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"Wel..." Gold was beginning to show around the edges of his irises. "I'm owed a kiss. The terms were very clear."

"Then take it."

He kissed me.

There was no hesitation in it. He kissed me slowly and deeply, taking his time as his hand came up to cradle my jaw and his thumb brushed the corner of my mouth. He tasted faintly of oranges and cold air. Every time one of us shifted, the leaves beneath us crackled, and before long I had stopped thinking about wolves, Councils, or anything beyond the warmth of his mouth and the careful way he held himself over me.

I had no idea how long we stayed there. The light had deepened by the time his mouth moved from mine to my jaw, then lower to my throat, and finally to the place beneath my ear that made me gasp. My hands slipped beneath his sweater and found the hot, smooth skin of his back. I pulled him closer until he finally let more of his weight settle over me, and the hard length of his cock pressed against my hip through his pants.

That made it impossible to misunderstand exactly how much he was enjoying himself.

He lifted his head.

His eyes were completely gold now.

"Reina," he said, his voice rougher than before. "I want to taste you. Right here, in the leaves." He paused and watched my face. "Say no and I stop. I'll kiss you until the horn goes, walk you home, and never bring it up again."

My heart was beating hard enough that I could feel it in my throat. "Out here? Someone could come by."

"They could," he said, and a slow grin spread across his face. "That's part of what makes it interesting. But I'll hear them long before they get anywhere near us. Very good ears, remember?"

His thumb traced my lower lip.

"Yes or no, mi reina."

For a moment I thought about the night in his room and the memory of that camera flash that still had a way of cutting through me when I least expected it. I remembered how he didn’t want to touch me when I was sad. He wanted me to be happy.

And I was now.

I was lying in the leaves with him in the middle of the forest after he had spent half the afternoon chasing me for fun, and I was still breathless from laughing.

"Yes," I said.

His expression changed immediately.

He moved down my body without rushing, pausing to push my sweater up and kiss my stomach. His mouth passed over the silver lines there, the same ones he had kissed before.

"Hello again, tiger," he murmured against my skin.

I laughed, but the sound disappeared when he began undoing my jeans. He took his time with it, enough that I wanted to reach down and do it myself. Then he eased them over my hips along with my panties, exposing me to the cold air.

I gasped at the sudden chill, and then again when his warm breath moved over me.

I was already wet.

"Dios," he murmured.

He didn't touch me right away. He just looked, his gaze moving over me with such open appreciation that it made heat crawl up my neck.

"Look at you," he said quietly. "You have any idea what you're doing to me?"

Then he lowered his mouth to my pussy.

His tongue moved slowly through me at first, gathering the wetness there before sliding upward to my clit. The first firm stroke made my stomach tighten.

Jax wasn't patient in the same way Silas was. He liked making a game out of everything, including this. He would drag his tongue slowly from my entrance to my clit, give me exactly enough pressure to make me tense beneath him, and then stop before I could have what I wanted. When I whimpered, he laughed softly against me.

"Jax."