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In response, he moved backwards.
“What are you doing here?” The words were loaded with unspoken accusation. I had anticipated it, but nevertheless, it stung.
“I’m back,” I replied. “I’m home. ”
His face clouded with anger. “Lucas isn’t here. ”
I looked around the room, as if he meant here with us, which seemed obvious enough. Then I realized he meant in the penthouse.
“Where is he?”
“He’s upstate, dealing with pack business. He’s had to do a lot since you left. There was a big mess to clean up and no one to help him with it. ”
I couldn’t imagine exactly how my killing Marcus Sullivan might result in a big mess for the king, but I suppose there were a lot of things about the pack I didn’t understand.
“Oh,” was all I could say.
“Is that all?” His tone was cold and painful for me to hear. I stepped closer to him again, and this time he didn’t retreat, though I could feel anger coming off him in hot waves.
“I’m so sorry, Desmond. For everything. ”
He growled a little, still glaring, but he didn’t stop me from edging towards him. I was within inches and could feel his rage in a searing, red aura. He was shaking.
“Why?” he asked.
“Why what?”
“Why?” He looked beyond me. “Just…why? All of it. ”
“I left because I was scared. I didn’t know what you and Lucas would think. And more than that. The vampire council came to me at the Oracle’s and gave me a job I was too scared to deal with. ”
“Is that why you’re back?”
“That’s part of it. ”
He raised a hand as if he wanted to touch me, but reconsidered and let it drop.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you. ” I lowered my voice and found I couldn’t look at him. “I missed you. I missed the taste of you. ” I didn’t mean it in a sexual sense, though I had missed that too. With the sweet limey taste on my tongue, I was able to accept how much I missed the literal flavor of him.
Desmond made a small sound, somewhere between a whimper and a sigh, and then his mouth was on mine. His large, warm hands cupped my face, and he was imploring my lips to open. I sighed against him and wrapped my arms around his back, feeling the heat of his body through the thin layer of his shirt.
He pulled back again, holding my face, and looked at me with dark seriousness. “Don’t you ever leave me again. ”
I nodded, no hesitation to my agreement. I’d longed for the warmth of his touch every night while I’d been gone, and now that I was with him once more, I never wanted to leave. “Shut up and kiss me,” I demanded, and he didn’t wait to be told a second time.
Picking me up, he walked us over to the desk and put me down on the hard wood surface. The few items that had been there—a phone, a penholder, a stack of papers—were showered onto the floor as he climbed onto the desk with me. I lay back and his body covered mine. I worshiped the heat coming off him as we kissed each other with the pent-up desire of a long separation. He clipped my lip with his teeth, breaking the delicate skin, then pulled back and gently sucked the blood off my lower lip.
I shuddered, and my lids fell closed as he tilted my head back and trailed kisses down my jaw, to my neck, then to my throat, then almost to my…
“Secret?” He stopped.
“Uhn?”
“This is the stupidest shirt I’ve ever seen. ”
It took me a moment to realize what he was talking about until I looked between us and remembered the shirt I had borrowed.
“Oh. My other one was covered in blood, so I—”
