WingSpan (Taken on the Wing Book 1) (23 page)

“Nap,” she announces around a yawn. It has to be nearly eleven and way past bedtime.

“Break,” Talon points at the chamber pot and steps out into the tunnel.

“You didn’t just read my mind did you?” she’s so frustrated maybe a little argument would give her the emotional edge to pop out wings. Or take wing as Talon calls it but what she remembers of Swift in his kitchen was more like a room filling with angry feathers.

“Didn’t have to, you were squirming.”

Then she barely has her trousers back up before he snatches the pot away and disappears down the tunnel with it.

“There will be a clean one at the entrance in a little while,” he announces as he kneels down behind her and grabs at the hem of her top. “Off.”

“You want to—”

“No,” he says as she lifts her arms letting him pull it up over her head. “If you haven’t noticed, as good looking as I am I don’t inspire any arousal in you at all and honestly you do nothing for me.”

“Asshole,” she mutters.

“Yeah, yeah,” he tugs down her trousers. Shadow stands and lets him pull them off but he’s right. She doesn’t feel sexy at all nor does she want to. “Human females don’t do a thing for Talon and gryphon males don’t do a thing for Jenn. That’s just the way it is.”

“Whatever,” Shadow crosses her arms under her breasts and tries to stare him down but he shrugs.

The dreams she used to have of him seem very gryphon now that she thinks about it. She’d just written the flying part off as a common theme of dreams. It was the rush of hunting him down that really got her going, almost as much as the fear of getting caught before they went at it.

I’ll get you turned on,
she decides. Nothing bothers her more than being told there’s something she can’t do.
I know exactly how hot you’re gonna get. Then we’ll see who wants to be human and go after Jenn.

Talon sits back on his heels, mirroring her crossed arms and if Shadow can guess he’s picked up on her resolve because his body language can only be described as defiant: shoulders back and wing’s pushed higher to taunt her.

“I used to have this dream after we met, every two or three weeks,” Shadow says, lowering her voice to sound as sexy as she can. “It always started I was really high up, looking at you a long way down, running through the sand, snow, whatever. I think you were scared of me and it made me angry that you’d be like that, fearful, afraid. A coward. But it wasn’t enough. I wanted to feel your terror in my hands, in my mouth as I counted your breaths and your heart pounded like it was trying to break free of you and escape me.”

Talon tries to remain emotionless but his fingers have taken hold of his cotton trousers and he won’t look at her. Then a thick swallow. Sure, not turned on at all, Mister Gryphon.

Shadow walks around behind him to give some realism to her dream, taking position where she would be.

“I drop down lower, flanking you nearly on the ground and I can smell you, hear your feet. Your steps are uneven as you keep trying to get away but I know it’s pointless and so do you. Every time you look my way I’m a little closer,” she takes a step nearer.

Talon pulls his wings in tighter. An itch runs down the center of her chest, past her navel creating a little heat between her legs.
Nothing to worry about
, she tells herself,
he’ll be human soon, I’m anticipating him being human
. But his eyes move down her body like he’s watching the itch move.

On her knees, she leans close to his throat.

“You don’t see me coming,” her fingers touch the feathers on his chest and damn if her mouth isn’t watering. “Then I… I… ”

She hears herself moan, surprisingly loud but it’s all she can do. She’s taken by surprise with the sensation overload in her back. It’s not pain but pleasure as she releases something she’s kept inside for far too long.

“Tal—”

But her lungs have emptied and she grabs at him as the light fades and a terrible weight threatens to pull her over. Their breathing echoes in her ears as everything goes numb.

Chapter Nineteen

Shadow is aware of growling and strong arms. She blinks in the blinding light and turns away as the movement makes her faint again.

“Talon?” her voice is loud in her ears. His growling stops then his frantic lips are on hers as he pulls her upright. Shadow’s uncoordinated mouth can’t keep up with the pace of his kiss so she gives up.

“Relax,
Arlette
, relax,” he breathes. “You did it.”

“Dizzy.”

“I know.”

His hand on the small of her back slides down and she takes in the odd feel of it running along her tail. Talon’s thumb caresses little circles as it goes, feeling the bones through the covering of hair. “So long, oh wow.”

Shadow watches him as her eyes focus.

“Your wings need blood,” Talon explains. “Your first few shifts will be the roughest as your body gets better at storing the extra when it’s not needed and making whatever it can’t store.”

Shadow moves as the tingling in her lips passes and he groans as she feels his erection underneath her. The heat she built up trying to make him change flashes brightly between them.

Without taking her eyes off Talon’s, she gets her knees on the mat. The weight on her back is a surprise and her stomach tightens to hold her upright.

“Shadow, did Lev say anything about your dame?”

“Not really, why?”

“Because you’re white. Pure white.”

Talon helps her to her feet and she turns to look at her wings. Her tail wraps around her ankle and she shrieks, pulling her foot up and tipping over. Instinct moves her wings and she recovers her balance. When she looks down, her narrow white tail slowly uncurls then rests, reaching the ground before bending up with the bushy white tip six inches off the floor.

“A long tail is so fucking hot,” Talon whispers as she notices his only goes halfway down his calves and is twice the thickness of hers. “I’ve never seen a more beautiful gryphon.”

