Page 107 of Reap & Sow

His eyes were low and dark. “You have me.”

“No. I want you, as you really are.”

His expression shifted. Emotions rose and fell so quickly she could not discern a single one. He settled on something pensive. “I thought…that you would prefer this form.”

“It’s a handsome one, to be sure,” she murmured, tracing his lip. “But I would look into the face of the demon I lie with.”

Kit flinched at the word. Searched her eyes.

Eda met his silent question with resolute calm. “You are not human, and you should not pretend to be. You’re perfect.”

Something dangerously close to wonder transformed him then. He leaned forward and brushed his lips to hers.

It was gentler, warmer, more lingering than any kiss to come before. It tasted like a confession. A sacrament too precious to be said aloud. A ripple ran over her skin where they touched. When she opened her eyes, the mortal was gone. Gray cheeks were stained with a becoming flush, spreading to the tips of his knifelike ears.

Eda was helpless but to grin at the sight he made. The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

He kissed her again. Then he was moving down her body with newfound determination. Warm palms slid over her sides, her belly. Lips followed the path he’d made. His claws tickled as he parted her legs, gaze locked on hers.

Eda’s pulse galloped, and she had to tip her head back, unable to bear the frightening pit of hunger in his eyes.

Fangs grazed her inner thigh. She sighed. He kissed the other. She huffed with impatience. Finally, a hot mouth moved over her where she was wet and wanting. Eda grabbed his unbroken horn in shock, ridged and hard as bone beneath her hand. That only seemed to spur Kit on, and she was lost.

It did not take long. Eda might have been embarrassed about that, too, but the pleasure was too great, her lust for him too gluttonous. When her peak crashed through her like a cresting wave she cried out, shaking, but Kit only gentled his mouth without stopping. She had to push him away before it became too much. She was still gasping when he kissed his way back up her body.

He nuzzled her cheek. “Eda. Va kesh din.”

The words sounded like a supplication. Her heart filled so readily she thought it might split in two. “What are you saying?” she whispered.

Kit pressed a kiss to her temple and held it there, chest heaving. She realized that he was not prepared to tell her. Or simply didn’t know how. It did not matter, Eda decided. Not now.

She reached down and guided him to join her. As he pressed forward and gasped, shuddering in her arms, she thought that it did not feel like throwing down a shield. It was stepping into sunlight, without armor or steel or clothing at all.

And what a lovely thing, to burn.

Twenty-eight

Waking to birdsong and a warm embrace, Eda thought, was a rare pleasure—but waking to kisses even more so.

The first time, the windows were still dark blue in the hours before dawn. Too early. But any protest she might’ve made against the mouth that roused her died a quick death. Kisses feathered along her neck, slow and lazy. The warm hand resting over the curve of her belly slid higher, traced the undersides of her breasts. Half asleep as she was, Eda thought she might have been caught in an exceedingly pleasurable dream. But the gentle drag of claws over skin was a sound reminder of exactly who curled possessively around her. She rather felt like a hoard of gold beneath a greedy dragon.

Kit nibbled at her ear. The sensation of his canines—so sharp yet so careful—sent little sparks of excitement through her. She found herself humming in delight as she pressed back into him. By the feel of it, he’d been up and wanting for a while.

“Did I wake you?”

“You know you did,” she scolded, not the least bit annoyed. His hand cupped her breast. She arched into his touch, suddenly hot all over.

“Shall I leave you be?” He kissed her shoulder.

Eda answered him by grabbing his hand and moving it beneath the bedcover. They were both breathless and heavy-eyed by the time he took her again, laid exactly as they’d woken, with his fangs latched upon her neck and her arm thrown back, clinging to his horn for dear life.

The second time, day had broken in earnest. Sunlight filtered into the dim room. Dust motes played about them in a buttery glow as Eda shoved Kit back into the mattress. He was far too strong to be pushed about if he did not wish it, but he must have wished it, for he fell easily. His eyes were roaring bonfires as she straddled him, his hair an inky nimbus about his head.

He tried to pull her where he wanted her. Eda batted him away. “Patience is a virtue, Lord Ansellis.” She hadn’t forgotten his expression the first time she called him lord that night they danced around the bonfire.

As she’d hoped, Kit again looked vaguely drunk. His pupils swelled, black and fathomless. She thought she could fall into them if she only stared long enough.

His hands slid up her thighs. “Come here.”