I was also eye level with his cock, and it took all my willpower to look up and meet his gaze.
“Hey.” It came out gravel-rough, but Talis either didn’t notice or purposefully ignored it.
“I’m here. So talk.”
Okay then.
I looked down, which was a huge mistake because it was right. Fucking. There.
Talis’s eyes flashed as he breathed in, and Goddess only knew what scents I was giving off. But seriously, if he was going to stand in front of me like that, with his dick in my face, then what did he expect?
Maybe now wasn’t the best time for this conversation. I opened my mouth to say as much, but Talis beat me to it.
“You say you don’t want me,” he said, voice deceptively calm, because his hands were clenched into tight fists. “Yet your body says otherwise.”
“You’ve got no clothes on, for fuck’s sake.Of course, I’m going to react to that.”
He let out a pained sound, one that hit me low in my gut. “It’s not just now, though. Every time I’m close enough to catch your scent, there’s a hint of arousal mixed in with it. And despite what I know in here—” He rubbed a hand over his heart. “—instinct tells me otherwise. I can’t…” He growled in frustration, the sound going straight to my cock, and I was helpless in the face of all that shifter hotness.
Fuck this. I shrugged off my blanket and stood. “Talis—”
“I still don’t get what happened between us.” He loomed over me. “I stuck to your rules, Axel. I never asked you for more than you were willing to give.Not fucking once.”
“But you wanted to.”
“I did. I always have done. But you knew that. You knew it when you led me out of the club and took me back to your house. I promised not to read more into it than just sex between friends, and I fucking stuck to that. So why…?” He dipped his head, closing the distance between us until I felt his breath on my lips. “Whydo you treat me like I asked you for the world?”
“Because Iheardyou!”
His forehead scrunched in confusion, and I wanted to claw back the words as soon as I’d said them.
“I don’t understand.”
Fuck.
I sucked in a shaky breath. “You might not have said the words, but I heard you loud and clear in here.” I tapped my temple. “Mine,” I whispered. “That’s what you said. What youthought,” I corrected. My heart thundered against my ribs, sweat breaking out along my spine as I braced for his reaction.
Talis took a step back, cool air rushing in between us where his warmth had been. “You’re saying you can read my mind?”
“Yes. Sometimes.”
He didn’t believe me.
I could see it in the way he looked at me and it stung.
It might be a huge leap of faith I was asking him to take, but we lived in a world of magic, for fuck’s sake. I wasfae. Was it so much of a stretch to believe me? To trust me?
I rubbed a hand over my eyes, needing a moment away from his piercing gaze boring into me. “I can’t control it this side of the gateway. It comes and goes, sometimes at the worst fucking times possible.”
He stared at me, and Goddess only knew what thoughts were going through his head. Of course, once again, when I’d give anything to be able to hear them, my magic was nowhere to be found. Maybe it was for the best. You’d think I would’ve learnt my lesson by now—I didn’t always like what I heard.
Instead of all the hundreds of questions I expected Talis to ask, he looked at me, green eyes full of desperate hurt that cut me to my core. “Was that really such an awful thing to hear?” he asked quietly.
“Yes.” I murmured, reaching up to cup his jaw, but he reared back like I’d punched him.
I stepped forward into his space again, drawn to him in a way I was becoming so tired of fighting. “Because in that moment, wrapped up in all your strength and warmth, Iwantedit, Talis. I wanted it with all my heart, and I’ve never been so fucking terrified in my life.”
He grabbed my shoulders, grip painfully tight, keeping me from coming closer or stepping back, I couldn’t tell. “Why?”
