"I want you to stay where I can see you," Felicity told Voss. It would have been easy to let the wolf think she was frightened of her husband, or let Victor think she'd had her fill of the wolf. She wanted both of them to hear what she actually meant. "If I want you to come inside with me, I'll be the one to open the door."
Voss pulled the blanket up onto the dry part of the ledge and stayed outside. "I'll be looking forward to the day you get tired of windows, then."
Beside her, Victor laughed so quietly she felt it through his ribs. "He's going to be an absolute bastard about polishing that glass."
She had a sudden picture of Voss turning up for morning duty with a squeegee, and she had to press her face into Victor's chest to keep from howling. He wrapped his arms around her and laughed with her until the last of the nerves went. That was what she had wanted the most, she realized. She could tell this man something she'd never admitted to herself, and five minutes later he could still make her laugh naked.
She settled across his thighs, facing him this time. The cold had raised bumps along her arms. His wing came up at once, warm along her bare back, and she put her hand on the joint to keep him from closing it all the way. A little gap stayed open on the side facing the window. She liked the feeling of being able to hide there. She liked choosing how much of her the wolf got to see.
"How much does it bother you?" she asked Victor. "I heard what you said in the street about other husbands. You looked like you'd rather pull your own teeth out than have the conversation."
"I'd like every first you have left," he admitted, moving a strand of her hair away from his mouth. "I'd also like to be the man you come and tell when you want something new. Turns out I can't have the second one if I'm an ass about the first."
Felicity took his face in her hands. "You were the first person I wanted to tell. Do you have any idea how hard it was to say it with your fingers down my pants?"
"I thought I did reasonably well under the circumstances." He kissed her, and his smile gave way under her mouth. In the glass over his shoulder, she caught the pale reflection of one crooked wolf ear. Voss could have gone downstairs and left her wondering whether he'd liked her answer. He had stayed where she could see him, even when all she wanted to do was talk to her husband. That did something to her that showing off hadn't.
She tugged Victor's shirt over his head and helped him out of the rest. When she settled over him again, it was at a pace that let her enjoy the stretch after the tender ache of their first night. He let her set it with her hands on his shoulders. The mattress slid across the floor and bumped the loose frame. Glass rattled in its tracks with all the discretion of somebody dropping a tray in church. Felicity stopped dead.
On the far side of the glass, Voss put the toe of his boot against the loose frame. "I've got the window, little fox. You two might want to keep that mattress away from the other three."
She couldn't help laughing into Victor's kiss. The shock of it moved her hips, and the pleasure cut her laugh short. Victor gathered her closer. Her breasts brushed his chest on each stroke, and she could see by the red of his eyes how little of his control he had left to spend. For once she knew exactly what she wanted without anybody having to show her.
"Hold me there," she told him, catching his hand at her hip. He did, and when she came against him she let herself make the sound she'd swallowed in the playground. He followed with his mouth against her neck and his arms tight around her. Through the space beside his wing, she saw the wolf turn his face a little, shaken enough by the sound of her that for a moment he couldn't meet her eyes.
She bit Victor's shoulder lightly when she could breathe again. He still had her, and for a little while she was happy to sit with her cheek on his skin. Voss pulled the door almost closed against the cold. Before his face disappeared behind the frame, she thanked him for staying. "Next time you bring me a blanket," she added, "you can give it to me yourself."
He passed it through the gap. She took it from his hand, and his thumb brushed hers in the thick wool. It was the only time he'd touched her all evening. She knew by the look he gave her that he'd be thinking about it when he went downstairs. So would she.
Victor tucked the blanket around her. They could see the tower's red light over the rooftops from the mattress. She thought she might actually sleep until breakfast, a luxury she wouldn't have thought possible that morning. Then a chair scraped on the floor below, clear enough for her to hear a man ask his partner if it was safe to go back to finishing his toast.
The answer was a helpless little cough, followed by the sound of several men trying very hard to keep quiet. Felicity looked at the open ventilation grille beside the mattress. Victor followed her gaze. She couldn't quite read his face before he turned to put out the light. She'd invited one wolf to watch. How many men was she going to have to pass the butter to in the morning?