Josef groaned aloud. “Stop talking to that man of yours and ignoring us. You’ve got your goofy face on.”
Laughing, she nudged him with the toe of her boot. “I don’t have a goofy face.”
“You go all moony and dreamy,” Josef accused. “It’s sick.”
“It’s a sickness all right,” Paul teased. He clasped his hands to his chest over his heart and fell backward in the grass. “Oh, Dimitri, you make me swoon.”
“I’m
so
telling him you said that, Paul.” Skyler gave him a hard punch in the thigh, hoping to give him a dead leg. “He’ll be delighted to know you swoon over him.”
“He’s so manly and everything,” Josef added.
“Ow!” Paul rubbed his thigh, glaring at her. “I’ve been shot, woman. Have some respect for my still healing wounds.”
Josef rolled his eyes. “There he goes, looking for feminine sympathy, reminding everyone very subtly he’s heroic.”
Skyler gave a little derisive snort. “He’s barking up the wrong tree if he expects sympathy from me. I was there, remember, Paul? Didn’t you get shot in the butt?”
Josef and Skyler burst into a riot of laughter.
Paul glared at them. “I did
not
get shot in the butt as you well know. Fat lot of good you two are. I’ve got to milk this thing as long as I can. Having you two howling like hyenas isn’t going to serve my cause one little bit.”
“He’s got a point,” Josef said. “We are his best friends. We really should help him out. Zacarias and Rafael are on his butt all the time now.”
“And Colby is actually supervising a ‘healthy’ diet for me.” Paul gave a little groan. “I’m a grown man and you’d think, just because I got shot, I’ve reverted to being a toddler in her eyes. I actually had to sneak out to find you, Skyler. That’s how close a watch they have on me.”
“Poor Paul, to have to put up with all those people loving you and taking care of you,” Skyler teased. “It makes me so sad for you.”
Paul scowled at her. “All right, I give up.” He held up his hands in surrender. “I’m getting no sympathy from this crowd.”
“We could compare scars,” Josef offered. “That might make you feel better. I’ve only got a couple.” He sounded disappointed.
“Naw. Skyler would win that round,” Paul said. “They riddled her with bullets. They only winged me six times.”
Skyler shuddered. “Don’t say ‘riddled.’ You both are a little out there, you know that? Who wants to get shot and compare scars?”
Josef’s eyebrows shot up. “You know, woman, you just don’t get it. Number one reason—chicks. Chicks love guys with heroic scars.”
Paul nodded in agreement. “Totally.”
Skyler shook her head. “The two of you are sad, sad, sad. You shouldn’t need gimmicks to get girls.”
“Are you kidding, Skyler?” Paul said. “We use whatever we can. Look at Dimitri. He suffered death by silver, valiantly staying alive, and did it work for him? In the end, he got the girl.”
Laughter bubbled over. “He already
had
the girl. He didn’t need to get hung on hooks with silver winding through his body just to impress me. I was already impressed. And that should teach you both something.”
Josef and Paul looked at one another. “That you’re easy?” Josef asked.
Skyler smacked him on the back of his head. “Those bullets are nothing compared to what I’m going to do to you.”
“Simmer down, little sister,” Josef said. “And spill your secret, because you have one and we want to know all about it.”
Skyler tried her most innocent face, widening her eyes and looking very sober. “Whatever are you talking about?”
“
Whatever
is the word,” Paul said. “I knew it. You’re hiding something. You’ve been going off with Ivory and Razvan for hours the past couple of nights.”
“He is my birth father. I’m getting to know him,” Skyler defended.
“In those fancy hunting clothes of yours?” Josef asked.
“You’ve been spying,” Skyler accused.
“Trying to spy,” Paul corrected without even a small hint of remorse. “Seriously, those two were on us in a second, and even Dimitri looked intimidating when they sent us home.”
Skyler scowled. “Clearly, I have a lot to learn if all three of them knew you were following us and they caught you, sent you away and never even let on. I wasn’t even suspicious.” She glared at them. “But I should have been. You two are awful.”
“Awful good,” Paul quipped. “Come on, what’s the secret.”
“We’re getting our own pack,” Skyler said. “That is, if I can master the techniques and get the hunting part down. Dimitri has no problem, but I’m always messing up.”
