A blush touched his cheeks.Damn, how I loved a man who blushed.
“People believe what they want to whether it’s true or not,” he continued.“When they see my black hair, they assume my genetics are somehow defective—that I lack venom or the ability to run faster than a Mage.It’s a physical cue that something must be wrong with my gifts.Ethnicity has nothing to do with it either.Chitahs exist everywhere.It’s all about the hair, eyes, and height.If a male has blue eyes, does it mean they have a defect?Sometimes, but there’s no science to back it.In fact, I’ve seen a lot of generic Chitahs with all the desired traits who didn’t have fangs or couldn’t flip their switch.”
“Really?”
“You’d never know it by looking at them.So if anyone is passing on defective gifts to their young, it’s them.Females won’t mate a defect.A Chitah born without the ability to flip their switch, to produce venom, to scent emotions is nothing more than a human.Females don’t see a protector when they look at me.”
“That’s absurd.”
He scoffed and pointed a finger at me.“Like you guys don’t believe the same thing.The only difference is you don’t have any physical traits to base assumptions on.But you discriminate all the same.One of my packmates was turned away from her own family because of a defect.So tell me, who’s the asshole?Me or the rest of the world?”
“Maybe your curse is a blessing.If anyone is closed-minded enough to exclude you from their life, they’re not a person you want in your life.That makes all your friendships genuine.People are changing, Lucian.Maybe someday we won’t live in a world where everyone’s divided into groups.”
While Lucian came across as introverted, he certainly wasn’t quiet once you got him talking about a topic he was interested in, and I loved hearing his perspective.
“If you want to know my opinion,” I offered, “black hair is more striking on a Chitah.It makes your eyes shimmer like gold.”
He rubbed his chin on his shoulder and looked like he wanted to bolt.
I dragged the slack on the chain toward me until our fingers touched.“You can’t run from me tonight.”
A spotted pattern similar to a cheetah cat’s flashed across his skin—there one minute and gone the next.
“Do you control that?”I asked.
He shook his head.
“When you growled back at the jail, it sounded like a real animal.Deep and hollow.How do you do that?”
“We have fattier tissue stretched around the vocal cords.I’ve never done an autopsy on a person, but that’s how it works with wild cats.The vocal cords might be shaped differently.I haven’t been able to find many science books on our anatomy.”
I’d never been with a Chitah, but when he watched me with those catlike eyes, it made my tiger amorous.
He inhaled purposefully as if reading my thoughts.
I got up from my seat and sauntered beside him.Following my instincts, I ran my fingers through his soft black hair.A purr settled deep in his chest.
“You and I have chemistry.Do you remember when we first met?I knew you liked me then.”
He shook his head.
“When I smiled at you, your neck flushed with a spotted pattern, and for a split second, black rings pulsed around your eyes.In all my years, Lucian, I’ve never had a Chitah react to me that way before.”My fingers skimmed down to his nape and lightly stroked.“Scoot your chair back.”
Lucian sat frozen for a moment before sliding back.
How far will he go?
Maybe it was the wine, but I couldn’t ignore the sexual tension between us any longer.“Get on your knees.”
He sucked in a breath before rising from his chair and kneeling before me.
“I want you to stop calling me Councilwoman Eden.Or Miss Thompson.”
“What do you want me to call you?”
“Something that’s between us.In public, you’ll still address me formally, but don’t use those names while we’re intimate.”I cupped his chiseled jaw in my hands and decided to be honest with him.“Regardless of what you may have heard—and I’ve heard plenty of gossip around this town—I haven’t had sex in a long time.”I stroked his bottom lip with the pad of my thumb.“My animal is all but tearing out of my skin.I want you, Lucian.And I know you want me too.”
I didn’t need to be a Chitah who could scent emotion; I could see the desire in his heated gaze, the way his breathing accelerated, and most definitely by the growing erection in his pants.
