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She met me halfway.

The kiss began slowly and refused to stay that way.

Everly's fingers pushed into my hair, and the sound she made when I deepened it went straight down my spine. I lifted her until her gold heels cleared the carpet, which was exactly what I'd been unable to do in the lobby, and she laughed against my mouth and locked her arms around my neck as though she'd been waiting for me to try.

"Show-off," she murmured.

"I've been well behaved all evening."

"I noticed. It was starting to worry me."

I let her slide down the length of my body, and she took her time about it. My trousers concealed very little, and I felt the instant she realized it. Her breath caught, her gaze dropped, and when it came back to my face, the curve of her mouth was so smugly pleased that I almost forgot every sensible intention I'd ever had.

"That," she said, "is definitely not a costume."

"I can vouch for its authenticity."

She laughed and rested her forehead against my chest until she'd recovered, then reached behind her head and loosened the ribbons of her mask. She turned to set the mask on the bedside table, then slipped the halo from her hair with a sigh of relief.

When she faced me again, there was nothing between us but lamplight. I'd seen that face across conference tables, composed and courteous and carefully closed. I had never seen it flushed along the cheekbones, with her mouth swollen from mine and her eyes gone dark.

"There," she said. "Now I'm the only one of us with nothing to hide."

"I'm hiding quite a lot," I said. "Most of it is under these trousers."

Her laugh was low and delighted. "That sounds like a topic for later." She turned her back to me and gathered her hair over one shoulder. "Would you unzip me?"

The zipper lay hidden beneath the clip of her little white wings, and the feathers tickled my knuckles as I drew it down. I took my time, giving every inch of uncovered skin my mouth: the nape of her neck, the point of her shoulder, the hollow between her shoulder blades, where she shivered and reached back to grip my hip. The boned bodice loosened and fell away, the satin slid over her hips, and she stepped out of it wearing only her gold heels and a scrap of ivory lace.

I gathered the dress from the floor, wings and all, and laid it across the foot of the bed while Everly turned to face me. She didn't cover herself. Her breasts were full and rosy, her nipples drawn tight, and the lace sat low on hips I'd spent far too many meetings imagining beneath charcoal trousers. She stood with her shoulders back and her chin lifted at the same angle she'd used to tell me she didn't date anyone connected to work. Tonight the gesture meant something entirely different, and I held on to that distinction harder than I'd held on to anything in a very long time.

"Before this goes any further," I said, "tell me what you want. Exactly."

Her eyebrows rose, and I expected a tease. Instead she closed the last step between us, laid her palm flat against my sternum, and told me.

"I'm sober, I'm certain, and I've been picturing your hands on me since you asked me to dance. I want your mouth on me. Then I want your cock inside me. And I'd like to be extremely loud about both."

Heat hit low and hard. I covered her hand with mine.

"The walls in this hotel are very old and very thick."

"Good." Her smile turned wicked, then softened. "Is that what you want, too?"

"All of it. If any part of it stops being what you want, tell me, and I'll stop. That holds for the whole night."

"I believe you." Her fingers curled into the hair at the back of my neck. "Now stop being so careful with me."

I laid my palm between her breasts and pushed, gently enough that she could have refused. She went down onto the coverlet with a breathless laugh, honey-gold waves spilling across the ivory pillows, and I set one knee on the mattress beside her and let my wings open.

They swept out to their full span, the left one clearing the nearest lamp by inches, and I curved them forward until the bed lay beneath a vault of black feathers and the amber light dimmed to something warm and private. Everly stared up into it with her lips parted.

"Oh," she breathed. "That's completely unfair."

"Is it too much?"

"Not remotely. I hope you intend to make good use of them."

"Carefully." I caught both her wrists in my left hand and stretched them above her head against the pillows, then brought the edge of my wing down across her forearms, a soft, heavy weight she could have shrugged off with one twist. "Starting with this. You can move whenever you like. I'd prefer that you stay."