Page 47 of Wings of Death

I don’t miss how Kyle tenses at the mention of Demetros’s name, and I can’t help the smile on my face to see that he, too, gets jealous. After we wash the dishes, which is a new experience for me, we head outside to sit on the porch swing.

“Are you nervous about seeing your family?” I ask.

He hands me a blanket, and I spread it out over my legs, thankful for the warmth.

“Yeah,” he says as he sits down next to me. “I don’t know what to expect, and I don’t want to disappoint them.”

The sadness in his features is hard to miss. I can only imagine what’s been going through his mind after Em and Klara told him about his family in the Zarquon Kingdom.

“You don’t need to be worried about that,” I tell him. “They’ll love you for who you are.”

A cool breeze whips around us, and I shiver. Kyle immediately removes his jumper and holds it out to me as myeyes drop to his markings. There’s some kind of creature that snakes up his left arm mixed with beautifully detailed pictures intertwined together into a gorgeous piece of art, covering his entire arm and disappearing under the sleeve of his shirt. I can’t help but wonder how far up they go.

“Zarla?” he says, snapping me out of my daze.

Heat rises in my cheeks as I shake myself. “I’m okay. You keep it,” I say, but he insists. I slip the jumper over my head and breathe in his sweet scent of cologne and cinnamon. “Thank you.”

His lips curl up at the side as desire fills his eyes, and he slips his arm around the back of the swing behind me. “It suits you.”

We stare at one another for a moment before he breaks the silence. “Those are beautiful,” he says, touching the markings on my fingers. “I saw them earlier. They go up your arms, right?”

I roll the sleeves of the jumper up and hold my arms out for him to see. “All guardians get markings at the guardian ceremony. They are unique to us.”

He traces the vines with his fingers, making my skin tingle at his touch. “Do you have any other markings?”

I roll the sleeves back down with a shiver. “No, just these. Do you have any? Other than those, I mean.” I gesture to his arm.

He climbs off the swing and removes his shirt, and my lips part as I stare at him. His tanned skin is gorgeous, and my eyes trace the markings on his arm, which snake up his broad shoulders and across his toned chest. A huge dragon covers his chest, its wings spread out wide, and it’s magnificent. I realise it’s the dragon’s tail that curls around his arm, and I then spot the dark figure with dark wings standing next to the dragon. It reminds me of him.

I swallow hard.

“I have these,” he says, showing me his markings on his arm and across his chest, before slipping his shirt back on. “Humans call them tattoos.”

“They’re amazing,” I say.

He then unbuckles his belt as I stare wide-eyed.

“Um, what are you doing?” I ask, my cheeks flushing.

He laughs and unbuttons his jeans, turning around. “You asked,” he says, pulling them down to reveal a little mark on the top of his ass. Holy toned ass… After I’m done gawking at him, I notice a little blue creature giving a thumbs-up.

I arch a brow at him. “What made you do that to yourself?”

He laughs, pulls his jeans up, and fastens his belt. “I lost a bet with a mate of mine. It’s a Smurf, a cartoon character that I hate.”

“What was the bet?” I question, and then I press my lips together to stifle a laugh.

He runs a hand through his hair, his expression hardening. “That I wouldn’t be able to sit through an entire Smurf movie,” he says, closing his eyes. “I tried, I swear.”

I can’t help the fit of laughter that escapes my lips and shakes my entire body. He reaches down and tickles me until I’m begging for him to stop. But when he does, he doesn’t remove his hands from my waist as we stare at one another. I wonder if he’s going to kiss me, and I find myself wishing he would.

But then he pulls back.

“You can if you want to,” I quietly say. “Kiss me, that is.”

Before I know it, his lips are on mine, and I pull him closer. I curl my arms around his neck, sliding my hands into his hair as he deepens the kiss. His tongue moves with mine in a way that makes my head spin and my heart race. No one has ever kissed me before, and wow. Kyle knows how it’s done.

His hand moves to the back of my neck, and he tugs me against him.

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