Page 54 of Zar

She bit her lip and looked down at her lap. “That’s part of it, yes.”

He stroked her hair. “I will not let anything happen to you, little dove,” he promised in a soft voice that sent butterflies through her stomach.

“I know,” Callie murmured as she reached out and stroked the bend of his left wing. He was so strong. So powerful. And she was so in love with him. She heard his breathing increase as her fingers danced over his feathers to that place where his talons extend. Yes, the man was lethal, but he was also sweet and gentle and loving.

“Talk to me, Callie,” Zar softly ordered as he urged her to look at him. “How can I make this better. I don’t like to see you upset this way.”

“I’m not very good at expressing my feelings. My father was very strict growing up. Feelings were for the weak.”

His eyebrows scrunched together. “I don’t like your father very much.”

She smiled. “Yeah, me either to be honest, but that’s not what I want to talk about.”

Zar’s hand moved from her hair to her back and he began to massage his way towards her waist. “You can tell me anything.”

She took a deep breath and let it out. Here goes nothing. She took hold of his face in both hands, feeling the stubble along his jaw, and blurted out, “I love you.”

Zar’s eyes widened and his hand on her back went still. “You love me?”

And then it all came rushing out. Like a freaking tsunami. “I don’t know where this feeling came from and I swear I’ve never been the type to believe in love-at-first-sight, but it happened and I love you and I want to be with you.” Zar started to speak but she trampled right on over him. “I thought I wanted to go back to my apartment, my job, my father, but it all feels so empty now. Lonely. And you aren’t there. You’re here and that’s where I want to be. When I think of never seeing you again my chest hurts.” She pressed her hand over her heart. “Like an actual pain, Zar. I don’t know if I believe in this ofelia stuff and Garra’s will, but I do know love when I feel it because it’s something that’s completely new to me. I’ve never felt the way I feel for you. That has to be love. It hurts to think of going the rest of my life without your touch. Without seeing your face when I first wake up in the morning. Your kiss. I don’t want to live in that lonely, workaholic world anymore. I want to be here, in your treehouse on your mountain and I want to go flying with you and I want to help you lead your people and I want to be the woman who makes you smile and I want your creature to crave me.” She frowned at that last part. “I’m still a little freaked out about that, but it feels right. It feels like you’re the person I’ve waited for all my life. I mean, there are a million things to take care of before I can just walk away from my life, but I don’t care about that. I care about you.” She stopped talking and took several breaths. Zar stared at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Oh, God, please tell me I’m not making a complete idiot of myself right now?” She covered her face in her hands and groaned.

A few seconds ticked by before Callie felt Zar’s hands overtop hers. He pried them away from her face, but she kept her eyes closed tight, unwilling to see the pitying look in his silver eyes. “Callie, look at me,” he demanded. Unable to deny her sexy winged-man a single thing, Callie raised her eyelids and their gazes caught and held. A slow grin crossed over his face as he dropped her hands. When he leaned forward and lifted her off the couch, then sat her on his lap sideways, Callie figured that had to be a good sign. His wings came around her, cocooning them in. “I saw your picture,” he stated.

Not what she was expecting. Or hoping. “My what?”

“On the HealthTec website,” he explained. “I saw your picture and something inside me stirred to life. I felt the pull when I looked into your beautiful blue eyes. I didn’t just have Flare bring you to my mountain because of the ginseng. I had him bring you here because I wanted you. I wanted to see if my creature was correct.”

Now things were heading in the right direction. “About what?” Say the words. Three little words.

“He knew before I did that you belonged to us. I’ve been terrified that you would want to leave me after the festival concludes. That you would go back to your world and I would never see you again. Never hear your sarcasm or witness that beautiful glow that surrounds you when you are aroused.”

Callie bit her lip and searched his face for the truth of his words. “I know you have this thing that I’m your ofelia, your soulmate, but I need to know that there’s more here than Garra’s will. I need to know that you care, Zar. You.”

He lifted his hand and wrapped it around the neck band at her throat. “I love you Callie Wilson,” he murmured as he dipped his head and pressed his lips to hers.

Ah, now that’s what a girl wants to hear. Callie wrapped her arms around his neck and sank into the kiss.

It wasn’t a gentle lover’s kiss either, but possessive, claiming, meant to drive his point home in the most elemental way. He tasted wild and untamed. This was what she’d been missing all her life. This was the man for her heart. Callie felt his hands on her body, sliding down her back to her bottom where he cupped her, pulling her tighter against him. She groaned, or he did, she wasn’t sure of anything anymore. Her pussy flooded with liquid heat. Her entire body responded to Zar’s lethal strength.

Zar tilted his head for a better angle and Callie raised her hands to grasp at the sides of his head, holding him to her. She tunneled her fingers through the dark thatch of his hair, reveling in its softness. His tongue touched and played with hers, darting in and out, teasing her to a fever pitch. He was hungry, urgent, and challenging. Callie couldn’t stand it anymore.

Pulling back, breathing as if she’d run laps at the gym, Callie moaned, “bedroom.”

She started to get up and head that direction, but Zar stopped her with his muscular arm around her waist. “If I go in there, I will forget all about the festival, my ofelia.” Her cursed as he looked at a clock on the wall. “We are running out of time and I’m expected to attend.”

Crap, she’d forgotten all about it. Zar’s kisses had that ability. He was a damn sorcerer. “You’re right, but you owe me.”

He chuckled as he set her on her feet, then stood. “It will be my pleasure to pay up,” he growled as he swatted her ass.

Callie lifted on her toes and kissed him briefly, then whispered, “today and every day for the rest of our lives.”

Zar’s gaze turned serious as he fingered a lock of her hair. “You make me happier than I ever imagined I could be, Callie. I would’ve been thrilled just for a chance to make you care for me. Instead, you have given me your heart and I will cherish the gift for all time.”

Callie’s pulse quickened at hearing those words from her winged-man. The festival loomed over her and she couldn’t help the shiver of fear that raced along her spine. “We just need to get through tonight in one piece.”

Zar’s entire body went rigid. “Naxon will not get near you. I will not allow it.”

It still frightened her a little bit when Zar went all predatory on her, but Callie reminded herself that Zar wasn’t human. They didn’t live by the same rules. “Let’s concentrate on the fun we’ll have. Good food. Lots of sexy wing-on-wing action going on. And flying. I’m dying to go flying with you again.”

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