Her blue eyes, so similar to Luca’s, gleam with unshed tears, and that coupled with her beaming smile has my stomach churning. Rejecting Luca is one thing, but Mrs. Taylor is such a sweetheart. A fierce warrior in her own right, but also kind and loving.
I can’t help the twinge of guilt at how I’m going to reject her only child and what that will do to her. I glance over her head at Luca, unsure of how to handle the situation. His dad is patting him on the back as if he has achieved something worth congratulating.
And rather than helping me, Luca is beaming. Carefree. Genuine. A smile I haven’t seen in years. I want to slap it right off his stupid, beautiful face.
“Um, we haven’t accepted the bond,” I say tentatively. Of course, they’re already aware we haven’t. Our scents haven’t changed. We don’t bear each other’s marks.
“Yet,” Luca adds. “We’re going to spend some time getting reacquainted with each other again first.”
“Oh, but you’ve always known each other. Why the wait?” Mrs. Taylor asks. Her voice falters, and I can’t watch her lip quiver. I glare at Luca. It’s not fair of him to get her hopes up this way, only for me to smash them to the ground.
“It’s okay, Mom. I’ve got some making up to do. Well, a lot of making up to do, actually. But I promise you’ll be the first to hear when I win my mate over.” Luca speaks softly. Like his mom is an injured animal that could bolt at any moment. Or perhaps that’s me. And I’m not sure how his words lands with me. It’s the closest he has come to admitting fault.
Nearly an apology, but not quite.
“Come on, my love,” Mr. Taylor says, placing his hands on his mate’s shoulders. She melts into him, and my heart clenches at the comfort his touch brings her. That’s what I want. A mate bond where I can rely on the other person. A mate who is steady, who offers constant support and won’t up and leave me.
“Let’s leave them to it,” he says, urging her towards the door. “Lovely to see you, Sofia. You’ve grown into an impressive alpha female, and we will be proud to have you as part of the family… when you’re ready.” He smiles at me, and a lump forms in my throat. I watch them walk away, hand in hand, until Luca stands beside me and puts his arm around me. I roll my shoulders to shrug him off.
“You’re setting them up for heartbreak,” I mutter.
“What happened to giving us a try?”
I shake my head and let out a humorless laugh. “You’re joking, right?”
His brows scrunch in confusion, creating deep furrows on his forehead. The muscles around his eyes tighten, causing his gaze to become more intense and focused.
“The ends justify the means with Ryan,” I say. “I’m okay with upsetting him down the line if it keeps him sane. And unless you want to take your best friend out and step up to the role of alpha, I suggest you make this look convincing. Think you can pretend to tolerate my presence until Ryan gets over himself and takes a chosen mate?”
I raise an eyebrow in question and take in the intensity of how he is gazing at me. Time stretches, and the silence between us becomes uncomfortable. But he continues to glare at me.
“No, I don’t think I can pretend to tolerate you,” he grits out, his tone filled with steely determination that slices through me. He really can’t even act like he doesn’t think I’m an annoying little sister he wants nothing to do with. He steps into my space, and I suck in a breath, bracing for him to put me down. Again.
But the air around us is charged with an electricity I can’t begin to understand. He leans in closer to me. His breath on my neck makes my skin pebble and the hair on my neck stand on end. He’s all predator and stupidly attractive.
“I can’t pretend totolerateyou, Sofia. ‘Tolerate’ doesn’t begin to cover what I feel for you.”
He presses his lips to the curve of my shoulder, right over my marking spot. A shiver courses through me. My knees buckle withthe intensity of the desire that shoots through me, but Luca snakes an arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him and keeping me upright.
My hands come to his chest, and I push him gently away. This is going to be torturous. Living in his space, his scent infiltrating my being all the time, his stupid sexy moves that have me wanting to give in.
Maybe I need to screw him and get it out of my system. Or maybe that would make things even harder.
“This is fake, Luca. You do realize I don’t want to actually give us a try. Right?”
Something akin to hurt flashes across his face, but it’s not like he cared when he was the one hurting me. And the expression is gone as quickly as it arrived, replaced with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.
“Fake as it may be, we do need to learn how to act the part. Better decide what the limits around others are now. Newly found mates usually can’t keep their hands off each other. We’re going to need some ground rules,” he says with a waggle of his eyebrows.
I want to throat punch him. Even more so because he’s right. We need to keep Ryan’s condition quiet and the only way we can go from an attempted rejection to moving in together is if we look as though we’re working things out. If we want to sell this, we will need to look and smell like we are together. Fuck. Thank the Goddess for Doc giving me heat suppressants because this is about to become my own personal hell.
Living with my mate, having to act as though I like him when others are around, the need to smell like him. This is going to killme. Because, yeah, I can’t stand Luca’s personality, but he’s still the most breathtakingly beautiful male I’ve ever laid eyes on. He’s still sexy as sin. He’s still the first crush I ever had. And there’s all that history. All the times he was kind and generous.
My wolf preens, delighted by the forced proximity to our mate, ecstatic at how this place smells only of him and me. But I can resist him, right? I can totally share a living space and act affectionately with my fated mate without getting attached.
“What do you have in mind?” I ask with a sigh as I step back from him and stretch my arms out, trying to relieve the tension in my back and shoulders.
Luca gazes at me, his eyes melting into the silvery hue of his wolf.
