Page 91 of Gemini Queen
“Yeah, that’s what they tell me.” The cold kiss of a snowflake lands on my upper lip. I lick it off and watch his lips part over his sexy little fangs.
I swallow hard and whisper, “Dive shop.”
“Indeed.” With reptilian speed, he swoops in, wraps an arm around my waist, and sweeps me up against his tall slim frame. “I do hope you’re not afraid of heights.”
“Hey—” My feet leave the ground and my protest unravels in a short scream. “Fuck!Vasili—”
His laughter unfurls like a silk scarf in the snowy air.
We’re fucking airborne, the piazza falling away under my dangling feet with stomach-dropping speed. I clutch the Goblin King’s sinewy frame with every limb I’ve got and wrap my whole body around him. If I had a tail, I’d have that wrapped around him too.
Icy wind laced with snow buffets my face and whips under my fluttering coat. Which makes me really glad I’m wearing leggings and a cable-knit sweater underneath instead of that freaking uniform. The disorienting sight of slanting rooftops whizzing past makes me yelp—another noise I’m not proud of.
This guy seems to specialize in getting them out of me.
I need to throttle back on all this sensory overload and get a grip, so I bury my face in his neck. His dark fragrance wraps around me and seeps through my brain and invades every pore in my body. I pull in a long slow breath of him and his pheromones. I know my body’s hard-wired to respond the way it does to the biochemicals in his scent.
But I’m still thankful when my terrified pulse ratchets down a notch.
Yeah, we’re fucking flying, but he isn’t dropping me or even toying with me the way I expect. His arms, wrapped around my waist, hold me clasped against him nice and steady. Under my clutching limbs, he’s all streamlined slimness and silky heat.
My lips part against the sleek column of his neck and my shaky exhale rushes past his skin. His head angles down and he rubs his chin against my hair.
Now he’s scentingme. And there isn’t one damn thing I can do about it.
“Vasili.” I whisper the weakest protest in history into his neck, lips moving against his skin.
His throat vibrates in a hum, almost an actual purr, against my lips.
I barely resist the sudden temptation to drag my tongue down his neck. Just to see if he tastes as good as he smells.
Of course, if I pull something like that, he’ll probably drop me.
“Well.” He clears his throat. “Zara?”
Shit. That sounds like amusement in his voice. I hope like fuck I wasn’t just projecting. “Yeah?”
“We’ve arrived. You can let go now.”
Shit.
My head pops up with a gasp. Turns out we are indeed stationary on the flat roof of a low building next to the ocean’s black expanse. Through thick curtains of falling snow, pale curls of foam appear and vanish with a whisper all down the crescent beach. Around us on the roof, there’s a clutter of patio furniture heaped with virgin snow. A skylight yawns at our feet.
And I’m wrapped around Vasili Romanov like the heroine in a bodice ripper romance. Which is totally fucking mortifying.
Even though, for some reason, he hasn’t let go of me either.
Probably enjoying his temporary advantage over me way too much to end it. Because, one, I was more freaked out than any self-respecting professional cat burglar should be during that whole Superman-Lois Lane ascent. Two, I was turned on as fuck by the whole experience. And three, the Goblin King fucking knows it.
I hop down to the roof and scramble out of his arms with as much casual as I can muster. Which, admittedly, isn’t all that much. I concentrate on brushing the snow off myself so I don’t have to see his smug smirk.
“Thanks for the ride.” I glance around the cluttered roof, which looks like Party Central in the summer. “Dive shop, huh?”
“Hmmmm.” He flips up his high collar and drapes his tall frame elegantly over the crescent loop of a swinging hammock. “I wasn’t able to winkle the key from Racetrack without tipping her off to our secret accord. But I’ve done my bit and gotten you here. Now it’s your turn to deliver… if you can.”
Skepticism lurks in his voice.
If he expects a little thing like a locked skylight to stop me, he really doesn’t know me very well.
