found the silk of his hair, and crushed the thick mass in her palm.
“You shouldn’t be able to do this to me,” she whispered into his mouth. Into his heart. “I don’t let anyone inside.”
“I am already inside you.” His lips took hers again, over and over, long, drugging kisses that shook them both.
“It has to be the danger factor,” she said. “It’s the only logical explanation.”
“Is there logic? I cannot remember.” He couldn’t get enough of her. Mud from her face smeared his. Her clothes were wet, soaking his. His wounds burned, but he couldn’t feel the discomfort when his body was so heavy and hard with need.
His voice shook her. It was possessive. Husky. Perfect. A seduction in itself. It was Joie who pulled away, framing his face with her hands. She rested her forehead against his. “I need a minute here to come up for air. I can’t breathe, or think, or want anything but you.”
His mouth curved into a smile. “Is that supposed to stop me?”
Her gray eyes studied every inch of his face. He could see her confusion. “Why do I feel like this? Does this make sense to you, Traian? I don’t jump into relationships. All I can think about is having sex with you. Not just sex—wild, uninhibited sex. I’m muddy, exhausted, scared to death and worried about my family, but I want—no need—to feel your body inside mine.”
His smile widened. “I think kissing you is the best idea I have ever had.”
She couldn’t help smiling back. He made her happy in a way she never had been—complete when she hadn’t known a part of her was missing. “Why you? You aren’t even human.” She made a little face at him. “You know you’re complicating my life.”
“Your entire family has telepathic abilities. Are you certain you are human?”
Laughter spilled over. “Please don’t ever ask my father that. He’s outrageous, and he’ll tell you some absolutely horrible and untrue tall tale, and we’ll all be mortified.”
The raw affection in her voice told him her father’s outrageous stories never really mortified her and she loved the man very much. “That gives me hope. At least I know you plan on introducing me to your parents, but the list of dos and don’ts is growing. Just out of curiosity, do his outrageous tales ever have to do with dragons and mages?”
“Of course. When we were children, he told us fairy tales all the time, but the mages were wizards in tall hats concocting all sorts of magical spells.”
“Good wizards or bad?” he prompted.
“Both, of course. What’s a good fairy tale without both?” She turned her face up to his again. “You think I don’t know where you’re going with this? Every parent tells their children fairy tales. My father is an undisputed genius, tremendously talented, as is Jubal, with numbers and patterns. Gabrielle inherited a lot of that as well. She works as a researcher for hot viruses and she’s really done a lot of good, unlocking strands and finding potential ways to combat them. But we’re human through and through. We were born in hospitals, go to doctors for regular check-ups, pay taxes, and eat real food.”
“I am certain that is the case. It does not, however, prove your father is not mage. We blend into society very well, and mages, far better than Carpathians. They do not sleep in the ground or sustain life on blood.”
Joie blinked up at him. “You sleep in the ground?”
“In the soil. It rejuvenates us.”
She closed her eyes. “Oh, God. I don’t even know what to say to you.”
He bent his head to steal another kiss. “Hang on. I am about to take you flying.”
She made a noise somewhere between laughter and choking, but her mouth responded, soft and firm and very pliant. He indulged himself for a few more moments, kissing her again and again, finding her mouth a sweet, hot haven he could lose himself in. When he lifted his head, she looked a little dazed.
Traian smiled down at her. “You’re being very brave.”
“You’re cheating. And I’m not being brave. Has it occurred to you I might be afraid of flying?”
“You were engaged in astral projection the first time I laid eyes on you,” he pointed out.
“I thought you were drug-induced,” she confessed. “I’d been experimenting, but I didn’t really believe I was actually accomplishing it. I thought I just sort of hypnotized myself. I would never have been so open with you had I thought you