“Millie—”
“I dosee,” she said. The sad smile that tipped up her lips made me want to raze my claws through the trunk of the bleeding tree behind her, a violent impulse that surprised even me. She patted her hand against my chest, the movement oddly dismissive and cavalier. “You don’t have to worry about what happened a couple nights ago—the kiss. I know it meant nothing. I’m happy it happened because it felt right in that moment. But I know it was just…one of those things.”
“One of what things?” I growled, losing all lingering amusement. I’d been ready to come here tonight to tell Millie everythingshewas telling me. Only she was beating me to it, and it fuckingachedmore than I’d expected it to. I didn’t like it. Not one bit.
“I’ve kissed enough men throughout the Quadrants to know that they don’t always need to meananything,” she informed me, shrugging. “It was impulsive and fun. Nothing more. We shared a nice moment, and that’s all it will be. I understand. You don’t have to worry about me following you around like some lovesick puppy after one little kiss.”
Lovesick puppy?
Visions of her kissingenough menflitted through my mind, and…I didn’t like the way that made me feel either.
“I know who I am,” she said, patting my chest again. “I know who you are.”
Why did this feel like a dismissal?
My hackles rose. Pride too, perhaps.
“It didn’t mean anything to you?” I asked, snagging her hand from my chest, intertwining her fingers with my own. “Have you not thought about it? Have you not replayed it over and over and over in your mind since? Because I have.”
A shuddering, surprised breath blew from her lips. She hadn’t expected me to admit to that. It was written plainly on her face. I liked taking her off guard. I liked shocking her.
“I want to feel it again,” I said, lowering our hands to the side so I could step against her body. Desire, frustratingly urgent, rushed through my blood. My fangs were already elongating, my mouth watering for her taste. She was so small against me, so warm. A little heartbeat against my belly.
I wanted to make a liar out of her.
So easily she thought she could dismiss me. Didn’t she know? My pride burned bright, and I would not be leveled by a maddening, beautiful human woman of all beings.
A flicker of anger sparked in her eyes.
I pressed her against the tree, dipping my head. She turned her face, and my lips landed across her cheek. It didn’t deter me—I trailed my mouth down, skimming the tops of my fangs across her neck, more of a tease for me than for her. I was physically shaking with the control that took, and I knew I was playing a dangerous game, one I might not win.
“You’re betrothed.”
Those words drew me up short. I lifted my lips from her neck, my unfocused gaze steady on her.
“No,” I said dryly. “I’m not.”
She blinked. I dipped my head, skimming my mouth across the corner of her pink lip. Then I kissed the tip of her nose, across her cheekbone as she processed those words.
“You’re not?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
“Satisfied?” I growled, trying to stop my hands from trembling. But I remembered that brief hit of her blood storming my senses. The strength. The power. The fear. I wanted it again but knew I couldn’t have it. That made me all the more desperate. “Would it really matter even if I was? You want me too,sasiral.”
That gaze burned. “Of course it would matter.”
“Liar.”
She gasped, but I threaded my hand into her hair, pulling so her mouth was raised up to me, her neck exposed.
I studied her like this. Her chest heaved, her back bowed into me. There was a slight edge of a glare in those wide hazel eyes, a glare that made my lips curl and my cock hard. I’d feltferalever since I’d tasted her blood. My mood had been black. This moment was the best I’d felt since that night in the cottage.
“Kiss me,” I ordered me. “Show me how little it means to you.”
I lowered my lips until they brushed hers. A taste. A tease.
