I shoved him away, but he was like moving an oak. “Then I’ll find my own source.”
Ethan watched me, his eyes narrowing. “Why is feeding from me bothering you so much?”
“First of all, you’re being an annoying dick about it, so there’s that.”
Ethan grinned, which sent my heart lurching.
“Second, I told you Cernunnos is too curious about you.”
“So you want to save me, little vampire?”
“Ugh. No. Right now, I want to stab you.”
His grin turned into a low-throated chuckle, one I’d never heard before. I almost stepped toward him before I stopped myself. This is why I couldn’t hang out with him.
He made me want things I could never have.
“He senses something different about your blood.”
Ethan stilled. “Does he now?”
I shrugged. “Is there something you want to confess?”
He snorted and stayed silent.
But I wasn’t finished. “Aren’t you worried if I taste you, I’ll find out what he’s so curious about?”
“And if you do?”
I threw my hands up. Ethan was hopeless. “What if he finds out through me?”
He tilted his head. “You’d tell him?”
I clicked my tongue in annoyance. “Of course not. He has other ways of finding things out.”
“Like when he whispers sweet nothings in your ear during intimacy?”
“We are not speaking of such things,” I snapped. “I don’t ask about your intimate secrets. Don’t ask about mine.”
Ethan’s eyes turned molten gold flicked with specks of midnight blue. “Unlike you, I do not have intimate secrets. My life is celibate and has been for years.”
My breath caught. “Ethan.”
Shifters need physical contact to stay grounded in their body. Sex and touch to them were imperative for survival.
His smile this time was humorless. “I see the worry in your eyes, Moira, but it is unnecessary. I am not on the verge of losing myself.”
I moved closer to him, reaching my palm up to cup his cheek. “How?”
His hand covered mine. “I never found anyone I wanted to share myself with.”
I was about to drop my palm, but he held my hand firm. “Until you,” he added quietly. “Knowing Cernunnos touches you is driving me slowly mad. Knowing I was the one who drove you to him makes it worse. Every night I think about?—”
His nostrils flared as he dropped his hand. “I am sorry. I did not mean to?—”
I shook my head. “This is the most honest you’ve ever been with me. Do not apologize.”
“Speak to Cernunnos,” he urged.