Josef whistled. “Totally cool. A wolf pack. I always thought Ivory was the coolest of the cool, but now you’re just plain ice.”
Coming from Josef that was a huge compliment. Skyler laughed. “In the middle of this horrible stuff happening around and to us, I still feel I’m the luckiest girl in the world. I’ve got Dimitri, the two best friends ever and now Ivory and Razvan are giving us wolves to care for.”
“It’s a lifetime commitment, isn’t it?” Paul said. “Don’t the wolves have to be part of your family?”
Skyler nodded. “We have to be as committed and as devoted to them as they are to us.”
“I have to agree with Josef,” Paul said, “you’re just plain ice.”
Dimitri emerged out of thin air, startling all three of them. “Are you two gentlemen being good to my lady?”
“You mean, strangling me, putting me in head locks, and teasing me unmercifully? If so, then yes, they’re being ultra-good to me,” Skyler said, flinging herself into his arms. Just fitting her body against his made her feel sheltered and safe. “I missed you.”
Josef groaned. “Here it comes. She’d got that goofy face again. That’s our cue to leave.”
“Run like a rabbit now that Dimitri’s here.” She began to hum an old song Francesca always sang when Skyler was younger. “My boyfriend’s back . . . ”
“I’m retreating gracefully,” Josef said. “It’s the only gentlemanly thing to do when you’ve got that silly look.”
“I’ve got to agree with my bro,” Paul said. “You do look a little smitten.”
They each waved and began to trot back toward the village. Skyler let them get nearly to safety and then she retaliated by sending a gust of wind blowing a mini-tornado of leaves and debris around them. Twigs and moss covered both, even sticking on the spikes in Josef’s hair.
“You just
had
to show off, didn’t you?” Josef called. He spit moss out of his mouth.
“You are such a little believer in revenge,” Dimitri accused and turned her in his arms so that he could look down at her face. “A beautiful one, but I am beginning to think your ‘angel’ title might have to be changed.”
“Since you never actually called me angel,” Skyler said, “I’m not offended.”
“Let’s hope I never offend you,” Dimitri said. “Those who do, don’t fare very well.”
She smoothed the lines in his face with her finger. “Have you heard how Zev and Branislava are doing?”
“Fen, Tatijana and I have taken turns giving them blood. Zev, so far, is only responsive when Bronnie pushes him to accept the blood. He hasn’t really regained consciousness. Tatijana is worried about her sister. To hold him to us, she wove her spirit through his. Whatever his fate is, so is hers.”
“Why would she do that?” Skyler asked. “He’s a virtual stranger.”
Dimitri shrugged. “Healers heal anyway they can. All of us have gone too far at times to save someone—even strangers. Look at Ivory. She knew she shouldn’t save those wolf pups, but she couldn’t stop herself.”
He gathered Skyler up and took her into the air. She loved flying, by herself or with him, it didn’t matter. Just the wonder of moving across a night sky, whether clouds had gathered or the stars were out in force, didn’t matter. The feeling was the most amazing thing. The wind in her face, the butterflies in the stomach, and the view, was so different from the one below.
As they moved through the trees into denser forest, she began to open the buttons of Dimitri’s shirt one by one, until his bare chest was exposed. Circling his neck with her arms, she leaned into him to trace the heavy muscles with her tongue. The scars were there, but no longer rigid, raw or discolored. The chain links were mere white lines, faded now. She knew she would never be able to make them disappear altogether, but she always traced the patterns over his body, delighting in the way he came to such glorious life under her ministrations.
“Take me to the fertility flower field, Dimitri,” she whispered. “Make love to me there. It isn’t so much that I might or might not get pregnant, but I’ve heard the flowers enhance the sexual need for one another. I never want to let you down. Not ever.”
He switched directions. “Nothing you do would let me down. When we make love, it’s always beautiful. If there’s ever a problem, we’ll stop and talk it out.”
Skyler laid her head against his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart. “I want more for us. I want wild, crazy sex sometimes. Not just for you, Dimitri, but for me. Sometimes when we’re making love, I see those images in your mind, or maybe they’re in mine and I want that for us as well as what we have now, but honestly, I’m scared at the same time.”
