Page 69 of Untethering Dark

Her breath caught, and she searched his eyes, trying to read the emotion there. Not even a glint of jealousy or anger. Just warmth.

He meant it.

Swallowing, she said, “I wanted it to be you, that night you helped me replant my garden, but I didn’t dare hope we’d be ready in time, and I couldn’t rush it. This threat, and needing my full powers...”

He pressed a claw to her lips. “I know.”

“But how? I never said.”

“Just moments ago, when you said you’d be a hag in days, there wasn’t a shred of doubt. For as well as things have been going between us, you couldn’t know I’d say yes, not with that level of certainty. And it showed when youdidask.” He brushed his thumb along the pulse point of her neck. “Your heartbeat quickened, almost like you were afraid.”

“I should’ve told you sooner.” Regret stung like a swarm of bees in her chest. He’d deserved to know from the outset. “I’m sorry.”

“While I would’ve preferred that, this is something you’ve been planning most of your life. How could I expect you’d not have it worked out from start to finish? And who am I to give or deny you permission to fulfil your life’s purpose in whatever way necessary?”

“You’re too forgiving.”

“And I want to kiss you but don’t know how.” Lifting one long, wicked claw, Gudariks gently traced the outline of her lips. “Even though I don’t have these, I can’t stop thinking about putting my mouth on yours.”

Dancing her fingers along his mouth and jaw, Astrid mapped out the terrain of where flesh met bone. Below the skull face and the pointed bit where a snout would be, there was padded flesh, lightly furred like what one might expect in Werwölfen. He must have nerve endings there.

If she angled her head just right...

“I think we can make it work,” she murmured, gaze dipping to the spot. Tilting his head for better access, Astrid pressed her lips to the fleshy parts around his mouth. With a sharp intake of breath, he wrapped his arms around her hips and pulled her flush, firmly notching them together.

Desire tore through her, sank its teeth into her flesh. Barely touched and yet quivering with such a sweet ache. Proposal or not, that they could’ve had each other already were they not interrupted the night before made her desperate to rectify the situation.

She teased the seam of Gudariks’s mouth with her tongue, hoping he’d grant her entrance, but delighted when he licked into her mouth instead, tasting, savoring, caressing with short, languid strokes. As claws entangled in her hair, silvery white strands wound around onyx, she smoothed her hands over his bony cheeks up to the base of his antlers, grasping, kneading.

A long, deep groan rumbled from Gudariks, his cock twitching where it was pinned between their bodies. “We should practice.”

“Hmm?”

“Need to get my part right. For the ritual.”

Practice. He wanted to practice fucking her.

Another wave of heat flooded through Astrid, making her ache fiercely. Not just from needing him inside her, working in tandem toward a blissful end, but to show him with more than words that he wasn’t alone. Didn’t ever have to be alone, not as long as she was here. She’d be his constant, his comfort. The one he turned to when the past preyed on the present.

And if he let her, she’d help him make new memories. Good ones.

They could be so very good together.

“Practice, good idea.”

As he plunged his tongue deeper, it split down the center in a wet glide.

Round and round the two halves coiled, forming a tight sheath around her tongue.

Cradling her cheeks, he encouraged a bobbing motion, to mirror the act to come with their mouths. Astrid gripped him hard by the antlers, and in time to the gyrations she bestowed upon his lap, she thrust in her tongue.

She felt the silken slide of his fingers across her thighs before they snaked into her waistband and under her coat—dutifully lavishing every aching bit of her with attention and yet careful not to prick her with any of his edges.

Unraveling his tongue, Gudariks broke their kiss to say, “You’re getting hotter.” He inhaled deeply, bony snout nestling in the curve of her neck. “And your smell is irresistible, like holly and winter berries. Do you want me inside you, little witch? Topick up where we left off yesterday? Because I’m yours for the taking.”

“Desperately.”

Astrid pulled the mittens from her hands and unzipped her coat. Once she shrugged off her outer layers, he whisked her sweater over her head and shucked off her bra. Using his shoulders as leverage, she stood so that he could divest her of her boots and pants. She was naked when she returned to his lap, and there she painted her belly like Mutter instructed with dirt from the floor. Spoke the words of the contraceptive spell.

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