Page 27 of Purple Scales & Coffee Tales

I drove carefully so the car wouldn’t get a scratch, but still got to her place with almost an hour to spare before the party.

It was Vaughn who opened the door for me, grasping my hand in his fur-covered palm. “Taran, man, good to see you. Come in. Maeve will be right there with you. Sorry, I have papers to grade. Make yourself at home.” With this, the snow leopard hybrid disappeared back into his room.

I hovered in the hall until I decided to check out the bookshelf in the living room.

“Taran?” I hadn’t heard her approach and turned.

No words left me as I was distracted by the warm dark pink glow surrounding her, and that dress. I had seen it in the shop. But she had done something to her face that made her glow even more. Purple strands softly curled around her cheeks.

“Yes?” My voice sounded embarrassingly hoarse, but by the Moon Goddess, in those heels, Maeve looked like seduction on mile-long legs.

She didn’t stop until she was right in front of me, the faint scent of cinnamon and vanilla surrounding her like a cocoon.

“Thank you for inviting me to go with you, and for this beautiful dress and the shoes,” she breathed.

Something in my brain glitched. It was the only explanation for my arm sliding around her waist and pulling her so abruptly to my chest her breath hitched in her throat. And for my lips somehow finding hers again.

For as long as I lived I would never forget how perfect this woman tasted and felt in my arms.

We both exhaled a shaky breath when I pulled back, and our lids slowly fluttered open.

“It’s a gorgeous dress, but it’s nothing compared to the woman wearing it,” I told her in a quiet voice. Then I took her hand and wrapped it around my forearm. “Shall we?”

“Okay.” She sounded at least as confused as I felt, and didn’t speak at all until we pulled up in front of the venue.

Chapter Seventeen

Maeve

Neither my brain nor my body had managed to come back online since Taran ‘I-bought-a-cafe-so-you-could-keep-your-job’ Atax had kissed me and let me use his hard cock to give myself one of the best orgasms of my life.

Not sure what that says about me.

I had woken up the next morning fully clothed in my bed, lying there in peace until the memories of the night before had flooded my mind.

Taran’s strong legs between mine, forcing my thighs wide and bringing my core to his groin. His split tongue in my mouth, strong hands gripping my hips and grinding me down on his lap.

Show me how beautiful you are when you come for me, sweetling.My body had answered his command without any chance of holding back, coming so hard I had drenched my knickers.

And now Taran had kissed me again, reigniting the flames from our movie night, and I was this close to freaking out or jumping his exoskeleton, or both.

When we arrived at the venue, the valet rushed toward the car to take over and park it for him. He held the young man back with his clawed hand raised, then turned his focus on me. “Listen, Maeve, I’m sorry. I—damn it!”

He beckoned to the valet to back away, then pulled back out into the road and drove off.

“What are you doing? You almost ran over the valet!”

“I can’t go in there and be sociable without knowing whether or not you hate me now.” Indicating left, he steered the grey Helix into a car park and found a spot for it on the far end of a row.

“Why would I hate you?” I asked as soon as he’d turned off the engine.

“Because I sprung this kiss on you. I don’t know what got into me. I tried to be a gentleman and I messed up. I—”

“Taran!” I interrupted him, barely managing to suppress a giggle. “Please stop. You didn’t spring anything on me, you didn’t mess up, and I promise I don’t hate you.” I half turned in my seat. “No, wait, let me rephrase it so your brain won’t pick and choose what it hears. I loved the kiss, and whathappened at the end of our movie night. You did amazing because now I know that you were actually flirting with me all this time and I wasn’t just imagining things. I really, really like kissing you,” I added quietly. Thank fuck it was dark in the car, my cheeks were glowing.

He made a desperate half sigh, half groan, inhaling sharply and clutching at his chest.

“What’s wrong? Scales, are you okay?”

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