Page 75

“Which is good, because maybe the guys who were chasing me didn’t either.”

“How the fuck did you jump out?”

“I can’t hear you that well,” he told me. “Lift your head and look at me.”

But I couldn’t, I really had to focus on breathing. I’d never passed out in my life, but I thought this was probably what it felt like.

“Deacon?” He sounded worried now, and his fingers were carding through my hair.

I was going to hyperventilate.

“Love? What’s the matter?”

Rolling my head on the steering wheel, I looked at him, or tried to, but he was blurry through my tears.

“Listen,” he said, his warm hand now on my cheek, and his voice had changed, going soothing and slow, “I swung the door open as it flew across the intersection—lucky it was clear, by the way—and rolled free all the way over there.” He pointed across the street, but I didn’t look. I had to keep my eyes on his face, making sure he was real, but I knew he meant to the left, by the underpass.

“How did you do that?” I whispered.

“I’m very fast.”

I stared at him. I was afraid he’d disappear if I even blinked.

“You’re scaring me.”

That was funny. I would have laughed if I could. If I had air in my lungs.

“Deacon?”

I was watching him so carefully, needing him to stay.

“Love,” he said, sounding nervous, even wary. “Your eyes are black.”

As if that mattered.

“Are you mad at me?”

Mad at him? How could he think I’d ever be⁠—

I was gone. That fast, before I broke down, I was all wolf. Without thinking, I grabbed hold of his throat, tight, yanked him sideways, and stared down into his eyes. “I thought,” I barely choked out, my voice guttural, more animal than man, “I’d lost you.”

I was stunned when he smiled. “I scared you.”

The shaking was growing more violent, and I couldn’t stop. I was barely able to let go of him, but concentrating hard, I finally managed to put both hands back on the wheel.

He unclipped his belt and shed his peacoat, then climbed over the console between us and slid into my lap, pushing me back against the seat, wrapping his arms around my neck and holding tight.

“I’m not going to leave you. I’m just not. You are good and stuck with me now. I thought I hated you and that even if you ever came to your senses and wanted me, I could never forgive you. I realize now that none of what I imagined, none of what you did, has anything at all to do with fated mates. The universe doesn’t give a damn what we think or feel. It knows what’s best.”

I clutched him tighter than I should have. I doubted he could breathe.

“Also, for the record,” he said into my throat, breathing his words onto my skin, “I really am very fast.”

I was incredulous but also… so deeply pleased with him.

“Would you let me go a bit? I want to kiss you.”

Lessening my death grip was difficult, I wanted to feel him alive and warm in my arms, but I did as he asked, and his hands clasped the side of my neck before he gently, tentatively kissed me. His lips were only on mine for a moment before lifting and then touching again, slowly, carefully.