Theglaringlybut also completely unbelievable obvious.
Because what she was thinking wasn’t possible.It couldn’t and shouldn’t be possible.
And yet…
Sephie turned slowly until she was able to look at Ranulf’s guarded expression.
She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue, reluctant to actually voice what she knew was a wildly speculative conclusion, but also knowing she couldn’t let the moment pass.“Are you the same Ranulf whose carvings are in galleries and private collections all around the world?”Her mouth had now gone completely dry with how insane she must sound.
“Yes,” he confirmed quietly.
Sephie winced.“Just the most recent ones or…” She swallowed, couldn’t believe the ridiculousness of what she was about to say, at the same time as she knew she was going to ask the question anyway.She closed her eyes briefly before opening them and continuing, inwardly praying Ranulf wouldn’t think she had completely lost her mind.“…or all of them?”
He didn’tlookas if questioning her sanity was his first thought.
In fact, he looked completely calm and unruffled by the impossibility of her thought process.
He opened his mouth to answer her.
CHAPTERNINE
“No!”Sephie placed her fingertips against Ranulf’s lips.“Don’t answer that,” she pleaded.“At least, not yet.”
“Okay,” Ranulf accepted, happy to go along with whatever his mate requested of him.
Unless it was to distance himself from her.Which he wouldn’t and couldn’t do.
But the flush in her cheeks and the brightness of her eyes told him she wasn’t going to ask him to do that.
She swallowed.“Does the ‘everything’ you’re shortly going to tell me have the potential to drastically change my perception of life as I’ve known it?”
“Yes.”
She gave an abrupt nod, as if that was the answer she had been expecting.“In that case, there’s something I would like us to do first before you—before we?—”
“Yes?”If it was in Ranulf’s power to give her what she wanted, then he would.He would do anything for his mate.
“I would like you to kiss me again,” she told him with a challenging lift of her chin.
Except maybe that!
Because one kiss wouldn’t be enough.It would never be enough.
“Not if you don’t want to, of course?—”
“Of course I want to!”Ranulf lowered his head, and his lips claimed hers, fiercely, possessively.
Mine, mine, mine,his dragon possessively echoed Ranulf’s thoughts.
* * *
The way Ranulf kissed her was deep and hungry, igniting an inferno of desire and want inside her.That hunger was underlined with an even deeper emotion, one that claimed Sephie asminewithout a word being spoken.
As Sephie was pretty sure that was true, she didn’t even try to fight it.
In truth, the taste of Ranulf had taken control of her the moment their lips touched.It was a combination of fire and heat, if fire and heat had a taste, and as far as Sephie was concerned, they definitely did.An erotically smoky and sensuous taste that captured and held her in its grip.
Her arms clung about Ranulf’s neck when he lifted her in his arms and carried her over to that huge couch, kissing her the whole time, never breaking that physical contact for a single second.
