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“Don’t take that as an insult, Aura. I simply mean you refuse to acknowledge a part of who you are. A part I happen to be.”

“I’m a vampire. My biology is vampiric. Always has been.”

“Yet you ended up naked in my territory with no idea of how you got there. I highly doubt you ran all the way there, completely naked, in”—he gestured—“that body.”

This time the heat rising in me was clearly not from anger, but from the way his gaze trailed over my body.

“One of your eyes glows when your emotions surge.” He pointed to his right eye. “It also glows when you have a Heat spike.”

My lips tugged down. “What the hells is that?”

The mattress creaked under his weight as he sat down. “It’s …” He sighed and shook his head, staring down at his cup. “Gods, I wish you could talk to a lycan woman. But from what I’ve heard and seen, in the weeks leading up to Heat, there are more fluctuating emotions. A spike is a sudden, intense rush of desire. Sometimes it hits with strong cramps. Which seems unfair. To have pain and pleasure coexist in one moment like that. I could never be a woman.” He lifted his glass of nectar in a mock toast.

I tilted my head at him. Truth, my senses said. He smelled genuine. Robust. Safe. I felt my pulse twitch in my wrists and remembered the way his thumbs had swept over them.

“Aura.” Sylvan’s tone was a clear, but gentle, warning. “You hate me, remember?”

“Of course I hate you.”

He exhaled loudly and ran his fingers through his fawn curls. “You’re just … All those feelings, the attraction, it’s your body trying to tell you it needs something.”

“And what’s that?”

“Sex.” The smirk was slow, and gods, the glint in his eyes should’ve been absolutely outlawed, because it sent molten heat throughout my entire body. Embarrassingly, my thighs clenched together, and I stepped back, colliding with the window.

“You vampires are so uptight. It’s natural, and the feelings will pass. Are you sure you’ve not experienced this before?”

“I think I would’ve known if I did,” I said. Gods, I hated to admit this. “Alright, I have. Just not like this. Not nearly as strong.”

“It might be because you’re in my presence.”

Such bloody egotism. “Kindly get the fuck off your high horse, sir,” I said.

His laughter rang throughout the room, and my toes curled. What the hells?

“I don’t mean because I’m so irresistible. My pheromones respond to yours. It’s in my biology as much as it is yours. A lycan approaching Heat becomes …” He seemed to be thinking of an appropriate word to say. I expected him to be crude about it, to try to shock or shame. “Hard to resist.” I must’ve looked relieved at his choice of words, because he added, “Are all vampires prudes?”

I smirked. “Ask the two vampires I kicked out of my bed—at the same time—just weeks ago.”

That wiped the smile right off his face, and a particular scent drifted toward me. Jealousy?

“As fascinating as that is,” he said, tense, “that’s not what we’re here to talk about. We’re here to talk about you getting in touch with your lycan side.”

“I don’t want to get in touch with my lycan side. I want to keep it at bay.”

“But—”

“Do not make me repeat myself, De Lacy.”

Silence passed between us before he said, “You can’t control your lycan side without being in touch with it. You can’t keep it at bay when you don’t know how to tap into it. It just doesn’t work that way.”

“Then you’re wasting my time.” I rushed past him, heading for the door, but before I could even get my hand on the knob, his fingers were looped around my wrist. He tugged me back, and I snarled at him. The smile that took over his face was the most infuriating thing.

“The snarl was a nice touch. Very lycan.”

I grunted as I shoved him as hard as I could. He took a step back, but it was controlled. As if my blow had been no stronger than a gentle breeze. I shoved him again, and he took another step back. Then again, and again. With the last shove, he plopped down onto the bed and pulled me atop his lap. I fell gracelessly, nearly tumbling, but his arms wrapped around me, enveloping me in warmth.

My breath caught, and before I could filter what I was doing, my hand crept up his chest to settle against the base of his neck, and he practically jolted.