Page 46 of A Trial By Blood

“What?”

“My skin feels tingly, and there’s this…this electricity in the air around us,” I said. “I’ve never felt anything like it.”

“I feel it too,” she said and bit her lower lip. “And I’ve never felt anything like it before either.”

I turned, searching the car, looking into the back seat, out the windows. “What is it?”

“It’s you and me. It’s chemistry,” she said, her cheeks growing pinker.

“I don’t understand.”

“You like being with me, yes?”

“Yes.”

“And I like being with you.” She licked her lips a fourth time, and a low groan slipped out before I could stop it. Her throat worked, and she lowered her eyes before they came back to mine. “That’s what you can feel.”

“Is it?”

She nodded, but I still didn’t understand. Usually, I would keep questioning her until I did, but this time I didn’t. I couldn’t explain it, but my gut was telling me to stop. So I did.

She opened the car door, and I managed to stop myself from reaching for her.

“I’ll see you in the morning?” she said and climbed out.

“You will.”

“Bye, Ronan.” Then she shut the door and walked into the house.

I turned on the engine and backed out, but then I pulled over on the side of the street, shoved my door open, and using my power to conceal the car and me, I walked in after her.

I couldn’t leave. Luna said Rose was my mate. Mates should be together. I’d seen enough of them to know that. Did Rose know we were mates? Did she feel this awful sensation in the pit of her stomach when we were apart?

The house was quiet when I walked in.

Everyone was in bed. All except Rose’s mother. Rose was bidding her good night. She jogged up the stairs and I followed her. Should I let her know I was there? But if she didn’t feel the same pull as me, to be together all the time, would she send me away? I didn’t want to leave.

She walked into her room and shut the door. I followed.

Rose disappeared into the bathroom, and I walked in after her. She gripped the edge of the basin and smiled wide. I couldn’t look away from her. Why was she smiling like that? Was it something her mother said? Or something else?

With a little huff of breath, she straightened and pulled her sweater over her head, then her shirt, followed by a tight band of fabric she wore under it. I froze in place. My eyes locked on her pale skin. She shoved down her jeans, and I curled my fingers into fists at my side.

She reached back and undid the scrap of fabric that covered her breasts and tossed it aside, before hooking her thumbs in her underwear and shoving them down.

Rose stood naked in front of the mirror.

This was wrong.

I shouldn’t be here.

But I couldn’t make myself move. The heavy weight behind my zipper became a steel rod in my trousers and pulsed hard. I squeezed it without thought and shuddered. I didn’t usually touch it, not like this. But it ached, and the drive to ease it was impossible to ignore. I sucked in an involuntary breath, even though I didn’t need to breathe.

High on her back, between her shoulder blades, her wings unfurled, pearlescent, and shimmery, delicate and gossamer fine. Beautiful. Rose, her wings, her sleek body, her curved hips, her breasts, and her ass, as Relic and the hounds would call it, every part of her was beautiful.

I recognized beauty now. Easily, when it came to Rose. It was impossible to look away. I didn’t want to.

My balls throbbed and my shaft pulsed hard. I squeezed harder and groaned—