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“No. Not as a teenager. I lost most of my friends when I transferred to Magnolia Heights my senior year, except Charlotte, because we worked together, and she’s an only child.”

“That explains a lot.”

Blaire leaned toward Lukas the way she had at the diner yesterday, and he put his arm around her shoulder. She sighed and turned her face into his long hair that lay over his shoulder and took a deep breath. She’d done that on several occasions at this point. Curiosity won out.

“Why do you smell me?” Lukas asked hesitantly. He didn’t want to embarrass her by calling attention to it, but he wanted to know.

“I dunno… I’ve always been drawn to your scent. Is it too weird?”

Lukas squeezed her shoulder. “Not weird. It’s the same for me. They explain it in our Korrena classes back in high school. I think it involves pheromones.”

Blaire looked up at him, and the proximity allowed him to take notice of her features better. She had the smallest triangle of freckles to the left of her eye.

“They say the scent of your pair is supposed to be stronger. Comforting.”

Blaire looked back at the photo album. “My counselor told me I subconsciously use your scent as a grounding tactic when I get upset and scared.”

“Counselor?”

“Yeah… in the psychology department. I’ve been seeing Professor Sinclair since not long after I arrived, to help me get past what happened with my stepbrother, and to understand my feelings about… all this.”

“All this?”

“The Korrena thing… you.”

Lukas pulled her closer, and she relaxed into him. They sat together in companionable silence, junk food forgotten. Eventually, Blaire pulled away from him and peeled back the clear film that covered the photo page and removed the photograph of her stepbrother and her. She held it out and then looked back at Lukas. She smiled, ripped the photo in half, and passed the pieces to him.

Lukas looked at the two pieces in his hands and closed his eyes.

If he could help her move past that ugly chapter of her life, he would certainly try.

22

DREAMING

Blaire startled awake in the night to find Lukas kneeling beside her on the bed.

She sucked in a sharp breath as he met her eyes in the moonlit room. He looked hungry, and she wasn’t sure exactly what for, but her body tingled in anticipation as she slid her eyes from his shoulders down his naked torso to his black boxers.

Lukas placed a hand beside her head, slowly pulling her covers down her body with the other as he leaned into her neck, breathing in her scent, making her shiver.

His torturously slow movements did nothing but ramp up the anticipation of whatever he planned. Blaire didn’t want to stop him; she wanted him to devour her. Done fighting whatever this was between them, she didn’t care. They didn’t yet know each other on a deep and profound level. This wasn’t about a relationship. This wasn’t about love. She wanted him. Needed him. The truth of that made her shiver.

Once the cover was down far enough, he glided a hand over her thigh before moving to the inner side and gently spreading her legs apart.

Moving his face down her body, Lukas leaned in, and kissed lightly over the bruises that remained, before dragging his tongue over the abused flesh, bringing a moan from Blaire from deep in her throat. She quickly put a hand over her mouth to silence herself in embarrassment, and partly, because she wasn’t sure she wanted to let him know what he did to her with such a simple action.

Lukas lifted his head, narrowing his gaze as he reached up to remove her hand from her mouth, pinning both of her hands in one of his.

They stared at one another as he hovered over her, in no rush. Blaire’s breathing grew uneven and heavy in the silence of the room; his eyes were unmistakably filled with need.

He slipped his tongue over his lips as he watched her, listened to her, and she swallowed hard.

Lukas drew his hand down the front of her t-shirt, between her breasts, and over her stomach, moving it away before reaching where she wanted him. Blaire let out a soft whine in wordless protest, and he grinned at her with his dark gaze fixed on her face.

He lifted her shirt enough to drag his fingers over the front of her panties, causing her to whimper and press her lips together to stifle the sound. His soft caresses over her body tickled and drove her mad.

Lukas’s face remained hard as he leaned down to her neck, his breathing deep and raspy. Releasing her hand and dragging in her scent through his nose, he worked his way down her body until his head lingered between her thighs.