The Vandar stared at me with such intensity, his dark eyes flashing something raw and hungry, that I forgot to breathe. My mouth fell open as his brows knitted together as if he wanted to ask me something. Then his gaze drifted to my lips, and my knees wobbled.
Kolt had looked at me in many ways since I’d first encountered him. He’d looked furious when I’d tried to stop him and the other Vandar from taking Jasmine. He’d looked impatient when he’d untied me on Lexxona. He’d looked annoyed when he’d realized we were locked in the same cell together. And he’d looked briefly amused when we’d bantered about escape plans. But this look was something else entirely. This look wasprimal and possessive and so unlike the slightly hostile Vandar I’d encountered before that I didn’t recognize him in it.
As his arm snaked around my waist and jerked me closer to him, alarm bells went off in my head. The Kolt who’d made it perfectly clear he didn’t like humans and was only tolerating my presence would never do this.
Those thoughts fled my brain the moment he crushed his lips to mine. If I’d had any intention of resisting him or pushing him away, those intentions melted away as he parted my lips with his tongue and deepened the kiss.
Fucking hell, who taught this Vandar how to kiss?
I moaned into his mouth as my arms wrapped around his neck of their own accord, my body reacting entirely on its own. My legs went boneless as he lifted me off the ground, walking me to the wall and pressing my back to the stone. Muddled thoughts fought their way to the surface even as pleasure made reasoning impossible.
What in the thawsoft hells was happening?
When I wrapped my legs around his waist, and he ground something incredibly large and hard into me, my brain snapped back to reality. I tore my lips from his, gasping for air.
“What are you doing?”
Kolt blinked at me, his expression dazed. “I am kissing my mate.”
That slapped the remnants of the pleasure haze from me. I pulled back even farther. “I’m not your mate.”
He instantly released me, and I dropped to the floor, theimpact of my feet on stone rattling my teeth. Then he backed away, blinking deliberately. “You are not my mate? We are not…?”
I shook my head, my already warm cheeks now blazing.
He raked a hand through his hair and winced. “Then why did you…” he flailed a hand at me, “kiss me?”
My embarrassment switched agilely to anger. “Me kiss you? I didn’t kiss you. You kissed me.”
He opened and closed his mouth a few times. “But…but…you kissed back.”
I didn’t want to admit that it would have been impossible not to kiss back. I’d never had anyone kiss me with so much passion that I’d lost the ability to think or breathe or control my own body, but when Kolt had kissed me that’s exactly what had happened. And there was no way I would ever confess that.
I tried to change the subject. “Why would you say you thought I was your mate? You know exactly who I am and you know very well I’m the last person you’d want as a mate.”
Confusion flickered across his face. “I do not know you, and I think there are many people I would desire less as a mate, starting with the warriors who brought you to this cell.”
Was he messing with me? No, Kolt might be a cocky, annoying Vandar, but I’d never known him to be anything but obnoxiously honest.
I pushed aside my embarrassment about the kiss and stepped closer to him. “What do you mean you don’t know me?”
He took wooden steps to the bench and sank onto it, dropping his head between his shoulders. “I do not know you because Ido not know me. I don’t know who I am or why I’m here or why I’m here with you.”
His somber tone told me he was serious. I sat next to him, eyeing the tough warrior who suddenly looked scared. My gaze snagged on a bloody patch on the back of his head, and the pieces slatted neatly into place.
“I think you hit your head,” I told him gently. “That must have dislodged your memories.”
He tilted his head to look at me, his brow furrowed. “All my memories?”
“You don’t remember anything?” I asked, trying to keep the shock from my voice.
He bit his lower lip before sighing. “Only instincts and feelings, which is why I kissed you.”
My breath caught. “Your instincts told you to kiss me?”
He twitched one muscled shoulder. “My gut told me you meant something to me.” The corner of his lips quirked. “And another part of me told me that I desired you.”
I gave him what I hoped was a quelling look. “Well, I can help you fill in some of the blanks, but the first thing you should know is that we aren’t a thing.”