“We have all the time in the world for wild and crazy sex, Skyler,” he said gently. Once again they were out in the open air, making their way up the mountain. “Give yourself time. Sex is all about trust with us. The more you trust me, the more you know absolutely that you’re safe with me, the better it will be and the more things we can do together.”
“I do trust you implicitly,” she said. “I can’t imagine a situation where I wouldn’t.”
“What if I were to blindfold you? Would you be able to handle that?”
The field of flowers below them was beautiful, like a thousand glittering stars staring up at them, rather than looking down on them. Skyler’s breath caught in her throat. Her heart gave a wild jump and then settled, following the steady rhythm of his. A million butterflies took wing in her stomach, but her breasts tingled, her nipples growing hard and she felt the familiar rush of damp heat gathering between her legs.
“I wouldn’t mind trying,” she said, fear skittering down her spine even as every nerve ending in her body came alive.
He put her down in the very center of the field, stripping her clothes from her with a simple wave of his hand. The night air teased her skin, playing over her like a million fingers, caressing and stroking until she trembled with desire.
“I love looking at you,” Dimitri told her. “You’re so beautiful.” He turned his finger in a small circle, and she spun slowly around for him. “Let your hair down,
sívamet
.”
Obediently, Skyler lifted her arms up, the action lifting her breasts. The coolness of the night air and that simple act of stretching upward sent a small rush of liquid heat pulsing between her legs. He didn’t have to actually touch her to make her body want his. The glacier-blue of his eyes turning cobalt with intense desire was enough.
She let the thick silken mass of hair fall down her back. Already it was banding with color, giving away her stark hunger and need for him. He was fully dressed, his eyes dark with a mixture of love and lust, a sinful stamp of pure sensuality on his face.
Around her the fragrance of the flowers began to take on his scent. The smell was intoxicating and potent. Her mouth watered. The tip of her tongue licked at her lips. She could taste him already, that addictive, masculine, foresty—
warrior
flavor she craved. It was stamped into his skin, there in his kiss, his blood and the male essence of his body.
He leaned down and chose a bloom, offering it to her with both palms open. As he did, he shed his clothes, standing tall in the midst of the field of beautiful flowers. He looked magnificent to her, very male, already hard and thick and eager for her attention.
“Sometimes my slumber is disturbed when images arouse me, taking hold of my body, setting my imagination and hunger free, all the things I want to do with you, Skyler, all the things I want to show you that will bring us so much pleasure.”
The sound of his voice, so smoky and sensual, an instrument of velvet playing over her body like the touch of fingers, like the cool of the night, wreaked havoc with her nerve endings. It took a moment to tear her gaze from his impressive erection to inspect the blossom. The Night Star flower seemed to have an impressive erection of its own.
Skyler found herself blushing. The ovary was a deep crimson red, with two striped filaments, but the stigma had color infusing her entire body because clearly it was shaped exactly like Dimitri’s heavy erection. There were even thin white bands as if the stigma had been scarred as he’d been.
“Use your tongue,
csitri
,
the way you would on me.” His voice went low. Sexy. Mesmerizing.
Her gaze jumped to his. She lowered her head to the open petals, still looking at him, her tongue stroking along that long, bulbous head and thick shaft. She licked under the head and down the sides, curling her tongue, pretending it was him. Wanting it to be him. Sharing with him that she wanted it to be him and not a flower.
The taste was all Dimitri—his mouth, his blood, even his skin. It was addictive, that spicy, vivid flavor that burst through her body and sent blood surging through her veins.
His eyes darkened more, the hunger building in them. His shaft thickened, the girth enlarging impossibly, the head leaking small drops of nectar. She licked her lips, craving more.
Dimitri held out his hand, palm up, for the blossom. She gave it to him a little reluctantly. Still holding her gaze, he lapped at the honeyed liquid along the filaments and ovaries of the flower.
21
S
kyler’s entire body went hot, tension coiling tight. She nearly groaned with wanting him. Everything about him was sexy, but watching him devour the nectar as if it was her feminine cream he was consuming made her go a little weak.
“Kneel back on your heels,
sívamet
, your thighs open for me,” he instructed. His voice went a little rough.
Her heart jumped and more liquid spilled between her legs. Keeping her gaze on his, she slowly sank down in front of him. The ground was covered in soft petals, cushioning her. He put the blossom right at the junction between her legs, so that the open petal caught any liquid spilling from her body.