Page 202 of Mama Si's Paradise

My heart jumped instantly.

“Nobody’s ever called me a fool before,” he said, touching the tip of his nose to mine.

“Well, you are. You’re the biggest fool in the Woods,” I said, breathless already because our lips were so close.

His grin spread wider, and the sight was a breeze to my burning soul. “I’m not very good at this, I think.”

I had no choice but to laugh. “No—I’mnot very good at this. Yousuck.” I was bad at communicating my feelings, always had been, but he, apparently, was worse.

“I don’t suck,” he muttered, but his smile didn’t falter.

“I get sad and I need a moment to gather myself, and the first thing that pops into your head is that I don’t want you? Yes, Grey, you absolutely suck,” I said. “You know, you should know this already—you’re fifteen years older than me.” And that was a big number, wasn’t it? Pretty sure that should have scared me, except it didn’t, and not just because Grey looked like he was in his twenties still. “Really, you should?—”

He crashed his lips to mine before I finished speaking.

My arms wrapped around his neck fast. His wings spread wide to the sides, blocking the rain from splattering us as he devoured my mouth.

There were things I needed to remember; I was pretty sure of it. A lot of things.

Butthingscould wait.Thingscould wait hours and days and weeks if needed because I couldn’t get enough of the taste of him, and everything else had already paled in comparison.

Again, must have been magic.

Grey wrapped those strong, wet arms around my waist and pulled me to him hard, knocking the breath out of me. “I agree, baby,” he whispered against my lips. “I suck at this, but I’ll do better. Just tell me how.”

“Not thinking I don’t want you when I’m sad or need some space is a good start,” I muttered, struggling to remember why I thought this was such a big deal just a few moments ago. It wasn’t—easily fixable.

“Done,” he said the next heartbeat, biting on my lower lip. “I feel like I already suck less.”

Laughter burst out of me. “I feel it, too. It’s in the air.”

He pulled me to his chest until I was all the way outside the window. “You know what I don’t suck at, though?”

“What’s that?”

“Flying,” he whispered, and my heart skipped another beat.

“You have wings,” I said, as if I was just seeing them now. As if I was just realizing that they were touching my forearms while I held onto Grey’s neck.

“I do. And I’ve been testing them all day while I waited.”

“Waited for what?”

I thought he’d sayfor dawnorfor the challenge, but… “For you to come to your window.”

“You did?”

“Yes.”

“How long?”

“Hours.”

I leaned back to look at his face. “Why didn’t you knock?”

He grinned. “Because I suck.”

I closed my eyes, chuckling. “Yes, you do.”

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