Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 2

it tickles."
    Tammas nodded, all seriousness. "It's not like a dragonfly's at all, though it looks it. So much more flexible. And this joint, here," he ran his finger down the side of the wingstalk, "the way it folds is remarkable. In and down like a housefly's, but with the full range of motion." The finger slipped up to the thicker, bright silver vein at the leading edge, then followed it all the way down to where it trailed off into hair-thin feelers, black as night.
    Aeron's skin pebbled on that side of his body. He chuckled. " Now I feel like an insect in a jar."
    "There was never an insect like this." Tammas had that faraway look in his eyes as he ran four fingertips down the translucent, smoky membrane and over tiny cross veins. "It doesn't feel like it should be able to support your weight."
    "It's never let me down before."
    Whether he'd heard him or not, Aeron couldn't say. Tam slipped his fingers beneath the lower vein, then back to the wingstalk again. His warm hand found the soft skin of the under joint, flush with blood pumping into the wing and a hundred times more sensitive than the inside of his elbow or knee; difficult to get to, and for good reason. A warm, ebullient liquid sensation filtered from the point of contact through Aeron's blood, into his middle where it collected, heating steadily. He let his eyes flutter closed and silently hoped Tam wouldn't stop.
    "It's so soft, too." Tammas was almost whispering now, talking to no one. Aeron lost track of his fingers as Tam ran them back and forth over the thick vein and joint. "But strong."
    "So is skin," Aeron said with some difficulty.
    "I suppose." Tammas stroked from the joint, under the wing, away toward the tightly curled feeler.
    Aeron sighed in disappointment.
    Tammas paused. "Oh gods."
    "I hate when you say that. That always means you think something terrible is about to happen."
    "I didn't hurt—?"
    "Do it again," Aeron said. Then, as an afterthought, "If you want."
    Another pause.
    Aeron glanced at him.
    Tam's mouth hung open. "I— I mean... do you... want? Maybe I shouldn't, um..."
    Aeron rolled his eyes and looked back up at the sky. The heat in his belly still spread; his cock had begun to swell, and it would torture him now. He knew mortals played for fun, too. Rumor had it some of the Court thralls were kept just for that purpose and that they were even more interested in sex than their fae masters.
    In any case, who would want to play with an insect in a jar? Tammas wasn't a normal human. Or maybe he was, and the ones in Faerie weren't. Either way, they weren't the same; either way, Aeron was a curiosity. He sighed. "Never mind. Tell me more about—"
    A hot hand, feather-light again, caressed the lowermost vein of his wing, moving slowly to the wingstalk joint. Tam tickled the thin, elastic skin beneath once more, brushing his fingers over it one after the other, then back again.
    Aeron shivered and hummed in approval. His nipples hardened, and the rush between his legs intensified. Maybe there was something to this fondness for humans as play-friends, if they all had hands like Tam's. And he didn't just find the spot and keep at it, either— Tam moved away, running his fingers up the middle of Aeron's back, to the nape of his neck, where they wound in his hair and raked gently at his scalp. Aeron's eyes drifted closed again, and he barely resisted an urge to rub up against Tammas like one of the Queen's prized lapcats.
    "Your hair feels like— like silk," Tammas whispered. "Your skin, too. I don't understand how— how..."
    Aeron hummed again. "How what?"
    "How you're not a dream I'm having."
    "Why not?" Aeron was purring like that lapcat, by then, and he didn't care. "You were a dream I had. Maybe we're both asleep, me in my world, you in yours."
    "I don't want it to be. I'm sorry I wrecked your life with that summoning spell. If I'd known, I wouldn't have done it, I swear. But... Please don't hate me, but I'm not sorry you're here."
    Aeron opened his eyes, considering. There was a strange energy about Tammas just then, something he'd only felt in brief flashes before, usually at night by the fire. It wasn't an "I want to play naked with you" energy, not precisely. Something as deep and serious as his dark eyes and gentle voice. Aeron had no name for it, as he'd never encountered its like before.
    It beguiled him, though. He let the thoughts slip out even as he had them: "In truth, I don't think I would've answered the