“Yeah. I think I do, if you do as well. And, um, I brought you a gift.” She held up the wicker basket. “To kind of even things out.”

I gingerly took it out of her hands. The basket looked tiny in my claws.

“It didn’t feel right to buy you a gift with money you’d given me, but I’m a decent cook, and you said you liked the parks, so maybe we could go on a picnic date to the park? I picked up a couple of kites too, so we can fly together.”

I was in front of Elle in an instant, my mouth a heartbeat from hers. Blood pounded in my head. “Yes.”

13

Elle

Iclosed the gap between our lips. Licked out to taste him. Why would I ever resist this man when he held me so securely? Took so much care with me? Tried so hard to find compromises with me?

His arm banded around my waist, and he groaned into my mouth. “Elle.”

My heart melted, and I tugged him down for another kiss. He bent to my touch, but his hands on my waist were still too chaste for my taste, not straying above or below.

His erections grew against my core. A twist of my hips, and his ridges slid against my sensitive flesh through the thin material of our clothes. My pussy grew wet in response.

I nipped his lip. He crushed me to him.

His arm tightened around me, and the kiss turned filthy. His claws raked down the exposed skin of my back, sending shivers through me. Still, it wasn’t enough. Even now, he wasn’t pushing.

“Take me to bed,” I whispered against his lips while moving one of his large hands to my breasts.

As if a switch had been flipped, he hoisted me into his arms, lips locked on mine. My legs wrapped around his waist, hooking under his wings. The brush of leathery wings through the thin material ofmy leggings sent shivers through my body as he carried me to the bedroom.

He dropped me to the bed a moment later. I fisted the hem of my T-shirt and ripped it over my head.

He sliced into the sides of my leggings with his claws, tearing them off my body.

His eyes greedily licked over my skin, sending heat sparking through me. He nudged me back onto the bed, then knelt and wrapped his large hands around my thighs, tugging until my lower body dangled off the side of the bed. Anticipation flooded me at the dominant move.

One finger trailed along the seam of my pussy through my panties, a whisper of a touch that made me squirm in his grip. He glanced up at me. “I promised to eat your pussy until you passed out.”

I spluttered. Was that even possible? God, I’d like to find out.

“Would you like that, Elle?”

I squirmed in his grip. “Some other time.” From anyone else, I’d assume those words were exaggerated bravado, but from the determined glint in his golden eyes, I suspected Az meant them. “I want you inside me.”

He traced a finger down the seam of my lips through the thin satin of my panties, drawing moisture out. “I want to taste you first.”

I shoved my hips forward. “Yes.” As long as he touched me soon.

He growled, low and rumbling, before diving into my pussy with enthusiasm, teasing me through my panties with light strokes of his forked tongue. Gentle scrapes of his claws rasped the sensitive skin of my thighs until all I could do was moan and gasp.

A quick flick of his claws and my panties disappeared, cool air kissing the bare lips of my pussy. Then his mouth descended, and Ithrust my hips helplessly into his face. Quick swipes of that forked tongue, my legs stretched wide around his flat face.

His hands grasped my ass, holding me in place as he feasted. His tongue delved deep inside me before coming up and teasing my clit. Deep inside, then teasing my clit, until I gripped his shoulders and ground into his face.

“Please, more, I’m almost there.” I panted around the words.

“Anything you want, Elle.” With a few expertly timed swipes of his tongue on my clit, I tipped over into ecstasy, clenching while his tongue delved inside, lapping up my pleasure like I was his favorite drink.

When my spasms subsided and I tried to squirm away from the excess stimulation, his hands clenched around my thighs, holding me open as he continued to feast.

My sensitized walls clenched around his tongue. He replaced it with one finger, then two, and I groaned in relief while my clit screamed out, although for what I didn’t know. More? Less? Too much sensation coursed through my body to pull apart the desires.