He sighed. "You do not understand the risk—"
"If assimilation is our fate, Azriel, then it will happen whether or not we make love."
"I was not talking about assimilation."
"Then what were you talking about?"
He didn't answer. He never did when it came to questions like that. I tried a different tack. "You once said that reapers make love by combining energies. Can we at least attempt something like that, if you're so set against physical lovemaking right now?"
"We could." He hesitated. "But I doubt it would be any wiser, and for even more reasons."
"Damn it, Azriel, just this once, why don't you forget reason? What the hell do you want?"
For a moment I thought he wasn't going to answer. Then he sighed and said, almost inaudibly, "You."
And with that, he turned around, took me in his arms, and kissed me fiercely.
Chapter 5
There was nothing sweet about this kiss, nothing soft, because it was filled with all the hunger of a man in desperate need. I wrapped my arms around his neck and returned it in kind, and for what seemed like ages, there was nothing but the kiss and the desire that exploded between us.
When he finally pulled back, his eyes burned with a hunger deeper than anything I'd ever seen before. "Just so you know, reapers do not engage in kisses like that."
"Well, they sure as hell should."
He smiled, then caught my hand and led me toward the bed. "I agree that there is something rather satisfying about flesh-on-flesh contact, be it lips or something more intimate."
"Something more intimate?" Amusement bubbled through me. "That's a polite way of putting it, I guess."