Page 100 of Suncatcher

Her rumbly voice sent need curling to Pearl’s toes. She missed Driz so much. “Yes,” Pearl breathed, not certain it was a lie.

Driz was immediately in front of her, and Pearl reached, seizing her face and kissing her the way she had dreamed of for days. She pressed their mouths together, letting her tongue slide to Driz’s fangs, and then past them, seeking. She would’ve climbed all the way inside Driz if she could.

Driz kissed her back for a tantalizing moment. “What can I do?” she asked, far too sweet.

“Fuck me. And don’t be careful about it.”

It was the wrong thing to say. Driz pulled away fully, and Pearl cursed her human eyes for not being able to see well in the darkness. “I thought you said you were hurt.”

Driz’s tone should have cautioned Pearl, but she was reckless tonight. “I am.”

“Then we should not mate.”

Pearl reached for the buttons on her shirt, popping them open violently and baring her chest.

Driz let out a low, quiet growl.

“I am hurt. In here.” Pearl skimmed her fingers down between her breasts. “Won’t you kiss it better for me?”

Driz stared but didn’t do anything. So Pearl closed the gap between them and curled her stinging palm around one of Driz’s horns.

It worked, as Pearl had desperately hoped it would. Driz pounced on her, gathering Pearl into her arms and kicking into the sky. Pearl didn’t wait for Driz to reach wherever it was they were headed. She trusted Driz would support her as she used her free hand to open the two remaining buttons on Driz’s tattered shirt, pressing their bared chests together. Needing to be closer to her. She ran her palms along Driz’s horns again and bit at her neck, earning another growl.

For the first time in days, Pearl was where she belonged. She was happy.

Until Driz landed in their ravine and scrambled away, leaving Pearl on her back, panting and partially clothed.

Driz collided with the opposite wall, sending a shower of pebbles and dirt raining down on her where she crouched, huddled in a defensive position, wings curling around herself.

“Driz?” Pearl sat up, the sudden chill of the night overwhelming her.

“What do you want from me?” Driz asked. She sounded pained.

“To see you.”

“Do you?” Driz let her wings fall. Despite the darkness, Pearl could feel her anger, and the tiniest shiver of fear ran through her. “For nights, I have been driven mad by worry over your sickness. And after everything, the first thing you say is to fuck you.”

Pearl cringed at the echo of her crude words from Driz’s polite, thoughtful mouth. “So you don’t want me anymore?”

“Of course I want you!” Driz wiped at her face, looking away again.

Pearl’s lips quivered obnoxiously. “I just…I miss you.”

“I miss you too,” Driz whispered.

“You’re right. We should talk. I wanna talk. How are you?” The hollow words were so inadequate.

“I do not know,” Driz finally answered, and it did nothing to ease the tension in Pearl.

“I’m mostly recovered,” Pearl offered, sounding both desperate and wretched. She needed to do better. Be better, for Driz. “I shouldn’t have said that. I wasn’t thinking. I was just…trying to get you to stay.” Pearl had to swallow a few times to make her throat work to finish the rest. “I’m scared you’re gonna leave again, and that you won’t come back.”

Driz was silent for several awful heartbeats. “You want me to stay?”

“Of course I do. I just told you so. At least, that’s what I’m trying to say. I’m sorry.” Pearl hoped the poor words would be enough until she could come up with a way to prove to Driz she meant them.

“Have you been staying with Molly?”

Pearl froze, the question closing around her throat. “Um, yeah. Why?”