AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I felt numb as I moved across the room and fetched a beaten-up chair. Lily eased her down onto it, and for a second all I could do was watch as Never fought for every breath she tried to take in. Even Leo was doing more than I was, filling a glass with water and setting it on the floor beside her.
A thread of something niggled inside me, growing stronger the longer I stood there. I’d done this to her. If I had just kept the truth about the pendant to myself rather than letting a meddling shifter lead me astray, we’d already be working on getting her brother back.
That sliver of awareness became a tingle, and what started deep in my chest was spreading slowly through my upper body, rolling through my shoulders. The moment I recognized the sensation, I understood what it was telling me to do.
I knelt in front of Never, dismissing Leo’s mumbled objection. She was still bent over, still sucking air. Her eyes met mine for the briefest of moments before I reached for her. There was no mistaking the misery in that look. It had me hesitating with my hands inches from hers until she pulled in another ragged breath.
I didn’t say anything when I took her hands and let that thread of my power bleed from me to her. What was there to say? I’d given her a piece of myself, but now that she understood what it truly was, she was rejecting it.
Worse, the knowledge had given this impossibly resilient woman a panic attack.
She jerked back when she felt my magic spike. What had been a deliberately soft and steady flow pulsed when I thought of her reaction to the pendant, but I refused to let go of her hands.
“I’m sorry, lo—Never. Just bear with me another moment,” I whispered, trying to calm and soothe without frightening her more.
Don’t focus on her rejection. Think about something, anything else.
Naturally, a vision of Never from the night before filled my mind. Her want. Her need. The look in her eyes when she realized I was the one with her on the dance floor. She’d wanted everything I’d had to give then, and I would kill to make her feel that way again.
A whimper pulled me from my heated, spiraling thoughts, but it wasn’t until I withdrew my hands, worried I was doing more damage, that I realized her whimper had nothing to do with pain.
Never looked at me, desire burning clear in her eyes. “Dirty trick, pirate,” she whispered.
“What?” I asked, feeling a tad bit drunk.
Ah, yes. It was all coming back. Never Darling had a powerful effect on me. As much as I had dreamed of her during her absence, as much as I’d obsessed over her, I had forgotten how her presence had a way of knocking me off balance.
Rather than answering my question, she reached out and wrapped her fingers around my wrist. “What are the odds it works both ways?”
In the next instant, I was hit with a desire so strong it made my breath catch in my chest. And it wasn’t mine. That deep need was coming directly from her.
“Whoa there, Captain,” Lily said, sounding more alarmed than my swimming brain thought was strictly necessary.
“It’s fine, Lil. He does this around me.” Never leaned in and lowered her voice. “Careful, pirate. I’m pretty sure your godliness is showing.”
In her gaze, I could see my own reflected, glowing a brilliant orange. I closed my eyes and pulled in a deep breath, holding it as I focused on what I was sensing beneath the lust coursing from her.
The vixen was fortunate for every single shred of decency I still possessed with the emotions she was throwing at me. If I were even a fraction less of a man, a hair’s breadth, I would have hauled her up out of that chair, carried her back to her bedroom, and said to hell with the rest of the world until I’d had my fill of her.
The only thing that was stopping me, besides a pair of shifters who apparently had no intention of leaving the two of us alone again anytime soon, was the emotions riding beneath the lust. She wanted me. Powerfully. With an intensity that rivaled my own.
But something was holding her back.
I opened my eyes to find her watching me. Her tongue darted out before she rolled her bottom lip between her teeth. Oh yes, her desire was in no way false, but there was definitely something else at play.
Laying my hand over hers, I gently peeled her fingers away from my wrist. “Just focus on breathing for now,” I whispered. Not because those words needed to be private, but because in the wake of her scorching desire, I didn’t trust my voice.
She rolled her eyes, a tired move with a sliver of the sass she normally threw my way. “Bossy doesn’t usually do it for me.”
“Usually?” I asked.
A smirk lifted one side of her mouth. “You heard me.”
In another situation, I would have taken that comment and run with it, but it wasn’t the right time. “Are you feeling better?”
Never straightened in the chair. “I’m sorry for throwing the... pendant at you.”
“And I am inclined to forgive the slight.” I offered her a tentative smile.
