Had she gasped?Lucian had been so startled by her provocative gaze that he’d completely ignored her emotional scent.He put immediate distance between them, afraid he might have offended her.
It wasn’t until moments later that the scent of her arousal had hit him like a sledgehammer.
Eden’s warm skin glowed like desert mountains at dusk, her eyes as soulful as a harvest moon.His thoughts lingered on that moment again: his tongue on her silky thigh, her slender fingers tunneling through his hair.He fantasized about pulling down her cotton shorts and going higher until she moaned and gasped his name.
Lucian… Lucian.Her whispers filled his head the way blood rushed to his shaft.This time he didn’t suppress it.
His cock was throbbing, so he pulled it out of his trunks and softly teased the head.
He ached for that female.An intelligent, beautiful Shifter like her would never give him the time of day, and her unattainability made her all the more desirable.All he knew was the way his body reacted in her presence—the way he couldn’t stop thinking about her.And this wasn’t a recent phenomenon.
Lucian had arrived in Storybook with a shaved head, and he’d gotten used to not having any hair.It wasn’t until Atticus and Joy were mated last year that he started growing it out.Why?Because of an offhand remark Eden made.She’d suggested that she’d like to see him with short hair, but that wasn’t the whole story.During the mating ceremony, she had given a heartwarming speech.Despite the swell of emotions in the room, he caught despair in her scent.He hadn’t stopped thinking about it since.
She yearned for love.
He stroked himself, remembering the feel of her fingers in his black hair.
She approved.
If only Deacon hadn’t shown up.Last year Deacon had knocked him out, shaved part of his head, and made sure the bus left without him, all because he didn’t want a Chitah in the pack.It didn’t come as a surprise to Lucian that people felt that way about him, but it pissed him off enough that he’d hitchhiked the rest of the way to Storybook to prove to that asshole he wasn’t going to win.
When Lucian scented Eden’s arousalafterDeacon’s visit, it left him uncertain.Was that scent left over from when he healed her, or was she turned on by that dunderhead?When she suddenly began calling him Mr.Cross, he knew he’d fucked up.
You don’t go around seducing the gods.
It didn’t get any higher than the Council or other law enforcement.
“Fuck.”
He imagined taking Eden, pleasuring her with his tongue until she begged him for more.His whole fantasy disintegrated when he remembered Deacon’s smug face peering through the glass door.
Lucian tucked himself back into his trunks and turned on his side.Intrusive feelings of rejection were creeping in.
“Just forget her,” he mumbled.
His mind blanked out like a clean chalkboard.Lucian had always struggled with insomnia, so he slept whenever possible.Usually a few hours here and there, often before everyone went to bed.Everything filled his head at night.Thoughts about the past, the future, and little things that happened during the day.This was the crux of his problem—not being able to shut it all off.
Then his mind blinked awake, remembering the worried look in Eden’s eyes when she mentioned someone showed up at her door and harassed her father.
Lucian’s canines punched out—all four of them.She was unprotected out there.Did she have a strong wolf?
He opened his eyes and rolled onto his other side.
Is she even a wolf?
Lucian didn’t have a clue.Animal types didn’t matter on a Shifter Council, but usually it reflected the territory they worked in.If there were more bears, the Councils had bear officials.He thought about her movements and traits.Even Shifters couldn’t always spot their own kind, but sometimes subtle characteristics were present.
He recalled the way her sultry eyes flashed down at him when he was on his knees.
Fuck.That look undid him.
It wasn’t a helpless, fearful reaction.Her feline gaze was alarmingly familiar, and it had shaken his inner animal awake.
While Chitahs didn’t shift into animals, their primal side was fused to their human one.Because their physical traits and behaviors mirrored the wild cat, they’d begun using the Chitah name long ago, only they spelled it C-H-I-T-A-H to make the distinction.When their switch flipped, a dark force took control.It usually happened when protecting a loved one or fighting, but occasionally it occurred during sex.
Lucian didn’t trust his inner animal.He didn’t understand that raw emotion, so he feared it.What if those repressed emotions exploded into something uncontrollable and deadly?Lucian needed control, and that was something Chitahs relinquished when going primal.It was akin to sitting in the passenger seat and watching the most primitive side of your brain take over—the part that couldn’t speak or understand language.It only knew how to react.
His fangs receded when he remembered Eden’s touch, the way she petted him and the unexpected purr that had resonated in his chest.
