Page 103 of Phoenix Falling
Sun stood there, larger than life in the middle of my tiny bedroom, his arms crossed over his chest as if holding himself back. I waited to see what, if anything, he would let free.
“I’m sorry.” The words came out gruff, but they also sounded sincere. “I mean it, Rissa.” He raised his head, staring down at me, the silver shine of his phoenix coming through. “I’m sorry.”
“For what? There are so many things to list.” I couldn’t help it; he’d walked right into that one.
He laughed, actually laughed. “I guess I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t.”
The sound of his laughter did funny things to my insides. Things only the Sun I’d known in the past couple of weeks, before my secret came out, had made me feel. I shrugged innocently. “Whatever.”
“Fine.” One hand grabbed his shirt at the back of the neck and tugged, pulling it over his head. “Might as well take advantage of it.”
Holy cow. That bare chest… The room was suddenly ten degrees warmer, and Sun’s naked skin was all I could focus on. Really, I salivated more over Sun’s chest than any male model I’d seen on the cover of a romance novel. He was that perfect. Before I knew it, he was standing in front of me, that silver light even brighter, and I swore I wasn’t the only one salivating.
His words confirmed it. “I want you, mate.”
I winced. “I’m not—”
“You are, and I intend for every single soul in that lair to know it.”
“Why?” Why now and not before? Why me, with all of my problematic angles. Just…why?
He went to his knees in front of me. “Because you are mine, Rissa. But even more than that, since the moment I laid eyes on you from across the bar, sitting in that dark corner all alone, I realized that the only thing that truly matters to me is to be yours.”
An arrow through the heart couldn’t have pierced me harder. Had anyone ever wanted to be mine? Arik hadn’t. Cale hadn’t, not really. And yet here was the most powerful shifter in the Archai saying that was exactly what he wanted. “I don’t know if that’s possible, Sun.”
“It is. And I’m going to prove it to you. Right now.”
By the time his mouth met mine, I was lost. He opened my lips with his and slid his tongue inside.
Need shot through me. I wrenched myself away. “I don’t know if I want this,” I said. Which was totally wrong. I did want this. I wanted it more than I could remember ever wanting anything.
But I was afraid to take it.
Sun gave me a lazy lip curl of a grin. “When you decide, just let me know.” And kissed me again. This time my mouth met his already open and eager. When he pushed inside, I sucked lightly on my tongue.
His groan sounded like he was in agony.
Rising from his knees, Sun used his body to guide mine back onto the bed. He laid down next to me and took his time, kissing, nipping at my lips, tangling his tongue with mine. Exploring me like he had when we’d had sex instead of using his mouth to fight with me. This was the Sun I’d known as Rissa, not the male who’d become a stranger since I’d been at the lair.
Maybe if he kept this up, we could make better progress. It would sure as hell be more pleasurable. There was only one thing that could make it better.
We could be naked.
“Rissa.”
I struggled to open my eyes. “What?”
He nibbled at the edge of my jaw, my neck, the soft ridge of my shoulder. God, it felt so good.
“I want to see you. The real you.”
I ran my palms down the smooth divot of his spine. “What?”
“I want to see my Rissa, my mate.” He licked along my collarbone.
I was the one who hesitated this time. I hadn’t dropped my Risk persona since that night in his suite. Like my sarcasm, Risk was a front I used to protect myself. Dropping that meant taking a step toward more than just sex—it meant trusting him with who I truly was. And I ached to share that with the Sun I’d fallen in love with.
But I was afraid.
