“I didn’t kill anyone.”
“We know that and I’m sure your mundie townies know it as well, but this seems to be an uncommon occurrence. Stress tends to run high and rational thinking isn’t used often when someone is stressed. Don’t pay it much mind.”
I put the can of green beans into the basket Lucien was holding. “You haven’t left my side at all. For someone who hates mundies you aren’t taking measures to stay away from me. How can you be so hot and yet so cold?”
“Are we talking about my looks?” Lucien asked with a smirk that made my heart tingle.
I pushed playfully at his arm, making him chuckle before a more serious expression ran over his face. The air became thick again as he backed me further into the shelf of canned goods. Slowly I stared up at him until our eyes met and the air left my lungs. The golden pools were bottomless as I fell into them and his lips were just close enough that if I stood on my tiptoes, I could discover exactly how they felt against my own.
“Lucien?” My voice was no more than a whisper, but it felt as though his name was a proclamation in the canned food aisle.
“I’ve been fighting against this bond and my urges since that night we met. You don’t understand how hard I fight to keepmyself from doing something that you might regret. Even now, in this torturous mundane store,” he growled with caged lust in his tone. I could barely focus as want filled me completely. I wanted so desperately for him to act on these impulses. “I want to taste every part of you. Your blood, your skin, your lips, even the more sensitive areas that would make you blush as you are now.”
“Oh my,” I gasped when it struck me what he meant. My cheeks burned even more from both him and the heat of the eyes on us. “We’re in public.”
“You asked the question. I’m simply obliging mymate. If you don’t like me talking then perhaps you have other ideas on what my mouth can do to appease you? These bored little townies could use a show,” he replied teasingly while running his fingers down my arm.
The touch sent hot sparks through me. I knew he was playing with me, but a part of me thoroughly enjoyed the game he was playing.
Would he be able to stay this confident if I were to play? The image made my toes curl in my sneakers.
Lucien’s breath tickled my skin, pulling me back to reality. “Do you have a desire to feel my fangs?”
As he spoke, his teeth grazed my ear and his tongue darted out following with a more heated reaction. Grasping his jacket for added support for my weakening legs, I started breathing heavier. My forehead pressed against his chest, feeling the soft fabric of his shirt. Though he was solid, I felt like I was falling through the air.
“You devil,” I hissed. His laugh reverberated against me, his arms enclosing around me. The scent of his cologne bit at my nose, but I didn’t mind. I was actually enjoying this moment with him.
So, I asked the question I had on my mind since this morning. “Am I so terrible that you continue to hold yourself back?”
“Yes,” he answered all too quickly. “The bane of my existence and yet my ever growing reason for existing.” His grasp tightened and the words he spoke were low, meant for only me.
I wasn’t sure if my heart could take the distance our clothes created when we were practically melted together, but then again I had never had a mate before. These feelings were new and yet familiar all at once. It made it hard to separate anything from my raging desire for him.
“I never thought I could value something more than myself. That feeling alone is terrifying, yet you elicit it so freely. The more you smile, even the more you act irrationally for a human, I find myself slipping. I’ve known you for such a brief time, but my soul has known you since creation.”
“Lucien, you—.”
“I have fallen prey to a human. To you, Melinda Hardgrave.”
His words knocked the breath out of me. I would’ve stumbled into the shelf if he wasn't holding me. Men don’t just say things like that in this world and hearing it now gave me a flurry of butterflies in my stomach. My heart beat was just as rapid, making it hard to focus on anything other than the hammering sound of it in my ears. The dull music of the store faded with the world.
“It seems I’m having to hold myself back as well," I confessed, knowing he could hear every reaction he caused.
“I can hear your heart racing,” he mused as his fingers ran back up my arm, confirming my assumption. I didn’t move as he continued testing that line that seemed to thin more and more in my presence. I traced the gestures of his face with myeyes in an attempt to distract myself from his touch moving across to my chest. His hand hovered over where my heart raced and I saw a flicker of desperation when he felt how fragile I was. “I could break you or even kill you. Does that frighten you?”
“I could kill you before you did so.”
His laugh had me pressing my knees tighter together and I made the mistake of finally looking into his eyes—the one area I had avoided. I knew what would happen, but I was powerless against this force. I realized then that I didn’t care anymore. I didn’t care who looked at me or what they thought.
I was giving into this bond before it drove me mad.
Grabbing his shirt, I stood on my tiptoes and pressed my lips against his. The kiss felt as otherworldly as he did, like a chasm of sensations that I had fallen into. Lucien growled hungrily against my lips, his hands placed on the shelf behind me as he struggled to contain himself. The jars rattled against each other. The sound fading into nothing again just like everything else had. Except him. I felt him everywhere and yet, it was notenough.
When my hand began to roam down to his chest, I pushed away from the kiss with a gasp. Lucien watched me carefully, giving me control of what would happen next. Almost every part of me was screaming to continue that kiss, to let my desire run rampant while a smaller part of me knew I should wait.
I needed to wait. There were questions I had as well as an ignorance to his world I needed to resolve. What if I allowed myself to get lost in this concept of mates and it doesn’t mean the same in his world as it does here?
“This is dangerous." I sighed before turning around to allow myself to gain better control of myself. His arms disappeared from beside me and I heard his footsteps retreat to give me distance.
