It was fully dark outside as they made their way toward the car, and the car lights cast ominous shadows against foliage as he reversed down the driveway. She almost thought that the lights kicked back off red-tinged eyes, but when she looked again, she could not see them. The moment, however, raised the hair on her arms, and sent a shiver of unease through her.
The gates closed behind them, and he eased the Ute down the street. She looked up at him, scrutinizing his profile in the shifting light. There was an odd conflict in how she felt about Raiden, she thought. On one level, he was so familiar and safe, and on the other, so new, and unknown. She did not know which sense of him to trust, and it left her feeling unbalanced. She wanted to trust him.
She wanted, she thought with a shock, the future that he would give her. She wanted to share that future with him. She wanted a yard full of werewolf children chasing fairies whilst she and Raiden hosted a barbecue populated by loved ones.
He glanced at her and smiled, reaching out to take her hand. “Tell me your favorite band.”
“What?” She looked at him, startled by the question.
“Who do you like to listen to?”
“Hidden Citizens,” she said. “And Hey Violet.”
“Hey,” his grin widened. “So do I.”
She laughed. “No way,” she said with mocking sarcasm.
“Yes,” he pressed a button on the stereo and a song by Hey Violet blasted out. He adjusted the volume. “I’m not lying.”
She flushed, oddly pleased that they shared a taste in music, and embarrassed that she had thought he lied. “You know that doesn’t help things,” she said. “That you like the same music, is strangely sexy.”
He slid her a look out of the corner of his eye, and grinned. “Point on my scoreboard.”
“Honestly,” she sighed heavily. “There’s not many minuses.”
“Is that so?” The gold of the Other flashed in his eyes as the streetlights reflected.
“Your family is wonderful, you have an amazing house, and obviously a good job, you open car doors, and offer rides home. You are polite, and interested in what I say, I like you, and you are sexy as all hell,” she ticked them off on her fingers. “And I mean, I can barely stop myself from stripping your clothes from you in front of your mother, sexy. You worry about getting me home, so I get to class tomorrow on time, and now you like the same bands…”
“I am still at the stripping me in front of my mother part,” he replied.
She giggled.
“Well, good,” he said. They were approaching her street. “Because there are negatives, Lia. I just hope that the positives outweigh them.”
“No one is without negatives, Raiden,” she replied. He was a werewolf and thought that she did not know it. She was a witch, and she was sure that he did not know. That was a conversation for the near future, if this went where she was hoping it would go.
He pulled into her driveway and killed the lights. “We are just people, ultimately,” he turned to her. “I hope this is just the beginning for us, Lia. Are you going to invite me in?”
“Yes,” she did not hesitate. “I want to sleep with your skin against mine.” She saw the flare of the Other in his eyes as his lips curled, recognizing his own words.
“Strangely enough,” he said, softly. “I feel the same way.”
They went into the house quietly in case Paris and Cael slept, and he opened the door into her bedroom. They were more confident this time, taking turns in the bathroom, and sliding into bed in their skin. She reached for him, lifting her mouth to his, the kiss heating between them, and their bodies pressing against each other with need.
“Lia,” his voice broke on the word, and she felt the tremor through his muscles and knew what he wanted. It was the same thing that she wanted, and yet without contraceptive, she hesitated. He pressed his lips against her cheek. “It is alright. No hurry.”
She closed her hand around him and felt him moan, and his hips move, thrusting into her grip. The Other was vivid in his eyes as he kissed her, and she wondered how it was that humans could miss it. There was something beautiful in the shine of it, that it quite stole her breath. “Lia,” her name was a prayer on his lips.
He lifted over her, positioning himself in the v of her legs, and thrusted his hips with a moan, simulating sex without the penetration. He rubbed against her in this position in the most delicious way, and she clenched her legs together as she lifted her hips into him. She could see his stomach muscles working to hold the position and move against her in just the right way.
Sex, without it being sex, she thought stroking down the ridges of his arm muscles. Just one shift of angle, and they would cross that boundary. That she knew he would not, was as erotic as watching him above her, the sweat beading over his brow, and his eyes losing focus as he sought his release against her. She felt her body crest the edge a moment before he did, and grasped his hips against hers, pressing up against him to prolong the contact.
He gasped out his release, his seed striking her intimately. She stroked her hands down him back and over his arse, feeling the tremble of him, as he came, until he sank heavy over her. She pressed her lips against his shoulder.
“I think you might need to change the sheets tomorrow,” he chuckled against her neck, kissing the pulse point beneath her ear. “Though if you want to sleep in them, I wouldn’t mind. I like to smell myself on you and that’s certainly one way to do it.”
“The other way is to stay in my bed,” she whispered, a subtle hint, she thought, that she knew what he was. “Isn’t it?”
“Yes,” she felt a stillness settle over him, a tension as he wondered and then denied that she would know what he was. She wanted to tell him, inched her way towards the confession, but was unsure how to begin, and too long conditioned to silence. “I would like that too.”
“So would I.”