Page 78 of Fate

Coax a great many things from him.

“If we had a place of our own,” Lucian murmured against her skin, keeping her just far enough that she could not complete her aim and kiss him thoroughly. “I would take you home. And I would love you until you forgot your tired eyes and pained head and had a very different sort of sleep.”

Her eyes widened, because she had forgotten both those things already and he hadn’t even tried.

“We’re quite alone here,” she cajoled, her hand skimming up his thigh. She could not reach him properly, not the part of him that the bond insisted was the best place for her to touch, but he caught her wrist anyway, capturing it and holding it to her middle instead.

“If sand can creep into my boots, I hate to think what it would do to my mate’s moredelicateareas.”Firen gave a rueful sort of smile in agreement, but she could not deny a slight disappointment that they would not even try.

She sighed. The urge to argue was there, to seduce and cajole simply to prove that she could. But he was taking care of her. Which she supposed, in a begrudging sort of way, she appreciated.

She did wish the bond would stop thrumming. Heating her blood and reminding her how good it would feel to be with him again.

Patience was important. Mama had always said so. She just didn’t know it would include having one’s own mate.

“Stopwriggling,” Lucian complained, and she laughed softly, reaching for her boots. The stockings she’d safely shoved inside. She didn’t bother putting them on again, just got to her feet instead. Held out her hand to help him up. Not that he needed it, but it felt a kind gesture after she’d teased him.

He took her hand anyway, although he kept his weight from her, using his wings to push himself upward instead. Then pulled her back into him. “Will you be patient? Until tonight?”

Firen sighed, easing against him. Absorbing his warmth while she could. It would be a cold flight home. A difficult one, too, now that the winds were going to prove an impediment rather than an aid. “No,” Firen answered honestly. “But I’ll try not to tug at the bond too much.”

There was his purr again. The rumble that sent shivers all over her. An agreement and a chastisement all at once. “If we had our own home,” Lucian continued, as if it didn’t make it worse, did not make her want him more when he spoke to her so low, his voice a rasp of sound that caught and settled into her hidden places. “I would fill you a hot bath. I would wash you all over and make certain every speck of this wretched sand was off of you.” He placed a kiss on her neck, his hand flat against her as he pulled her closer still. “Then I would wrap you in linens and take you to our bed. One that did not have a horrid seam down the middle, but a proper one. Meant for the two of us.”

“You are not being fair,” Firen argued. He should not be teasing her like this. Stirring her up, only to make herwait.

He chuckled, his lips skimming across her cold cheek. “You wriggled. It seems perfectly fair to me.” He nuzzled into her, and it was sweet and solely theirs, and she loved him so much in that moment. Never mind the heating of her blood. It was something else. Something that came of care and attention. His sweetness.

That tended to look like something else entirely if she did not pay enough notice.

But she did now.

“There’s a bath at home,” she expressed hopefully. “We could still...”

He nipped at her jaw, and she quieted. “With your parents so close about? I think not.”

He squeezed her tightly against him. “Just let it be an inducement. For trying our hardest to settle on our own.”

“I didn’t argue about that!” It was a feeble protest, one bit out from frustration and yes, a great deal of want.

“Good. Now you won’t even want to.”

One more kiss to her cheek. One more pulse of the bond that bled into other pulses that were even more a distraction.

It should have helped that he felt it, too. Should have made it easier that she did not have to bear those feelings alone.

Except that it didn’t.

To want. To be wanted in return.

And to have to go home and pretend like everything was fine...

It was a new sort of torment, and she balled her hands into fists as Lucian stepped back from her.

Dared to smirk at her.

“I will not add this to my list,” she accused. “I do not like this at all!”

He nodded, hovering above her as he waited for her to join him. “Good. Help me get lodging for us, then, so I can make good on my promises.”