She swallowed because just that one word made her feel needy and weak. Brushing her fingers across tree bark, she twisted her lips, the demon and angel on her shoulders waging war. Sighing, she nodded. “I’ve missed you too.”
“Come away with me.” He held out his hand and stepped out fully from behind the tree he’d been standing beside.
He was dressed in jeans and a faded black shirt with the letters CBGB printed on the front of it.
“Where?”
“Genesis needs my attention. I’ve neglected her sorely since your arrival. Come on a ride with me.”
The urge to go was strong, but… “I don’t know if that’s wise.”
Golden eyes snared her. “I will show you that I can be a gentleman. No games. No innuendos. Come with me.”
“You know I cannot touch you. Not unless you show me your true form.”
Why had she said that to him? Was she still hoping to see him? She was shutting him out, expunging him from her life; it was why she’d kept to herself for so long. Why she’d purposefully hid. And yet, the truth won out. Because hiding didn’t work either.
“Shayera,” he breathed and closed his eyes for a fraction of an instant. “I will make you a vow today.”
Her heart leapt. “Have you ever made a vow to anyone?”
His lips stretched into a half grin. “Not often. In fact, you’re the first denizen of Kingdom I’m making one to.”
Warmed to the tips of her toes, she whispered, “Oh.”
Invading her space so that their bodies very nearly touched, he forced her to gaze on him before he spoke again. “If, when this is all over, you still wish to see my true form, I will show you. But in showing you, I might very well be damning you.”
“How do you mean?”
His jaw clenching highlighted the golden stubble on his cheeks. “A royal only shows his body, his true body, to his mate.”
Brows twitching, stomach in knots, she shook her head. “What does that mean?”
“It means that if I show you, I own you. Forever.”
She laughed. “You cannot be serious.”
But he was not laughing. In fact, he was the opposite of it—so serious that she could not doubt him. The laughter died on her tongue.
“You are serious?”
“In Kingdom, a mate exchanges vows of Veritas and that is how two souls are twined. In my realm, if the sentiment is the same, then we unmask ourselves.” He closed his eyes. “I know I said no innuendo and I meant it, but if I asked you to close your eyes now, would you do it?”
She licked her lips. “I cannot have sex with you, Rumpel. As much as I do want it.” Shayera was shocked by her boldness, but being apart from him for so long and now seeing him so close, having him present and smelling his scent of cloves and whiskey, it brought all the feelings back in such a rush that she had no filter.
“I wish only to touch your hand.” And holding his own up, he spread his fingers, and the meaning was clear.
She closed her eyes.
Sulfur and smoky cherries embraced her and then she shuddered at the first touch of his flesh upon hers.
“Carrot.” His voice grew impossibly deep and he pulled her into his arms, wrapping his own around her waist and just holding on.
She was lost in him. In his scent and the strength of his body. In the feel of him. Moaning, she dipped her nose into the hollow of his throat.
“Do not move anymore,” he rumbled. “I am on a knife’s edge and ready to toss you to the ground, but it is important that I prove I can be a man of my word.”
Wanting to share in his body desperately but understanding that what he did now meant so much more, she nodded. “Then tell me when you’re ready to let me go.”
They held tight to each other for what felt like an eternity, breathing in and out, reconnecting and reattuning themselves one to the other.
Finally, with a heavy sigh, he kissed her forehead. “Let’s go then.”
She held his hand, and neither one of them spoke as he led her toward his bike, but silence when in the presence of someone special was a conversation of souls, and theirs spoke loudly.
Shayera was terrified of what she felt, of what this forced separation had shown her. No matter how long apart or how far the distance, Rumpel was in her heart.
The path they took was a straight one and when he stepped away and she smelled the sulfur again, she knew he’d changed. Opening her eyes, she blinked into the light.
They stood beneath a large wooden hangar where Genesis was parked. Now he wore a leather jacket over his shirt and had his hair gathered into a knot. “There is your gear.”
He pointed to a spot where a pink helmet, pink leather jacket, and leather pants rested. She smiled. “You knew I’d say yes?”
“I’d hoped.”
“Turn around,” she ordered.
His lips pressed together and she could tell he really didn’t want to turn, but she lifted her brow.
“Yes, mistress,” he drawled, gave her a dramatic bow, and then turned his back.
Latching on to her bottom lip to contain her happy smile, she pulled off her dress and quickly yanked on her clothes. They fit perfectly.
“Rumpel,” she said as she zipped up her jacket, “you didn’t give me a shirt to put underneath this.”