Page 32 of Moonless

I push up higher on my elbow. “I asked to go home first. Want to go back to that conversation?”

His eyes come back to me. “You don’t know where home is from here.”

“Then point.”

I raise my voice.

“You could solve all of this by pointing. You’ve had eleven days to do it. Eleven days to tell me what the wolves did, or who you’re so fucking angry with, or anything that would make this make sense.”

“You’re coming back.”

“You don’t even listen anymore.”

“I’ve heard every word.” He leans down until his face is right over mine.

I don’t pull back. “Then answer one.”

His gaze drops to my mouth.

I stop halfway through another furious breath and look at his. I’ve looked before. Never with him watching.

He leans closer, then stops himself, fingers spreading in the dirt beside my head, well clear of my shoulder. He’s hard against my thigh, and he’s holding on to the ground instead of me.

“You’re the most aggravating—”

I don’t bother finishing. I want his mouth more than the end of that sentence. I catch the fur at the back of his neck with my good hand and pull him down to me.

The kiss is badly aimed. He turns his head as I lift mine, and I catch the side of his mouth before finding the rest.

He doesn’t kiss me back. He stays where I’ve pulled him, his mouth against mine and all his weight on that one hand. “Say no.”

I keep my hand where it is. “Just fucking kiss me already, Lady Fluff.”

He does, with his claws lifted clear of my cheek. When I shift under him, he moves with me.

“Stay still.”

“You’ve had eleven days of that.”

He looks past my shoulder at the ground. “You’re on a root.”

I shift off it without letting go of him. “Then say that instead of stay still.”

“There’s a root.”

“You insufferable man.”

For once, he accepts the name without objection.

His mouth leaves mine and goes down the side of my throat. His fangs drag behind it without breaking the skin. He pushes the collar of the shirt off my right shoulder, the good one, and I get my hand into the hair behind his ear to keep him there.

His mouth stops under my jaw. “Keep your other arm down.”

“It’s down.”

“It’s moving.”

I use the arm to push his head down. “Because you’re slow.”