Page 86 of Nine-Tenths

Dav's eyes rise to meet mine, slow as molasses. "And us."

"Was that the punishment?"

"I explained, before, about draconic instinct?"

"Yeah."

Dav dries my cheeks gently with the silk cuff of his boring shirt. "I want you very badly, Colin." His eyes drop to my mouth, and he licks his lips. "I want tokeepyou."

"You can," I tell him, leaning forward, offering up that kiss he clearly wants, but he holds me away.

"I can't. That we were, ah, on friendly terms at all was a gross violation of an edict that had been passed on me a hundred years ago. But His Excellency was willing to overlook it. It was fine so long as it wasn'tserious. But I had also violated a second rule."

"The beans," I say, desperate to ask him about what he had done that was so bad that it meant he had to be lonely, for a whole century.

"The beans," Dav confirms gravely. "So I was to be kept from you. And you from me."

"For how long?"

He avoids answering by giving me that kiss I wanted.

It's a great kiss. Confident, warm, comfortable.

It's also not an answer.

(Forever, the kiss says.For the rest of your life.)

"Oh Colin," he says gently, when we finally part. He reaches up to rub his thumb over the pin. "You don't know what you've done."

"Ineverknow what I've goddamn done," I snap, weeks worth of panic and fear and hurt bubbling hard in my throat. "That's the problem with you."

Dav flinches again.

I don't feel sorry for it.

I feel a little sorry for it.

I grab his nipple through his waistcoat and twist it.

"Ow, ow!" Dav whines, cringing away. "Colin!"

"That's for saying 'I love you' before I could say it first," I snarl, letting go. "And this," I add, pressing a biting kiss to his mouth. "Is because I love you too, you dumbass."

"Even still?" He asks cautiously, dipping his pinkie fingers into the dimples on either side of my tailbone, where my shirt has ridden up.

"Yeah. I love you—" I let him kiss me again, possessive and hot. "—even though I don't much like you right now."

He wuffs out a laugh, startled. "I more than deserve your ire."

"More than," I agree.

He runs his thumb over the pin again. "You shouldn't have put it on."

"I can take it off. I don't know why everyone's so upset."

"It's too late. You asked me why we're allowed to be together now? It's this." He ducks his head, mouths up my neck from my collar to the base of my ear, wet and wonderful. "I find I'mquitesatisfied, though."

I tip my head back, give him room.

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