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Miles wasn't laughing at me. He was smiling at me.

“You can't hide that easily.” His smile faded and that spine-tingling intensity returned to his expression. “I smelled you the moment I walked into the room.” His gaze wandered briefly to my neck, his eyelids fluttering almost imperceptibly. “And your rapid heartbeat...”

My heart was pounding against my chest. Non-stop.

It sounded like he wanted to say something else, but he left it at that, and his gaze lingered on my neck before slowly wandering up to my lips.

If I were to play with them now, open them slightly...

Goosebumps spread agonizingly slowly across my neck, and the fluttering sensation in my stomach was becoming more and more unbearable.

It was his lips that parted slightly, just a crack, and I thought I heard him sigh softly, sending a tingling sensation deeper down between my legs.

My chest rose and fell in a tremor, causing my lips to part of their own accord as I found myself drawn to his searching deep brown eyes, which immediately met mine, mirroring the desperation, the confusion I felt pulsing inside my chest.

My heavy breathing was audible, uncontrolled, just like my heartbeat and the heat in my face.

His gaze drifted back to my lips, and mine to his.

The moment I realized I was staring at his lips was the moment I remembered who I was. Who he was. And that I had just had the most inappropriate thoughts I had ever had.

I pushed Miles back, and his expression changed instantly. Surprise, confusion...

“I really wasn't planning on running into you today,” I said, trying to sound as casual and disinterested as possible, while my pounding heart played the traitor.

Miles continued to stare at me, and the silence between us created an extremely irritating tension, causing me to stare back at him, the heat on my face becoming unbearable.

I would never tell him how good he looked with his messy, unkempt hair. Or that his chin-length hairstyle made him look even more masculine…

My thoughts were going around in circles. And I didn't like what they were filled with. It scared me that Miles had managed to make me think that way. Feel that way.

“That's a shame,” he eventually murmured, his voice barely above a whisper, and it sounded so incredibly sincere. “I've actually been looking for you.”

His words instantly made my heart beat faster, and I felt my hands begin to tremble.

This stupid hormone-driven body. Couldn't it see that I was standing in front of a Ruisangor?

My father, Nash, Mica, Dimitrio, just about any other Senseque – except my idealistic uncle, of course, or my childhood friend who had been tamed by the witch neighborhood – would have already held a gun to Miles's head.

“To continue harassing me?” I finally managed to get out, glad that at least my brain was still functioning.

“To talk to you, Emely.”

I swallowed hard.

That hurt. It hurt like hell.

Good thing he would never know what his words were doing to me right now.

He wanted to talk. About something serious. Something heavy.

But as soon as he brought it up, the topic would be out in the open. It would have a name. And I was afraid of that.

It was better if he didn't say it out loud.

He was my rival, and that was what he was meant to be. Anything other than that was fundamentally wrong.

“There's nothing we need to talk about,” I forced out with my last bit of sanity.