Page 133 of Secrets of Graves and Gold

There’s something like awe shining in his eyes all the same.

He steps closer to me and touches my jaw, his gaze fixed on mine. “Ivy… I want to kiss you again.”

Julita giggles. All right, I can tell I’d better take my leave.

As her presence dwindles in the back of my head, I wet my lips. The warmth that motion provokes spreads through the rest of me.

But one of us has to be at least a little sensible about this situation, don’t we?

“You know,” I say, doing my best to keep my tone even, “there are a lot of things that usually come with kissing. At least, when you aren’t just scratching an itch and figuring you’ll never see each other again.”

Rheave eases slightly nearer. “Like what?”

It’s harder to think the more his beautiful face fills my vision. “Well, you’ve seen how I am with the other men. We have a relationship. We support each other. We’re committed to tackling problems together and spending time together and, um…”

The daimon-man’s expression has become increasingly puzzled. “Don’t you and I do those things too?”

“It’s not exactly the same. We’ve never talked about or decided where this is going.”

“That’s easy.” He traces his fingers along my jaw to my chin and then back to the crook. “I want to be here with you and see how it can be. I want to experience everything we could have. I’ve got nowhere else I need to be—I’m happy to stay with you wherever you go.”

He offers himself up so easily, my heart squeezes in response. “I shouldn’t be your whole world. There are other things you like.”

Rheave makes a dismissive sound. “Those are all things I can enjoy while I’m with you. I’ve had the whole world, Little Vine. I had it for more years than I know how to count. Nothing I found in it ever made me as happy as you do. That’s why I want so much to be able to make you happy too.”

A rush of emotion chokes me up before I can speak. Memories of all the moments turned brighter by his presence flicker through my mind. “You do make me happy.”

The daimon-man smiles brilliantly and must decide that’s answer enough to his earlier suggestion. He dips his head and captures my mouth.

The kiss is just as sweet as the first one, sending a giddy shiver straight through the core of me. Warmth floods me from head to toe, flaring into a more thrilling heat when Rheave nudges me right against the gully wall.

I give in to the impulse to tease my fingers into his soft curls, and a rough sound works from his throat. He kisses me harder. One hand stays cupped against my jaw while the other trails up and down my side until I gasp.

“We need to stay quiet,” I mumble against his lips.

“Hmm. Then I should keep doing this.”

He claims my mouth again, his confidence growing. His hand travels across my torso, lingering on my breast when the skim of his palm earns him a whimper I try to swallow.

His hips rock against mine. There’s no missing the bulge between his legs that grazes my sex, setting off sharper pulses of desire.

A thread of fear creeps through my haze of arousal. Am I really doing this? Making out with a man who’s not even exactly a man—and wherever else this will go if I let it?

Do I really know what I’m getting into?

My body tenses, and Rheave notices immediately. He draws back just far enough to meet my gaze, his dark curls falling across his forehead. “Is this all right?”

He looks so unsettled by the thought that it might not be that my stomach twists. I can suddenly see how it might go if I push him away again, put up my walls out of that fear.

I’ve already run off on him once. If it happens again, he’ll never trust that I really do want him enough.

I’ll ruin whatever odd relationship we’ve started to build here.

And the thought of losing this—him, everything we could be—frightens me more than the uncertainty of where we’ll end up.

I want him. I do. This strange man who makes the strangeness in me seem a little more okay.

I trail my hand down to his cheek, holding his unearthly gaze that shines with longing and devotion. “It’s wonderful.”

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