My heart beat bruisinglyhard.
When I still hadn’t gotten out of the cab, August strode over. He opened the car door, and since I hadn’t released the handle, drew me right out of the taxi. I stumbled, my bouquet toppling onto the black pebbles lining thedriveway.
He caught one of my wrists and steadied me. I think he asked the cabby if I’d paid, and I think the cabby answered, but maybe I was imagining them having a conversation. All I could hear was my thundering pulse. All I could feel was August’s thumb pressing lightly into myvein.
Was I too young to have a heartattack?
August smiled a little wider. “Shifters don’t get those,sweetheart.”
Shoot. . . I’d voiced my pathetic deliberation outloud.
His thumb stroked the inside of my wrist, and my skin broke out in goosebumps.
Remembering I wasn’t supposed to make contact with any part of August, I wrenched my arm out of his grip. Where he’d touched tingled and burned. A lot like my navel. Did his navel feel as though it was forever tumbling through a dryer set on the fastest and hottest setting? I would’ve asked but then thought better of it. If his abdomen didn’t feel that way, then I’d just be confessing to being one intensely hormonalgirl.
August crouched to retrieve my fallen bouquet. I took it without touching his fingers and nestled it against my heaving chest. As he straightened, he returned his hands to the pockets of his grayjeans.
“I’m sorry.” He tipped his head to my wrist. “I didn’t mean to break therule.”
I tucked the bouquet closer, probably injuring the petals. “It’sokay.”
“You look beautiful tonight,” he said huskily. “But if you could avoid wearing dresses and the color red while I’m banned to touch you, I’d be reallyappreciative.”
My lips bent with what I hoped looked like a smirk and not anI’m-about-to-melt-at-your-scuffed-bootslook. “We’re back to discussing muumuus, huh?” A gentle breeze twisted the hair I’d spent a long time blow-drying straight. “I haven’t forgotten youradvice.”
A firefly buzzed around August’s stubble-coated jaw. “It wasn’tadvice.”
The vibrations of his deep voice had the goose bumps, which had started receding, make a brusque second appearance. I seriously needed to calm down before entering his parents’ home. Which remindedme. . .
“How much do your parents know about . . .everything?”
“Everything.”
I almost choked on my own saliva. “They know I spent the night at your place?” I whispered, praying my voice wouldn’t carry to Nelson’s lupineeardrums.
“No. But they know about the mating link, and they know how I feel aboutit.”
Heat wrapped around my collarbone and neck like a rampant vine. “Are theyhorrified?”
He stared at the sprinting pulse point in my neck. “Why would they behorrified?”
“Because I’m so much younger, and like a little sister to you, and you held me in the maternity ward.” I said all of this in onebreath.
“Hey . . .” He stepped closer, and his heady heat scent enveloped me. “First off, age doesn’t matter. You’re not a kid anymore, Ness. You’re a woman and I’m a man, and that’s all that matters. All thatshouldmatter. And if anyone ever makes a derogatory comment to you about our age gap, then send them my way, and I’ll set them straight. Secondly, you arenotrelated to me, therefore youaren’tmy little sister. And yeah, I held you in the maternity ward, and yeah, back then I didn’t think I was holding my mate, but apparently I was. How many people can claim they saw the person meant for them come into this world? Not many. So I’ll always cherish that, and no, it doesn’t color the way I think of you today.” His words were so quiet they tangled with hisexhale.
His exhale which I tasted on my partedlips.
“Fuck.” His pupils bled into his gold-green irises. “How long are we supposed to stay away from eachother?”
I smiled, even though my pulse felt like it had hitched a ride on a fighter jet. “You give your mom that hundred dollar billyet?”
His pupils retracted. “Not yet. I was waiting for you to witness the donation.” He tipped his head to the house. “We better go inside before I break all the rules and take you back tomyhouse.”
A breathy gasp escaped me, and that little sound made August’s gaze flick to mymouth.
He shook his head as though trying to clear it of any dirty thoughts. I assumed that’s what his jerky movement was about since I had my fair share of brand-new steamy scenarios scrolling through mymind.
We didn’t speak the whole way up the path. He gestured for me to go ahead of him inside the house. The scent of simmering tomato sauce and caramelized onions hit my nostrils, awakening my hunger for something other thanAugust.
