“Because of what you know. Your pragmatism. That strength of character and the sacrifices you have made for people. Like . . . me. Bringing me out here to help me find myself. I think you are the most amazing woman alive.”

“Oh, sure. Me and all my quetzals. I’m a friggin’ mess, Dek. I’m not even sure I’m human anymore.”

“You’re more than human. I figure you are the beginning and end of my universe.”

The look he gave her sent flutters through her core. Intimate, measuring, and compellingly erotic, it stirred something grown cold and lifeless within her. Damn, did she trust him? The guy was like a living contradiction. Charming and vulnerable, physically appealing with his smile, scar, and kind eyes, but she had only his word that the old Taglioni was dead and buried. Let alone that he had control of Demon.

“It’s all right,” he said softly. “I can wait.”

“Read my mind, huh?”

He tossed off the last of his whiskey. “I’ve got a lot more of you inside me than you know. And, no, I can’t give you a guarantee that I’ve got Demon forever whipped. But after the river? I know how to club him back into submission. I just haven’t figured out how to do it with finesse or on demand.”

“So . . .” She sipped her whiskey, having finished the last of the fishsnake. “Where do you see this going?” Damn, did he have to have such remarkable eyes?

He leaned forward, earnest gaze locked with hers. “It will go wherever you are comfortable going. Me, I want to hold you, cherish you, explore every last bit of you. I want to see if you and I fit together as seamlessly as I think we can.”

“And if we can’t?”

“Won’t know until we try. I came alive after that escape from the river. That was you and me acting as a team. I want to see if we’re heading to someplace fantastic.”

Her heart was beginning to pound. She felt the quetzals stirring inside her, that rush of the limbic system.

Oh, Talina, do you dare do this?

She stood, reached for his hand and pulled him to his feet. For a long moment she stared into his no-longer-human eyes, looking into those yellow-ringed depths. His lips met hers as he pulled her close.

The tickle in her loins flickered into that familiar glow. Her breathing deepened, the rush building as she pressed against him. As his tongue delicately teased hers, she realized that she’d never been kissed like this. The way his mouth worked on hers, the faint taste of peppermint and whiskey, electrified her.

Breaking away, her body pounding, she could read his desire, see the rising and falling of his chest. Actually feel the blood throbbing through his body.

“Come on,” she told him. “I’ve got nothing on my schedule for the rest of the day.”