“Love you too.”
I didn’t want to move. I wanted to keep him there, locked inside me, the way he was already locked inside my heart.
I had no idea what lay right around the corner for us, but I knew one thing for certain.
Dean Foster was a part of me.
Chapter Forty-Three
February 19
Dean
I discovered very quicklythat Luka became unfairly attractive when speaking his own language.
It wasn’t something he did intentionally. That was the problem. If Luka flirted in English, I could at least prepare myself for it. Velkaran arrived softer, lower in his throat, all smooth consonants bound up in a musical rhythm that drove me wild every time I heard it.
Especially late at night, when Luka was half asleep and not paying attention.
“You’re doing this on purpose now,” I muttered.
Luka glanced up from his phone. “Doing what?”
“Speaking in a language that gives you an unfair competitive advantage.”
“Over what?”
“Everything.”
“Velkaran doesthat?”
I nodded. “You make it difficult for me to remember what I was saying, probably because you’re using words that shouldn’t be allowed after midnight.” I pointed accusingly at him. “Especially when you already know what your voice does to me.”
Luka’s teasing, slow smile was adorable. “I said I was hungry.”
I gaped. “That makes it worse. How can something so boring have me wanting all your clothes to disappear?”
He laughed and set the phone aside. He’d stolen one of my hoodies earlier in the evening and now looked comfortable wrapped in navy fabric a little too big for him.
I couldn’t think of a single situation in which he wasn’t attractive.
“You’re hopeless,” Luka murmured.
“There.” I pointed at him again. “That. The voice thing.”
“First it was the impossible skating thing. Now it’s thevoicething?”
“When you switch languages your voice changes.”
Luka blinked. “No, it doesn’t.”
“It absolutely does. It gets...” I searched for the word. “Softer.”
He didn’t seem convinced.
“So teach me some more.”
“We tried this. Remember?”
