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“What did they do toyou?”
His gaze jerked toward me for the first time, his penetrating green eyes meeting mine. “What makes you think they didanything?”
I raised my eyebrows. “Other than the fact that it’s written all over your face and in your voice? I’m a newbie shifter, not anidiot.”
He turned, bringing his lean body that much closer to mine. Close enough that a rush of heat washed through me from head to toe. He cocked his head with an expression I couldn’t quite read, somewhere between curiosity and anguish and defiance. His voice dropped, the clear throaty tone tingling into myears.
“Do you really care? Or do you just think youshould?”
I stared back at him. It had suddenly gotten very hard to think over the clang of desire ringing through my body. Thankfully that wasn’t a very hard question toanswer.
“I care. Of course I care. Doyoureally think I’d put up with half the shit-talking you do if I couldn’t see there’s a hell of a lot more to you than that—more that I want toknow?”
“What makes you think the rest will be any different from what you’ve already seen,Sparks?”
My own voice dipped lower to match his, with a slightly teasing edge. “I don’t know. But I’ve heard dragon shifters tend to be extra perceptive about these sorts of things. And by the way, I’m actually starting to like that nickname, so if the point of it is to annoy me, you’ll have to find a newone.”
“I’ll give that some thought,” he said with a twitch of his mouth. I couldn’t tell if he’d suppressed a frown or a smile. I was too busy being distracted by how close his mouth was to mine. Not much more than a foot of space between us. Practically nothing at all. And then some genius part of my brain came up with the perfect excuse to touchhim.
“That scar you’ve got. The one that almostglows. Is that from fighting with the fae?” I reached for his chest, holding my breath as Idid.
West caught my hand an inch from grazing his pecs. His fingers closed around mine, firm and hot. There was so much heat radiating off him that for a second I thought I mightmelt.
“Are you sure that’s what you want to do?” he said, so dark and low it was almost awhisper.
An ache had formed between my legs. I wet my lips. Fuck it. “No,” I said. “I wantthis.”
I tangled my other hand in his silvery auburn hair and pressed my mouth tohis.
A groan reverberated from West’s chest. He kissed me back hard, letting go of my hand to grip my waist and pull me flush against him. The heat of his body enveloped me, as if we weren’t two people but two parts of one whole. Two parts desperate to meld backtogether.
I clutched his shirt, losing myself in the crush of his mouth and the demanding slide of his tongue. There was nothing I could imagine wanting more thanthis.
My hips arched against West’s of their own accord. With a hungry growl, he lifted me off my feet and laid me on the stone bench without breaking the kiss. He braced himself over me, his body grazing mine tantalizingly. I whimpered and tugged him closer. The bulge in his jeans brushed my sex, and I rocked against him. He let out another groan and dropped his head to devour my neck with the hot slide of histongue.
I gasped, groping him with an abandon that would have embarrassed me if he hadn’t seemed just as frantic for release. My fingers found the hem of his shirt and trailed up under it over his bareback.
West grasped my hips, shifting them so his erection could hit my clit at an even better angle through our clothes. A moan slipped from mylips.
I didn’t care that some other revelers might wander into the garden and see us, hear us. He wasmineand I was his, and we were meant for this. From the moment I’d been born; from the moment he’d been named alpha. Before all the violence and the bitterness had wrenched usapart.
“Westley,” I murmured, ducking my head to try to reclaim hismouth.
At the sound of his full name, West stiffened. He pushed off me so suddenly that for a few seconds all I could do was lie there blinking up at him, my body throbbing at the loss ofcontact.
He stared back at me. A tremble ran through him. His hands clenched at his sides. His mouth was still red from kissing me and his cock still hard against the fly of his jeans, but his eyes had gone abruptlycold.
“No,” he said. “I’m notWestleyto you, and don’t pretend that Iam.”
I sat up, my breath coming in a rasp. What was he talking about? “I didn’t mean anything— One of the shifters in your village called you that, and I remembered, and it justseemed...”
It had seemed natural, in the moment. But obviously not to him. I didn’t know how to explain it. I’d just been following myinstincts.
“You’ve been gone for sixteen years,” he said flatly. “You don’t know me, and I don’t owe you anything. I don’tneedanything from you. I’ve held my position as alpha all that time, and I’ll damn well keep being alpha whether I accept your terms ornot.”
“West,” I started, but his expression shuttered even more. My voicefaltered.
He stalked off, striding down the garden paths toward the courtyard. I gazed after him, feeling achingly horny and alone—and more bewildered than I liked toadmit.
