“Raum?” she whispered into the dark.
“Hmm?” He sounded mostly asleep, and she smiled.
“Will you shift for me?”
The sheets rustled as he rolled over, and she turned her head on the pillow to look into his golden eyes, heavy lidded. He frowned in question.
“Into your full demon.”
“Why?”
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” She suddenly felt embarrassed about her request.
“I didn’t say that. I asked why.”
“Because…” She turned her face to the ceiling, shying away from his direct stare. “I like you in that form. Your feathers are so soft, and when we flew together, I felt safe against them.”
“You felt safe.”
She glanced back at him, finding his face as inscrutable as the inflection of his words. “Yes.”
He hesitated, and she remembered his hesitation to shift in Hell, and how he’d made her promise not to scream. He probably thought she was scared or repulsed by him.
She turned onto her side to face him. “I already told you I think all your forms are beautiful, remember? It’s your fault if you don’t believe me.”
He continued scrutinizing her with that unreadable expression, not responding.
A moment later, however, he sat up and shifted.
The massive demon bird was suddenly taking up considerable space on the bed, his deadly talons digging into the blankets. His weight caused the mattress to sag, and she slid into him. He unfurled his four wings for balance as he tried to make space for her to move over, but she kept sliding right back under him. He flapped around while she struggled until she burst out laughing.
“Perhaps we should have thought this through better,” she said, finally managing to scramble out from under him. She climbed to her feet beside the bed, wrapping the blanket around her to ward off the chill from the cooling air.
Raum looked at her, cocking his enormous scaled head as if to say,Now what?He blinked, membranes sliding horizontally across his eyes.
“You get comfortable and then I’ll climb in beside you.”
He seemed to shake his head at her, but a moment later, he spread his wings, shifted his feet around, and then settled in the center of the mattress, folding his wings once more. He cocked his head as if waiting to see what she’d do.
Smiling now, she grabbed a pillow and crawled across the bed, tucking herself as close to his warm feathers as she could with the blanket still wrapped around her. He opened two of his wings, and she snuggled even closer, sighing with bliss as they closed over her like another blanket.
He nuzzled her hair with his beak, so she reached out and stroked the downy plumage of his chest. His head tucked against his wing right over her head, and she fell asleep with a smile on her face.
25
Little Ray Of Sunshine
“Raum…”
Sunshine was on her knees, gripping the headboard to keep from collapsing as he took her from behind. He grasped the wood beside her, strong hands next to hers, defined muscles flexed on his forearms.
“What do you want, angel?” He nuzzled her hair, and she tipped her head back against him. Her head spun from pleasure until her body felt like it would burst.
Turning her head, she looked into his eyes. “I want you to shift.”
She was sore when she awoke that morning, but she had discovered her angelic healing abilities had another useful purpose. It was the work of a moment to take care of any lingering tenderness, and all that was left was the tingle of sensitized flesh.
Raum’s movements stilled, hands clenching around the headboard. He searched her gaze. She found it sweet that he was concerned about hurting her, but she was tired of waiting for this.
