Page 52 of Knight’s Absolution

His wings were bronze, flecked with delicate strands of gold. “They’re so incredibly beautiful, Gunner,” she whispered as she lifted her hand to one of the arches that rose high from his back.

The tips of her fingers made contact, dancing gently along the arch, and his head dropped forward.

“Am I…does it hurt?”

“No,” he said, voice strained.

His feathers were incredibly silky, and she slid her hand higher. His big body shuddered. “Gunner?”

“It feels good, love. B-better than I ever imagined.”

The idea that she could make him feel good…yeah, she liked that. So much so her skin flushed hot. And the feel of his smooth wings, delicate and exquisite, made her greedy for more. She brushed over the other arch and down the side, over and over, while Gunner shuddered and moaned softly.

When she moved her hand back to the center of his back to start all over again, he stepped away suddenly. “I think we should…um, stop now.”

When he turned to her, his eyes were dark, his cheeks were pink, and his skin was covered in goose bumps.

“But you liked it?”

“Yeah—" He cleared his throat again. “I liked it a lot.” His wings vanished, and he tugged his shirt on. “I, uh…have a surprise for you. I think we should get to that now.”

A surprise?

He motioned behind her, and she turned.

There was a table with a red cloth over it. Gunner strode over and pulled it away. Several little cakes and what looked like chocolate in different colored wrappers sat in a bowl.

“What’s this?” she asked as she moved toward him. When he was there, she was always drawn into his orbit. Not getting close to him was an impossibility.

“Now that I know you can eat food as well”—he grinned—“that you have a sweet tooth, I thought I’d share a few of my favorites with you for dessert.”

His grin morphed into an uncertain smile that didn’t just make her legs feel funny, it made all of her feel weak and shaky. “Heh, so that’s why you taste so good? Your dessert addiction,” she said, trying to tease him, to not show how his small gesture made her dead heart feel as if it had expanded in her chest.

He didn’t need to do this, any of this. No one ever had before. And as for surprises, she’d only ever had the bad kind.

Yet here they were, on a rooftop, with a table covered in treats for her, after flying through the night sky in his arms.

Gunner had grown still, and when her gaze hit his, his nostrils flared and his amber eyes glowed.

She quickly looked away. “So, uh…what do we have here?”

He came around and pulled a chair out for her. She sat, and he drew the other seat close to her and sat as well. “I thought we’d start with a cream puff.”

He pulled a plate closer. It had a pastry on it, covered in powdered sugar and obviously filled with cream.

“Have you had one before?” he asked.

“No. Spencer used to occasionally buy me chocolate bars when he bought food for…” She cleared her throat. She didn’t want to say his name, let alone think about that bastard right now. Her stomach cramped, a craving starting to grow just from having him in her head. How could she want his blood so badly when it hurt her, when it made her sick? Why did she still want it?

She shoved that fucker from her head. “Before, I knew if something was sweet, but my senses were so…narrow that I couldn’t really taste it. That’s changed since I’ve been here, with you.”

“So everything’s new?”

“Yep,” she said, trying to sound okay, to be okay, when the truth of what she’d missed, what she’d been through, hurt like hell.

He shifted in his seat. “So not just taste?”

She licked her lips, forcing herself to look him in the eyes when she wanted to look away, to run away. He must think she was such a freak. “Um, no. Touch and scent, and temperature, too.”