He smirked and held out his drink, waiting for me to toast. “Lucky for you, you can have them whenever you want now.Gan bei.”
“Gan bei?” I took a mouthful, my lips a little numb and cheeks a little warm. I hadn’t started slurring yet, and the mountains stayed upright, so I wasn’t that bad...hopefully.
“It means cheers.” He shot me a smile. “It literally translates to dry cup.”
“So...Mandarin is your first language.”
He nodded and closed his eyes.
We fell into companionable silence again. The urge to take a nap right there made my eyelashes heavy, but Whisper yawned and suddenly sprang to his feet. Prowling to the other side of my lounger, he planted both paws on the edge and went to spring—
“Don’t even think about it.” Lucien didn’t bother opening his eyes. The damn man had a sixth sense when it came to the panther and his mischief-making. “There’s not enough room for both of you.”
“Aww, I don’t mind.” Inching to the side, I patted where my legs used to be. “There you go, tiny tabby.”
Whisper smirked and leapt up, flopping down beside me. He was almost as hot as his master. I smooshed his giant face, pressing a kiss on his perfectly healed nose. “You’re adorable and I love you.”
Lucien growled under his breath. “You know...I got irrationally furious at him for falling in love with you in Cinderkeep.”
I froze mid-scratch. “You did?”
His gaze met mine, inky hair falling seductively over his forehead. “That damn cat abandoned me the moment he set eyes on you. He left me to suffer alone while he slept in your bed.”
I chuckled and tugged on Whisper’s ear. “What a little traitor.”
Lucien huffed. “Either that or you’re just lethal. To both of us.”
The air shimmered with heat as his voice lowered. “It wasn’t just him who fell for you, though. Seems I hit the ground so hard, I’m still recovering.” He took another drink. “From the first moment I met you...I knew you were trouble.”
My heart wobbled. My soul flew. And I didn’t know if I was drunk on wine or him. A few stray snowflakes danced in his heat, cancelling us both out.
“You ran in the wrong direction.” He stared into his glass as if his thoughts were back in Cinderkeep. “Everyone else clung together like frightened sheep, yet you bolted alone. I remember thinking you were either an idiot, up to something, or just plain suicidal.”
“So...” I giggled, warm and fuzzy inside. “What you’re really trying to say is...you fell in love with me at first sight?”
“I felt something, that’s for sure.” He flashed me a savage smile. “It was probably just indigestion.”
I matched his grin. “Probably.”
Looking at the happy panther pressed against my legs, he ran his finger over the lip of his cup. “When Whisper dragged me to heal you that first time, I genuinely considered killing you.”
I choked on a mouthful of plum sweetness—or was it apple.
He chuckled and took another sip. “I wanted to kill you, not because you were like them, but because you weredifferent.You were annoyingly not like the rest, and I didn’t know what to do with that.”
“I recall you said you kept me alive because I was, what was the word you used...‘infuriating?’”
“You were. Youare.”
“Meh.” I tugged Whisper’s velvety ear. “It worked though, didn’t it? I’m still alive and now you adore me.”
He ignored my quip, staying firmly in the past—almost as if he needed to tell me how he felt back then. “The day you started cleaning for me, I didn’t want to leave the room while you were there.”
“That’s because you probably thought I’d steal something.”
He scowled.
“I’m sorry,” I snickered. “Please...go ahead. Tell me all the reasons why you never let me out of your sight when I was in your quarters.”
