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“What?” I whispered, completely lost in the conversation.
Bane laughed lightly, calling over his shoulder from somewhere in the stacks. “You asked me to grab you some of the grimoires, Lass.”
I gaped after him, then shook my head, trailing after him and peeking behind me as the secret door built into the bookcase silently closed itself, the seams disappearing. Shuddering, I moved slowly downstairs in a daze, going through the motions like a marionet.
I swallowed thickly, observing the way Bane’s pants clung to his muscular ass and the rhythm of his long tail swishing behind him like a metronome, the length and shape reminding me of a spider monkey’s. A sigh left me, my gaze lifting to his face, then sat heavily on the stool. “Can you leave me be for a bit? I can’t focus with you around.”
Bane smiled at Huff rolling around on the desk, all three tails wrapped snugly around his body. “Come with me, Wee Pest.”
A laugh snuck from me as six or seven more Heechus winked onto the wooden surface and stared at me with wide, pleading eyes. Gah, look at their absurdly cute faces. How could I say no to them? “You may all stay as long as you promise to be on your best behavior and not distract me.”
The Heechus gurgley-growled in reply, the tone sounding close enough to agreement to me, then rolled into one Heechu-pile, somehow even more adorable than a bunch of puppies sleeping in the same manner.
Hours later, I covered a yawn with the back of my hand, begrudgingly sending Bane a small smile as we stood just outside my apartment door. After all, he did offer to walk me home after I closed up the library for the night. He rested his forearm against the wood, the tilt of his head appearing a bit more sinister than usual.
No, not sinister…primal. Lethal.
My breath caught, and I licked my lips. Bane eyed them, a manic, heated glean entering his gaze. I cleared my throat. “Um, I just realized,” pausing as he bent his head to my neck, tracing the sensitive skin with his nose. “I…I don’t have a way to contact you. Do you have a phone?”
He chuckled, the combined sound and vibration scoring my insides shooting directly between my thighs. “Mmm,” he hummed, daring to rasp his fangs over my pulse point.
Spit it out Miko before you embarrass yourself and drip arousal on his talons.
“I’m not sure if that was a yes or a no,” I squeaked. “Either way,” I halted and inhaled, forcing my horny brain to concentrate as I shrugged my backpack off and hooked it over my elbow. “I’d like to at least agree on a time we can meet tomorrow?”
Bane growled. “That won’t be necessary,” he explained, closing his hand over mine where it had slipped into my bag. “I’m always watching.”
My fingers closed around leather. “Still,” I replied distractedly, not taking in his words or the tingling warning itching my lizard brain.
We lifted my journal free, our fingers lacing over the spine, and the amused rumble issuing from Bane abruptly cut off. I shot a glance at him.
“That’s not your journal.”
The next thing I knew, a scream split the air as Bane’s taut, muscular arms closed around me, the shorter fur there tickling against my cheek and the ground disappeared beneath our feet.
CHAPTER 16
Mirrors
MIKO
“Oofph,” I uttered as we collided with the ground. Ground that was definitely not the hard cement stairs by my apartment.
My hand patted around, searching for anything familiar and trying to reorient myself, only to jamb my finger against something.
“Ow,” a voice said, overflowing with amusement. “That’s my eye.”
“Shit, sorry.”
“Oh, I don’t mind. Not one bit, if it means you’ll keep straddling me.”
I absently noted the way my knees stung, something digging into my skin, and the ache brewing in my hips as if my legs were spread too wide. “Bane?”
“Mhm?” he replied, hands skimming my outer thighs and settling on my ass.
I sucked in a breath, pine sap practically shoving up my nose in the process. “Where are we?”
“Dono. And honestly, I don’t think I care,” he answered, punctuating the sentence with a roll of his hips.
