Page 32 of Kiss of Smoke

“You don’t have to thank me. I want to take you anywhere you want to go. Besides…” He patted the bike. “It’s nice getting to ride around with your girlfriend. I’m glad you like it.”

I reached out and touched the bike as well. It purred under my palm, and I knew there was Gentry magic going into it, likely wild magic as well, and as such, it was probably one of those nearly-sentient magical objects like the ones Robin kept stored in the vault.

“Um…so am I really your girlfriend?” I asked. A blush took over my face, of course.

I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty ever since our journey into the Thornwood tunnels. The Wild Hunters had made it pretty damn clear that I’d basically poached Gwyn from them.

Gwyn just stared at me.

“I know you keep saying it’s not a big deal, but it is tome,” I finally burst out. “I feel like I stole you, and I don’t even have the right to do that. You were supposed to be competing for the lead in the Hunt, and I just… walked in and screwed all of that up for you.”

He sighed, then clambered to his feet and picked me up. “Be right back, cutie,” he said to his bike, carrying me up the stairs.

I heard the bike make a noise of discontent before he slammed the door and brought me upstairs to the room that had materialized for him.

It was still pretty spartan, with dark green covers on the bed and a potted belladonna plant growing on the window sill, and it smelled of incense and spices.

My flush grew deeper as Gwyn dropped onto the bed, bringing me with him. I landed comfortably in his lap, and he wrapped his arms around my waist.

“Briallen…” he said, and I gulped. Things were serious when he was calling me something other than Bananatree. “Imade that choice. They’re pissed because I’ve been with them for years, and honestly… at the time, I couldn’t see anything else. That was my whole future.”

He looked up at me, his eyes searching my face.

“Then you stepped on my foot, and at first I thought, she’s beautiful, funny, and happy… and in the Hunt, most things aren’t any of those. It’s a lot of watching your back. It’s staying up so you can go out in the dead of night and steal souls, and carry them to the Otherworld. It’s drinking and getting into fights all night after the ride, because most Hunters don’t have families of their own to go home to.”

My throat felt tight. He’d told me once that he liked to tease me because it was the bright spot in his day.

I wasn’t a Fae of the night. I couldn’t fathom any of those things just being my normal life.

Gwyn curled a lock of my hair around his finger. “Then I saw the way you were with Robin, and I thought… I want all that for myself. I don’t want to hang on a tree for nine days and come within a stone’s throw of death just so I can be at the head of the procession. That’s a pretty empty goal next to having a life of your own.”

I licked my lips, trying to ignore what his hands were doing around my waist, and focus on the conversation at hand. “Okay. I’ll try to stop blaming myself, then.”

“Damn right. If you get to make the choice to live here forever and work for Robin, then I get to make the choice to have a life with you.” Gwyn shifted me, and I straddled his lap, my heart pounding against my ribs. “And yeah, you’re my girlfriend. Hopefully more than that one day, because I’m not going anywhere.”

That was exactly what I’d wanted to hear, and now I didn’t even have to feel guilty about it.

He was right. That was his choice to make, the same way I had the choice to leave Emain Ablach forever, and I couldn’t blame myself for any of it.

I was just happy that he was mine.

“Well… maybe someday I’ll stop blushing about it,” I said, my voice breaking.

Gwyn pulled me in, kissing me softly. “I like your blushing, Bananas.”

There was a moment where we were nose to nose, and I gazed into his eyes and saw something in their depths that I’d felt myself, but was afraid to say aloud.

I could say it with the rest of me, though.

I kissed him again, harder, and wrapped my arms around his neck. It was a kiss of smoke, the taste of his incense filling my mouth, the wild magic that filled him running into me and making my heart run wild.

He leaned back on the bed, pulling me on top of him, his tongue running across my lower lip until I opened for him.

With a groan of desire, I obeyed, kissing him deeply as he pulled the edge of my shirt up and over my head.

Gwyn tossed it to the floor, his hands gliding down over my bare back. The warmth of his hands as they moved over my body made me shudder.

My nipples hardened under his touch as he moved his mouth down to circle them with his tongue.

---