Monthly Bonus Content #4—Taste of Temptation (Falk Valentine's Special) (Patreon)

The water swirls with threads of silver from the moon above. I twirl my finger into the pool, the clear liquid surprisingly warm considering the early time of year.

It’s an odd place to meet. In the middle of the forest, a small moon-bathed glade surrounding a trickling waterfall that dribbles into a small pond. But I can’t deny the romance of it. If some gothically romantic figure springs out of the depths of the trees, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised.

But instead, the only figure which emerges is Falk’s lithe form adorned in a thick velvet coat embroidered with metallic threads, as though the stars have fallen from the sky to dust him in sparkle.

“Where do you even find clothing like that living in a cave?” I ask from my place sat at the pond’s edge.

A smile tugs at his pale lips. “The more you come to know me, the more resourceful you will realise I am, [Name].”

My body shivers in delighted reaction at my name spoken from the depth of his liquid voice.

I clear my throat and stand, brushing some strands of grass from my outfit. “You wanted to meet me here, but you didn’t state why.”

“Do I need a reason beyond just wishing to see you?” he asks as he approaches. His boots barely part the grass as he seems to glide over it.

I lift a brow. “I…suppose not.”

He chuckles as he nears even closer. “You seem surprised. Have I not made my interest in you apparent enough?”

“It’s just not exactly something I’m used to,” I state, approaching him in return. We stop when there is a few feet between us, as though getting too close might break past a wall neither of us can continue to hide behind.

“Having people interested in you?” He shakes his head and raises a taloned finger. “That is something I cannot believe.”

I roll my eyes with a smile. “Having someone be so forward about it. Generally speaking, most humans aren’t exactly open about how they feel.”

“Then you have been in the wrong company for far too long, meor’dal.” The final word seems to take form and land on my skin like the lightest, most tempting kiss. He glides over the grass, breaking past the wall, and stopping only inches from me.

My breath—once chill from the early winter air—grows hot and ragged with him so close. “And you think your company would be so much better?” I tease.

His talon draws a very careful trail up the arc of my neck before his finger rests beneath my chin. “I only care what you think, meor’dal.”

“What does that mean?” I ask, holding his eyes, captured by the intensity in them.

“It means that I value you,” he murmurs, drawing closer until his breath washes across my neck. “It means that you tempt me.” My eyes flutter closed as his lips whisper millimetres from my skin before drawing them up to my ear to whisper. “It means that I wish to be yours.”

I lick at my lips and draw in a shuddered breath, opening my eyes to meet the dark intensity of his. “That’s a lot of meaning for one word.”

“If words are not enough for you, then I am more than willing to show you,” he offers.

I rest my hand on his cheek, careful not to cut myself on the sharpness of his cheekbones. “I’m not sure this is going to end well for either of us.”

“Then let us not think of the end.” His lips cover mine and steal away my breath, my thought, and my heart.

I grip my hands into the softness of his coat to drag him even closer. If bad ideas had a taste, they would taste like him.

But it’s so worth it.

We tangle in a mix of hot breaths and need, until I can barely even remember there is a world outside of this one we have created together.

I only draw back when my lungs beg me for air.

His eyelids hang heavily, further tempting me in. “You have my heart now, meor’dal. Do with it as you will. But be gentle with it. It already bears too many scars.”

I kiss him again with the fervor his words inspire in me. My heartbeat beats in frantic unison with the pulse of his thumping against my chest pressed to his. It seems my heart is as much his in return.

We draw apart with obvious reluctance and I watch as he sinks into the pool’s reflection and disappears.

I lean against the tree behind me, trying to steady my breath, and wondering just what I’ve done.

Yet still I smile brighter than I ever have before.