Part 33 (1/2)

”I saw him kissing you,” he muttered, skin growing hot.

She stood very still, holding his gaze. ”I wasn't kissing back. He caught me by surprise.”

Lannes nodded, digging a claw into the wood block. ”And?”

”And he was a boyfriend, I guess. Tennis player. Doctor. Voted most likely to succeed in his college yearbook.” She smiled wryly. ”Those were the first three things he told me when he found out I had amnesia.”

”Ah.” Lannes felt rather ill. ”Accomplished. I suppose handsome should be added to the list.”

”I suppose.” She walked toward him, slowly. Lannes held steady, his heart hammering. She was so very beautiful, and he was so very relieved to see her that he could have sunk down on his knees and stayed there.

”I called Will,” she said. ”He told me how to get here.”

”I wanted you to have freedom,” he replied. ”To make your new life without...me hanging around your neck.”

”After all we went through?” Lethe asked him, smiling gently. She stopped in front of him, very close. ”I have to ask you something. I have to ask if you still want me.”

It was hard to breathe. ”You shouldn't have to ask. You know what I feel.”

Her gaze searched his face, and there was a pain in her eyes that mirrored his own enough that he reached up and slid his knuckle along the soft skin of her jaw. She closed her eyes, leaning in to his touch, and he bent down and kissed her mouth.

Lethe leaned into him, shuddering. ”I wished you could have been there. I couldn't stop thinking of you. It was awful. Not in any magical weird way. That subject didn't even come up. It's just... I don't know them. My own parents, my friends. I think... I think I must have been some kind socialite before. They expected me to be a certain way, and I wasn't like that. Not anymore. It disappointed them a little.”

”They'll learn to accept you.”

”Maybe.” Lethe kissed his throat. ”They want me to live with them. They want to take care of me until my memory returns.”

His gut tightened. ”That's kind of them.”

Lethe laughed quietly. ”Tell me how you really feel.”

How he really felt? He hardly believed there were words for that.

Lannes held her waist and picked her up. She wrapped her legs around his hips with an ease that stole his breath.

His wings arched, spreading around them. Lannes, his body growing hot and hard, pushed closer to her.

”Tell me,” Lethe said.