“I’m a gryphon,” Shadow feels like she’s seeing him for the first time. “And neither have I.”

Damned if he doesn’t blush. Shadow’s tail swings between her legs and grabs his, coiling around several times like another way to hold hands only she feels far more connected.

“It feels like a fresh start.”

“Then what do you want to do first, gryphon?”

“See in the dark,” Shadow announces and Talon laughs, gesturing at the silver light on the wall. The sound is more a low sensuous growl than a human laugh. The knots it makes in her belly make it clear he wants it dark as much as she does.

She turns but Talon’s firm hand on her elbow stops her in her tracks. Pulling doesn’t help.

“Don’t be prey,” he reprimands. “Don’t turn your back on me. Until you can fly and I know your limits don’t risk it.”

She tugs again and he lets go so she keeps turned to him as she approaches the light.

“I’ve been fighting and hunting for decades, Shadow,” Talon explains but it’s a little late. He doesn’t have to be such a dickhead about it. “The last thing I want is to overestimate what you can do and hurt you. Symbolic surrender for now, nothing more.”

Bullshit, it’s because I’m a girl.

Shadow puts her hands on the light then blows, bathing them in darkness.

“Your eyes.”

Talon’s eyes are as black as in his kitchen. The outline of his wings is clear against the equally dark stone behind him.

“Yours are just the same.”

But she’s not really listening. Even the shapeless trousers do nothing to hide the muscle in his thighs. Talon’s thick shoulders stand out in the silhouette of his wings and even in the dark there’s no mistaking the outline of his cock against the heavy cotton.

Talon’s tail twitches, disappearing behind his leg before returning to rest. Then again.

He’s teasing me!

But her tail responds, ducking alluringly out of sight. Talon’s eyes drop and he shifts his weight, absently adjusting himself. The feel of her long spine moving low against her butt is intriguing and as she reaches to feel it the diamond bracelet slides down her arm and brushes over his bite. Shadow’s knees go weak as the cold gems vibrate over the raised tooth marks.

Talon’s chuckle, too low for human hearing, is barely audible for her gryphon ears though she feels it in the air.

Jesus, touching it feels good and her hand creeps up. Tingles shoot everywhere through her body as she feels each and every bump; each mark seems to stimulate something different than the last. They harden as she goes becoming more and more sensitive. How can he not touch his all the time? But then he’s a guy. He’s used to knowing when it’s inappropriate.

This time he laughs. She’s overwhelmed by the foreign feel of stubborn pride and decides she’s had it with the teasing, the symbolic surrender bullshit and making fun of her for touching herself.

Shadow picks up her heel and pivots on one toe, daring him to tell her what she can’t do.

“Don’t…”

Don’t what? Shadow doesn’t remember, something about don’t turn around. Unsure why she shouldn’t and confronted with the big male she spins, knowing there’s some kind of trouble coming. Talon’s wings spread and his tail stiffens, vibrating like a cat about to pounce.

Shit, I’m in shit.

His growl is her queue to turn and run for her life.

Tucking her wings in she bolts faster than she ever thought possible. She’s never tried to get away from anything but with her pounding heart egging her on she takes three glorious steps before she’s hit from behind and pinned to the wall. Talon has her wrists together in one huge hand and her feet off the ground. His other hand pulls her head over his shoulder.

Talon’s open mouth takes her throat.

The rumble in his chest goes right through her into the stone and after a moment a bead of his saliva or her sweat makes its way down to be caught between her skin and the rock. But as much as she’s blind with terror everything below the waist is on fire and she squirms, desperate to find relief anywhere, even up against the wall.

“Don’t turn your back, I said,” Talon whispers and as he pulls his mouth away he swallows. She can smell everything going on with him even stronger than the smell of her own humbling defeat: dominance, arousal.

Victory.

“Don’t tell me what I can’t do,” Shadow wrestles a hand free and gets a palm on the wall but his erection has captured her tail up against her thigh and as she continues to struggle he presses even harder.

“I’m going to put you down,” so arrogant. Her blood boils with the need to put him in his place. “You’re going to turn around and very carefully push my chin up and put your teeth on my throat.”

Shadow slaps her palm on the wall and lowers her head, feigning submission. No way in hell is he getting away with this.

“Okay,” she gasps drawing in a few full breaths for strength.

As Talon steps away, Shadow jumps. She gets her shoulders on his chest and her feet on the wall and kicks for all she’s worth. He goes over on the mat and as they go down she tumbles, wrapping her tail around his neck as many times as she can.

“Surrender,” she orders.

“No.”

He doesn’t smell scared at all. The son of a bitch doesn’t even get his hands up.

Shadow tightens her tail and gets on her elbows. Her wings are heavy but she can put up with it for a while. Right in front of her is his stomach so she opens wide and bites just below his navel.

“No,” he says but when she gets a hand on his thigh his hands move. She knows exactly how to win.

Sliding her fingers up over his cock she finds the drawstring and opens it.

“No!”

“Yes.”

Her hand goes in his trousers and he tries to pull away so she reaches past and scratches over the artery in his groin.

“We don’t use teeth and claws there like this!”

But she doesn’t stop. Expecting the loose sag of his balls she finds them tight to his body and runs her palm over before wrapping her hand around his thickness. Either excitement or fear kept him full and hard.