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Hours passed, and I had largely given up hope that Herne would make any kind of appearance, especially since he’d already missed the crowning of the May Queen and King and the celebrations were starting to wind down. I was just finishing up a lively dance with one of the human men who was clearly more interested in demon females than mortal ones, when a large male figure stepped in front of me and hooked me around the waist, taking my hand for the next dance.
“Decided to stop hiding from me?” I asked, looking up into his unfairly handsome face. He scowled, never one to smile until he was roaring with laughter, and something dark flickered in his eyes as that tug pulsed between us.
“I wasn’t hiding,” he said, spinning me into the steps of the next dance. He was a graceful dancer, again surprising for a male of his size. We had danced at celebrations many times before, but this time felt different. More charged, like every encounter of the last few days.
I pushed down the hurt I’d felt the night before, when I realized what he was to me and that he wasn’t interested or willing to do anything about it, and gave him my brightest smile. “Avoiding?” I suggested, letting him lead me through the spinning steps of the dance. “Circumventing? Evading? Eluding?”
“Fine, I was hiding,” he growled, spinning me around as if we weren’t having an argument. “But I’m not hiding now.”
“No,” I agreed. “You’re here. Why are you here?”
“To dance with you, obviously,” he said, raising a bushy brow at me as we spun. The wings made me lose my balance, and I reached up to grab his neck to stop myself from taking us both down.
His hair was half down tonight, the soft brown strands of it silky beneath my fingers, and my heart rate kicked up as I met his eyes. His large hands closed around my waist, and I suppressed a little gasp.
“You don’t want me,” I sighed, unable to keep the hurt from my voice as his piercing gaze cleaved my act of nonchalance away. “Is that it?”
“Gods. No, Cerridwen,” Herne growled, his fingers clamping tighter around me until they were almost bruising. “It’s the exact opposite. I want you so damn much I can barely function. I was hiding so I could get some damn work done and stop myself from carrying you off into the woods.”
My heart skipped, then stuttered as he continued to frown at me. Why was he still frowning?
“I want you too,” I said, still fighting back the hurt. “I always have. Why is it a problem?”
“Because you’re so damn young,” he sighed, loosening his hold on my waist a little. I gripped his neck more tightly, refusing to let him escape from me. “And I’m old and grouchy and I’m supposed to be protecting you, not taking advantage of you.”
“How exactly are you taking advantage?” I asked, my tone growing indignant. “You haven’t even done anything, and I know it’s not because I haven’t tried to convince you to.”
He laughed ruefully, looking away for a moment as he continued to spin me in the dance that I had definitely not been paying attention to. “You know what this is?” he growled, his gaze meeting mine again with near-terrifying intensity. “This tug we’re both feeling?”
“I’ve had the talk, Herne. I know what the Pull is,” I said dryly, raising my own brows in disdain.
“Then I assume you know what the Pull leads to, ” he rumbled, spinning me away from him. He pulled me back in close until I was pressed firmly enough that I could feel the evidence of the Pull pressed hard against me.
I gasped a little. “Yes.”
The look he gave me was one of pure, carnal heat, and a thrill shot down my spine. I had never believed he would look at me like that, but here he was, this rugged specimen of a male, with all of that virile attention focused on me.
“Gods, Cerridwen,” he groaned, pulling away so quickly I staggered. “This was a mistake.”
He was walking away before I had time to realize what was happening.
“Oh no you don’t,” I said, flapping my wings to give me a push as I chased after him. I flew past him, landing heavily in front of him and stopping him with both of my hands pressed to his chest as he looked down at me in surprise.
“You flew,” he gasped, surprise and awe lighting his face as he reached out to brush an edge of a wing with a delicate stroke.
It made me shiver all the way down to my core, and I brushed his hand away. “Stop that.”
“Stop what?” he asked, a smirk playing on his lips. “Stop this?” he stroked another finger down the edge of the other wing.
I slapped that hand away, too. “Yes, that,” I snapped. “You can’t just shut me out, walk away from me, and then touch my wings in that way.”
Herne groaned, looking up at the sky. “Gods, save me.”
“If you don’t want the bond, then just tell me,” I shouted, quivering in anger and frustration and hurt, and definitely something that shouldn’t go with all of those emotions. “I’m a big girl. I can take it. If you don’t want me, or you can’t wrap your big stupid mind around the idea that I havealwayswanted you, then just say it.” An unintentional tear slid down my cheek, and I brushed it away angrily.
The sight of it snapped something in Herne. One moment he was looking at me with frustrated longing and confusion, and the next he had me pressed hard against the nearest tree, wings pinned behind me as his lips found mine. One hand curled around my backside while the other twined in my hair. I let out a breathy moan as I tumbled into the kiss—that tug between us growing into a steady pull that matched the beat of the drums of the Beltane dances. It pounded a steady tattoo against my ribs that shouted,mine mine mine mine mine!
Herne broke away too soon, leaving me gasping for breath. He didn’t go far, pressing me against that tree as his own heart thumped loudly before me.
