Luna leaned in. Her hunger for new tastes and sensations pulling her in as if she were a toddler trying something for the first time.
She took a bite.
Cream coated her tongue, and her taste buds exploded to life. She moaned. “Oh, wow.”
Gunner’s Adam’s apple bobbed again. “Yeah?”
Nodding, she leaned in and took another bite. “It’s amazing. You have excellent taste.” Then she wrapped her hand around his and brought his fingers closer, taking the last little morsel. There was cream on his fingers, and without thought, she swiped her tongue over one, but she didn’t get it all, so giggling, she pulled the first finger into her mouth and sucked it clean, then licked powdered sugar off the next two.
A rumbling, repetitive sound had her looking back up. Gunner was watching her with black eyes. His cheeks were dark and his nostrils were flaring.
The sound was coming from him.
“Sorry.” She quickly dropped his hand, inwardly cringing. “I’m so used to being close to you, you know, with the feeding and everything. I shouldn’t have done that. I mean, boundaries, right?” she blurted. “I’m still, you know, working all that stuff out.”
Her face was hot as hell, and the urge to hide was near overwhelming.
The breath he released was shaky. “You don’t need to be sorry, love. And I have no boundaries where you’re concerned. None.”
None? So what? She could literally say or…do anything to him and he’d let her? The sound grew louder. “What’s that sound, Gunner, and why are your eyes like that?”
“My eyes are like this because my demon likes you. That sound is him purring.”
“You speak about that part of yourself as if he’s a separate being.” Knights were half angel, half demon, she’d learned this from Azel, but the way he spoke about it was confusing.
“We are, kind of. As you can imagine, those two sides of myself go together about as well as oil and water. We fight sometimes, and times, like now, we are in complete agreement.” His hand went to his chest. “That’s why I have the brand. It was given to me by angels. All knights have them. It stops us from entering Hell, so our demon half can’t corrupt us.”
“I never realized.” She stared into those black eyes and bit her lip, not sure how she felt about it.
“My demon isn’t like the ones you’re used to. He…we, would never hurt you. I promise you that.”
Luna stared deeper into his eyes, and Gunner let her, remaining still while she studied him. And though his eyes were almost all black, they were still soft, there was still warmth. No, she had nothing to fear from Gunner’s inner demon. The sound grew louder. “Why is it…why are you purring?”
“Because we both like you. And we both really liked what you just did.”
There went the belly flutters again. “When I sucked your fingers?”
His cheeks grew even darker. “Yes.”
“Why?” she whispered.
“Just like you, I like the feel of…certain things.”
“And that felt nice? Like my sweater?” She felt like a damned naive idiot. But touch and the emotions and feelings that came with them were still a mystery she was unraveling, and sometimes she had to ask for help.
He shook his head. “Better than your sweater.”
Better than her sweater? Now she wanted to know what it felt like. And hey, he did say he had no boundaries where she was concerned. Swiping her finger through the cream of another dessert, she held it out. “Show me.”
More shifting in his seat and his jaw tightened. “You want me to—”
“Suck my finger,” she said, lifting the digit to his lips, desperate to know if he was right.
He remained still for several moments, then wrapped his hand around hers and brought her cream-covered finger to his parted lips. He sucked it deep, and Luna knew her eyes were wide, but she couldn’t help it. The flutters in her belly reached new heights, and when he swirled his tongue around her finger and sucked more firmly, something tugged even lower.
Heat washed over her skin, and she suddenly had the urge to squeeze her thighs together. So she did. She also made a whimpering sound, a desperate, greedy sound she’d never made before in her life.
Gunner released her hand, and she pulled her finger free, blinking up at him, not sure exactly what she was feeling.
“Well?” he asked, his voice deeper and grittier than she’d ever heard it. “Better than your sweater?”
“Y-yes,” she said, her voice husky. “Better than my sweater.”