Page 48 of May: Bloom & Bane

I wouldn’t dream of it. I’m mesmerized by the way she moves.

“Sage,” she gasps, her eyes locking onto mine. “I want you. All of you. I want to seal the bond.”

My fingers still inside her.

“I don’t want to wait anymore,” she whispers. “Please.”

No.

Yes, he snarls. She’s begging you, you idiot.

“Not yet,” I rasp, drawing my fingers free of her. “Not when you’ve only been awake a few days. Not when I’m like… this.” I gesture to my face.

“But I⁠—”

I sit up, and one of my wingtips brushes against the inside of her thigh. She whimpers, her entire body arching off the ground.

I freeze.

“Did that… feel good?”

She nods, her breath coming in short pants.

I run the smooth bones along the inside of her thigh, higher this time.

Her moans fill the meadow.

“I want your wings all over me.”

I flip us over so quickly the air whistles through my bones. Eden’s startled gasp breaks into a laugh as she finds herself straddling the span of my wing. Stark white ridges rise beneath her like the keys of an ancient dark instrument.

“Use me,” I groan.

Her bare skin glides over my cool vorí. I flex my wing, and her thighs squeeze shut around the ridge.

“Is it too much?” I rasp, my gaze locked on hers. “The bones… the cold?”

She reaches for me, her fingers tangling with mine.

“It’s not too much,” she breathes, her voice trembling but sure. “It’s not nearly enough.”

She rolls her hips, and the sensation that shoots through my wing is devastating. A current travels through every calcified ridge and settles in my chest. A bone-deep awareness of every inch of her pressing against me—using me exactly as I begged her to. I can feel the friction of her skin through the bone as if it were my own.

A moan tears from my throat.

“Eden—” I choke out, my grip tightening on her thigh. “I can feel—gods, I can feel everything.”

She pauses, her eyes cracking open. “Everything?”

“Every movement,” I groan. “Every shift of your hips. Every breath you take against me. Your warm valúsha dripping down my bones.” (Arousal) My voice cracks. “Please don’t stop, Saevúra. I need you.”

She grinds harder against me.

“It’s like you’re touching my thoughts,” I rasp, my fingers digging into the dirt, anchoring myself to the earth before I drift away entirely.

“I need to see you,” she moans, her head tipping back, exposing the long line of her neck to the moonlight.

My breath catches.