-defined muscles. He was larger than me everywhere. And a werewolf? He ought to be able to manage it.

But he was soft and kind, and I didn’t know if he would.

He squeezed my waist and tugged me in. “You haven’t hurt me, Altair.”

His whisper was so ardent, we both froze to listen and see if it’d wake his brother.

The silence stretched on for thirty seconds before I dared to speak again. “Good, I haven’t meant to, but if I were to lose myself, my mind—if I tried to hurt you⁠—”

“You don’t want to hurt me.”

I shook my head. “I don’t,” I agreed. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

I offered him a smile, but it was a weak, wavering thing.

“You’ll remember that, if I ever—if I lose myself.”

Leo’s brow furrowed. “Yeah, okay. I’ll remember that. And if it comes to it . . . no, I won’t just let you hurt me, but you’re not going to. You’re not losing your mind. You’re not a danger to anyone.”

Maybe he was just saying what I needed to hear, but I breathed in the comforting scent of him—trees and sap and wood dust and the scent of those flowers still lingering on his fingertips—and I nodded.

As much as I wanted to believe him, maybe he needed my assurance too, and I didn’t want to be a danger here.

I didn’t want anyone Leo loved to get hurt because of me, but I knew better than to think the witches were finished, or that Ivan would just let me go if he knew where to find me.

I needed to find a way to tell Leo the truth, that it wasn’t just the witches I had to contend with. I owed him that much.

But not right then, with pleasure still thick in the air and a dark, sleepy blanket closing over us both.

Leo cupped my cheek and leaned down to kiss me. He lingered, moving soft and slow, until I went lax in his arms again.

When he pulled back, he was smiling like he’d won a prize.

I couldn’t help but smile back at him and let the spark of hope he lit in my chest dance around a bit.

He pressed another kiss to my forehead. “Go back to sleep,” he whispered. “We’re fine here. I promise.”

I tried to believe him. I’d give anything for it to be that easy.

But I still couldn’t help wondering if he’d let me bite his neck. Maybe other places.

Maybe all of him.

CHAPTER 23

Leo

I stayed the whole night in my old room with Altair. Maybe . . . maybe it was still my room, because I couldn’t imagine wanting to go back to sleeping in Aleks’s room, let alone when Altair was right there in mine.

And the sex. Fuck me, but I’d never had sex so good.