“It was a long time ago. I’ve learned to cope.” Nash rubbed Abi’s back. “I didn’t tell you to make you feel sorry for me.”
“Not looking for a pity fuck?” Abi smiled. They needed to change the mood, although Nash’s story certainly killed Abi’s desire. But it wouldn’t take much to get it back.
“Baby, when I fuck you, you’ll beg for it.” Well, wasn’t that confident? Even though Abi wanted to take Nash down a peg by denying the claim, he couldn’t. Nash was probably right. The mating pull was too strong to deny.
All he had to do was hold out for two weeks. Long enough for it to fade, and then they’d both go their separate ways. It was a simple plan, really, but could Abi last that long? He doubted it.
Abi released Nash and stepped back. Their gazes met. Nash didn’t look smug. In fact, he seemed concerned, which threw Abi off. He would have sassed Nash under different circumstances. “Your physical reaction has nothing to do with scent?”
“Like I said, I can still smell, but I need to be close to something.”
Abi’s matings prior to Nash had all been scent-based. “My scent affects people.”
Nash shrugged. “The first time I saw you, I knew you were my mate. Even with your head down and your hands in your pockets. You looked as though someone had shit in your cereal, and I had an urge to hold you close and kill whoever wrecked your day all at the same time. But I’ve never been able to smell you until you sat on my lap at the arena.”
Hope bloomed, and that scared him. Nash could break his heart. Still, he couldn’t stop himself from admitting the truth. “I smelled you. Then I saw you. In that order. Your smell makes me hard. I still thinkyou’re stupidly handsome. You should be in jail for it. Very unfair what you do to me.”
Abi moved closer, sniffing the air, trying to catch Nash’s scent. They were a foot apart now, within touching distance.
“I should be in jail for a lot of things. A crime isn’t a crime if you don’t get caught.” Nash smiled, reaching out to touch Abi’s arm. He didn’t pull him closer, but just rubbed it as if he thought he was warming Abi.
“Agreed. But I think we’ve caught each other. Haven’t we?” That was the thing he couldn’t deny anymore. Not that Nash was or wasn’t his mate. Maybe the mating pull would wear off, and maybe it wouldn’t. But Abi wasn’t sure it mattered anymore because the attraction was very real.
“Everyone has always called me average.” Nash said it as though it was a foregone conclusion, as though ‘everyone’, whoever that was, had it right and Abi was the delusional one.
Abi snorted in disbelief. “No one calls you average, Nash.”
“You might have rose-colored glasses on, baby.”
“You’re the one who’s wearing glasses. Not me.” Abi rolled his eyes.
As if Abi had reminded Nash they were still on his face, Nash took them off and placed them on the vanity, which put a couple more feet between them. His eyes were still reptilian, and fangs still peeked past his smile.
Abi cleared his throat and tried to ignore the ache in his chest. “I’m going to take a shower.”
Nash nodded. “I’ll be right behind you. I need to wash off the ick of what we just witnessed.”
Abi nodded. Watching the fighting had been torturous enough that they’d left halfway through the first one. The helplessness of not being able to help the fighters escape was difficult; waiting even one more day sucked. “Yeah. That too.”
Nash gave him a knowing smile as if he was aware Abi’s shower wasn’t entirely about getting clean.
Abi narrowed his eyes. “What happens in two weeks when we stop reacting to each other?”
“What happens when we don’t? A better question is, what happens if we fall for each other, anyway?” Nash cupped Abi’s cheek. “This thing between us might have started with the mating pull, but that’s not all there is anymore.”
Abi really wanted that to be true.
Chapter Twelve
Nash still had his dress pants on but had taken everything else off, including his socks. He leaned against the headboard of the bed closest to the door and waited for Abi to get out of the bathroom so Nash could get in.
He listened to every sound Abi made while in the shower. It wasn’t very hard, even with the water pattering on the tiles. Unlike his nose, his ears worked the way a dragon shifter’s should. He heard every little thing—the shampoo bottle when he squeezed some onto his hands, the washcloth when he rubbed it over his body. Nash memorized every movement Abi made, listening for the exact moment Abi took himself in hand. But it never happened. No moaning or a soapy hand jacking off a cock.
Nash wondered why, right up until the shower shut off. Abi, still wet, walked out with nothing but a towel around his waist.
Abi had a bead of water trailing down the center of his chest, and his hair was wet. He was lean but muscular in the right places. His ass was probably the biggest thing on him. Not that Nash could see it since Abi faced him, but he’d gotten a good feel of it the one time Abi let Nash kiss him. Nash pictured how it would look, all bare and ready for his cock.
When Nash went to move from the bed, Abi shook his head. “Don’t read too much into this.”
