Kissing experts claimed that the moment before a kiss—where gazes collide, where the world vanishes, where anticipation reigns—was where the actual magic resided.
And then there was theafter-kiss.
Like a medicine that had its recommendations and its warnings, all written in tiny letters on a piece of paper that everyone ignored. Nobody warned you about the emptiness that existed after the lips were forced to separate.
I’d lost count of how many times I had traced my lips with my fingers. So much so that I’d probably left a micro-trail around their contours.
I could draw the contours ofhislips.
Zeus must have thought that I was having stress-induced tactile hallucinations. The animal looked up at me from the floor in my bedroom, his hairy head resting on his front legs, tail tapping the carpet as if to nudge it awake and get it to fly him away from his crazed owner.
With my left hand, I played absently with the necklace around my neck. I’d been analyzing its every little detail for such a pathetic amount of time that I wasn’t going to reveal its length for the sake of my pride. Though I might have used a microscope, too.
Back at the party, I’d been so lost in the kiss, so consumed by my mate, that I hadn’t even noticed when Logan had clasped a necklace in place around me. It was only when its coldness tickled my skin that I found the surprise there waiting for me, right after the party.
The delicate chain was broken up every few inches by small, silver-encrusted hoops, and a tourmaline stone in the shape of a half-moon connected the chain to the clip.
My thumb rubbed over the pendant where anLwas engraved on one side.
As sweet as the gesture was, I couldn’t solve the puzzle that was my mate. After a long, grueling morning in the hospital and one lunch with Lachlan and Amaia later, I didn’t have an ounce of brainpower left to focus on it… And that was something that had always come easily for me, like flicking a switch.
My mate had broken it. Slammed it with a hammer.
Which was a problem, since the Advanced Anatomy midterm exam was a few days away, and I needed to kill it. Yet all I could hear was my wolf whimpering and my heart pounding too loudly to be considered healthy.
I finally gave up after chewing through three pen caps that didn’t deserve that end.
“Why don’t we stop for today? We’ve been at it for hours now.”
Or rather, you.
Makena glanced up at me from where she sat on the floor, surrounded by a plastic human body and several fake organs, then giggled at my pout.Her pen wasn’t chewed!
I had confided in Makena that I’d found my mate.
Her reaction had been one of sheer glee, with loud, lewd jokes about how explosive sex would be with the Terminator, how funny it would be to watch mouths drop to the floor when my family heard the news, and so on. And on and on.
She had a theory: Logan had left the party so he didn’t mark me in the middle of the dance floor, and/or to avoid a showdown with my twin so close to the game of the year.
“I knew your head was somewhere else,” Makena said.
Long, shiny legs crossed over her silver velvet shorts. My mate’s eyes flashed in my head. I scowled. Great! What would I do when the sky was cloudy next? Hide inside, or would I think of his eyes again?
“Mine would be too, if my mate was a sex god.”
My head snapped to her and a growl burst out through my lips. I cupped my mouth right after.
“Never thought I’d see you jealous.”
“Not jealous. I guess the right feeling is…possessive.”
She typed on her phone, then showed me the dictionary website. “See? Synonymous.”
I needed to change topics. “And how’re things with Gaius?”
“Ah! He’s been pounding me so well lately!” She closed her eyes, stretching her arms up.
“So the answer is…good?”
