Excerpt: Sorrow (working title)

From behind the cover of trees, he watched Siari weave the last of the pale golden nalale blooms into a crown. Chase, watching her, smiled bemusedly, then said something that made her laugh and shove him gently, as if teasing him. She placed the crown on her head, around the bun of woven dreadlocks she had pinned her hair into.

One of the blossoms immediately drooped down over her forehead to brush against her eyebrow. She pouted emphatically, and when Chase laughed she did as well, her face even more beautiful as her mirth spilled forth. Talon wanted to reach out and brush the blossom from her forehead, to tuck it back in with its fellows and replace its touch with his lips; ever since that night in the fae enclave when she had danced with him until dawn, he had felt an intensely physical connection to her, an attraction that haunted his dreams and came into his waking hours with startling intensity and frequency.

Chase reached forward and, rather than tucking the stray bloom back into the crown, plucked it out; he tapped the flower lightly against Siari's nose and smiled. She pretended to snatch at his hand, but her slow, exaggerated movement made it clear that she had no intention of actually trying to retrieve it from him. When she lunged forward, he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her in for a kiss.

Her entire body softened against Chase, and the hand that had been extended rested now against his chest, her fingers spread wide and her palm pressed firmly to him. When they parted, it was only for a moment, and they exchanged no words, only a look that, even from his vantage point, Talon could see the promise of.

Chase tossed the nalale flower aside as Siari leaned forward again, embracing him. She did not even look at the bloom.

But Talon did.