ELRETH

His eyes were so fierce and… full. It stole her breath. She was terrified she would say the wrong thing, or not know the right answer and he’d walk away again. But when she said that, when she begged him not to leave again, his eyes softened.

He huffed a sound she’d only ever heard her father make and it startled her, twanging in her belly and making her breath come faster.

“That’s the thing, El… You don’t have to do it alone.” Then he stepped right up to her, offering his hand. “I can show you. If you’ll let me.”

He was devastating. How had she never seen him like this before? It was like she’d been blind for twenty years, and here he was. No longer simply her best friend. Suddenly he was this… male. The light in his ice-blue eyes, the strength in his brow, the hard line of his jaw—the steel strength of all of him when he pulled her into his chest.

Both of them breathed too fast. She stared at his throat when it bobbed.

Then he dropped his chin and his lips brushed her ear, raising goosebumps all the way down to her knee when he whispered “Now… close your eyes. And just let go.”

She nodded and did as he asked, closing her eyes using her other senses to find him—the brush of his chest on hers, the scent of his skin like warm earth and summer rain and the sharp musk of something distinctly male.

She’d forgotten the music, but he hadn’t. Pulling her hands up and urging her to lace them behind his neck, he kept his chin low. His stubbled jaw brushed her cheek and his breath—too shallow, too fast—ruffled her hair.

When she’d wrapped her arms around his neck, he slid his fingers down her arms, so slowly, like sparkling trails on her skin, then down her sides. One large hand slid to press at her lower back, the other loose at his side, but threatening to brush her thigh as he stepped into her and their hips rolled together—back to sway, then forward.

With her eyes closed, she couldn’t see his face, but she felt him, all over her and around her. His warmth, his scent, his strength…

She started to anticipate the slide of their feet and sway of their hips, and he changed, pulling her forward into him. She almost stumbled on his foot, but didn’t open her eyes as he chuckled.

“I said, let go, El. Just… feel me. And follow. Let me show you where I’ll take you.”

There was a promise in those words that raised the hair on her arms. She wanted to go wherever that was. She nodded, eyes still screwed tightly shut and… relaxed into him, taking the weight off each foot at the end of the sway, letting him direct her—direct them together.

The music faded, then returned differently. But he didn’t stop. He slid the one hand up to splay between her shoulder blades, and gripped her hip with the other as the pace picked up.

And suddenly she wasn’t thinking about feet anymore, or the rhythm of the music. She wasn’t thinking about steps or turns. She was in his arms and being moved, and she didn’t care where—as long as he was there.

*****

AARYN

He felt the moment it happened. Felt her give herself.

Surrender.

And it… moved him.

A deep, resonant call, so low it started in his toes, broke out of his throat, and she answered with her own, the perfect counterpoint.

He was trembling.

“El,” he croaked, his eyes suddenly stinging. Her fingers clawed into his scalp, raising the hair on his neck and she pulled him in, but she didn’t try to take. She didn’t take that last tiny space between them. She didn’t resist. She only held him, her joints loose and weight pressed in, following where he led.

His senses were overwhelmed with her—her scent, her warmth, her shape under his hands. Only one was missing.

And so he dropped his lips to that triangle of skin under her ear and tasted her there, a growl of approval puttering in his throat when her skin pebbled under his lips.

“Light, El,” he whispered, and tasted her again.

Her arms around his neck tightened and the softest whisper of a whine pierced her throat.

He’d meant to wait. To talk it all out. To make sure they started with the past behind them. But when he pulled his head back to look at her and she finally opened her eyes, it was all there in her gaze.

They stared at each other as he brought a trembling finger up to pull a strand of hair away that had caught on her lip.

He plunged his fingers in her hair and laid his mouth on hers and she arched into him, opening to his kiss.

And to Aaryn, it was as if he’d finally found home.