Page 153 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
I backed away several steps, my entire body buzzing with the urge to scream and thrash like every drop of my blood was on fire. Steeler’s own face shone with that same kind of wild, starving energy—two predators facing off, resisting their most-anticipated meals.
What if Iwantedhim to look at me again? What if Iwantedhim to enter my mind again? What if Iwantedhim to hold me?
But what if I told him all that and he rejected it? What if I kissed him like I’d been wishing I didn’t want to and he left again?
“Fine.”
The word fell out of my mouth and hovered in the air like a raised weapon.
To the delight of the animal inside me, Steeler didn’t back down in defeat.
He stepped forward.
“Fine? Really? What kind offinewas that?”
I raised my chin. “The kind that means I’m fine. You’re fine. We’re all fine and this situation is fine and it’s fine if you leave me again.”
“Oh, no.” He took another step forward. “We’re not playing this game again.”
“What game?”
“The game where we both pace and prowl around the thing we really want to tell each other.”
I felt the friction of the air vibrating between us as he moved a final step toward me, so close I could smell his skin and every unspoken word on his lips.
“I didn’t realize you have more to say to me,” I breathed.
“Oh, I have plenty more to say to you, Rayna.” Every one of Steeler’s features shone on high alert. His nostrils flared, the tips of his fangs glinted, and his eyes ravished mine. “But let’s start with you. My new faerie maturity heightens all my senses, you know, and those senses are picking up on some mixed signals.”
“Mixed signals?” I scoffed, crossing my arms.
“Yes, mixed signals. For instance, yousoundlike you want me to get out of your sight sooner rather than later, but yousmelllike you want me between your legs. So which is it?”
Heat poured into me in waves as I looked down at myself in mortification. My chest was heaving in the lacy red dress I’d never changed out of, and my legs—dammit, theywerepressed together in an attempt to stifle the burn growing between them.
I dared to look up and meet his gaze.
“Why can’t it be both?” I challenged.
Steeler crossed his arms back at me. “Because even with my Walking power, I can’t be in two places at once. So choose.”
“I’m not going to—”
“Choose.”
“Fine!” I shrieked. “I want you. Right here, right now.”
For one heart-stuttering moment, we stared at each other.
Then the wineglass on the coffee table shattered as Steeler swept it aside and it hit the floor. Lightning forked across my vision when he cupped one hand around the back of my neck and eased me onto my back with the other untilIwas laying on the coffee table instead.
He lowered himself over me until he was hovering above my face and whispered, “Was that really so hard to tell me?”
“Yes.”
“Well, then, let me reward you for being so brave.”
He stood to his full height and marveled down at me, grabbing my ankles and slowly sliding his hands up my left leg until he found the knife sheath I always wore.
