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He closes his eyes for a moment. “Nobody’s ever said that to me.”

Then I kiss his throat, pressing my mouth to the darkened spot beneath his jaw and sucking until a small, hurt sound breaks out above me and runs straight down my spine. I put it there. Now I’m the one drawing it back out of him.

I follow the line of his neck to his collarbone, and the moment my mouth finds the hollow beneath it, he swears under his breath. When my teeth catch the soft skin beneath his arm, he jerks, but I keep going until his hand slaps flat against the rain-streaked glass behind his hip.

“Light—”

“You are. You’re fucking gorgeous.” I go lower, licking along his ribs and making him shudder. “You had me cross half the Reach to come collect you.” I kiss beneath his ribs. “Now I’ve finally got you here.”

“You’re not supposed to talk while you do that.” His fingers find my hair. “You’re supposed to get on with it and let me pretend afterward that it didn’t happen.”

“Beautiful.” I bite at the point of his hip, and he cries out. “That’s the word.” I press another kiss to his skin. “You made me work far too hard to earn it.”

“Don’t say that.”

“What, beautiful?” I say it into the crease of his thigh, and he sobs. “That you’re perfect? But you are. Every fucking part of it. Every part of you I’ve had to look at through a lens.”

He’s shaking under my hands as I take the point of his hip in my teeth again, harder, and lick over it while the music sweeps us up. His cock is hard against his stomach, flushed at the head, pre-cum shining at the slit. I drag my thumb through it and bring it to my mouth, licking him off my skin before wrapping my hand around him.

I work him slowly at first, tightening my fist while he ruts into it faster and faster until his knee buckles.

I get an arm around his waist before he can slide down the glass, and he ends up hanging from my shoulders, panting into my hair.

“I’ve got you.”

“I can stand, you know.”

“Your knees disagree.”

“They’re fine.”

“Of course they are.” I slide my other arm under his thighs and lift him clean off the floor. He swears and grabs on, his legs locking around my waist. “You can tell me all about it while I carry you.”

“Put me down.”

“No. And I’m done doing this against a window.”

Carrying him to the fire, he finds my throat, and his teeth sink in. There’s a thick rug in front of the hearth, and I go down onto it, with him still wrapped around me, and lay him back into the light.

Then I stand up again.

“Where are you going now?” Jade pushes himself up on one elbow, watching me.

“Stay right there and watch me.”

I pull my shirt over my head and let it fall to the floor, my belt coming free in one hand. I slide it out slowly, rolling my hips just enough to make his eyes follow, then push my pants down and step out of them.

He watches every inch of me. His eyes travel over me once, then again, slower this time, catching on my erection before moving over my stomach and shoulders and finally making their way back to my face.

He swallows, staring openly now. “Light. Are you always this pleased with yourself?”

I smile because he keeps looking. “Only when you’re staring at me like that.”

“You’re an asshole,” he mutters, but his eyes drop again.

“Maybe, but I think you’re blushing so prettily because you like what you see.”

I don’t wait for an answer, stepping between his feet as he lies back on the rug, knees apart, firelight moving over his skin. I go down onto one knee, then the other, crawling slowly up the length of him until I’m braced over his chest.