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Lance looked at her as if he understood. He shook his head and said, “You don't need to explain to me. You have a heart of gold, Kayla. Anyone can see that.”
“I wish that were true,” Kayla sighed and turned her gaze down to the embroidery on the blanket. “Sarah is never going to forgive me.”
The bite she felt in her gut as she said the words made her feel sick. She closed her eyes, hating herself for the friendship she had destroyed. For what? She didn't even know what this was if, indeed, it was anything.
“Kayla,” Lance said softly, and when his hand came to her cheek again, she opened her eyes to look at him. “You and Sarah have been best friends for as long as I can remember. She will come around.”
Kayla's stomach twisted.
“What exactly is it she has to come around to? What is this…this thing between us?” she asked, gesturing between them. Deep in her soul she thought she knew the answer, but she didn't dare to say it out loud. At least, not until she had heard it from his lips first.
Lance straightened up then and took her face in both his hands. He held her firmly, but not so firm that it might hurt her. And when he looked in her eyes, she saw his gaze was full of conviction.
“Kayla, this isn't just some mindless fling,” he said, never blinking. “After losing Sarah and Lewis’s mother, I never imagined I'd get another chance but I…I think you are my mate. That is, if you will have me?”
Kayla's breath caught in her throat and she struggled to swallow it. Heart hammering, she stared back into his eyes,looking for any hint that he didn't entirely believe what he had just said to her.
But it was clear that he did, and Kayla felt the truth of it deep in her soul.
She wanted to desperately to say yes, to simply enjoy the moment for what it was, but instead she asked, “What does that mean for me and Sarah? For you and her? For all of us?”
Even Lewis would be affected by all of this. Sure, he wasn't a huge part of her life, but she did have to work with him, and he was already pretty damn annoying at times.
Lance's jaw visibly clenched and she felt his grip tighten slightly on her face. He shook his head and sighed, but when he spoke again, he met her gaze without flinching. “If we are truly fated mates, then there is nothing we can do to stop it. One way or another, we shall be together, and we must all figure that out whether Sarah likes it or not.”
Kayla's stomach threatened to upend. She hated the thought of putting such a barrier between her and her best friend. But what other choice did she have? Lance was right. Fated mates weren't known for being kept away from each other, no matter how many outside influences disapproved. There was a reason they were called fated, after all.
“Do…do you truly believe that is what we are?” Kayla asked. Though her veins were alight with the confidence that they were, she still needed to hear it. Somehow, it wouldn't be real until he had confirmed it.
“Kayla Thomas, youaremy fated mate,” Lance announced, his voice booming in such a way that it felt as if he was claiming her right there and then.
She was so overcome with emotion that she had no idea what to say. Instead, she lunged for him and kissed him so swiftly that she felt as though her lips might bruise.
Lance gripped hold of her hips, as if to stop her from barreling them both right off the bed, but he did not push her away. Instead, his hands gripped her tightly, pulling her closer. The kiss deepened. Kayla's insides fluttered.
The next thing she knew, he had ripped off her bloodied clothes and plucked her from the bed.
“Lance, what are you doing?” she whispered against his lips even as she wrapped her legs and arms around him and allowed him to carry her into the ensuite bathroom.
“I think after the day we've both had, we could both use a shower,” Lance said, holding her in one arm as he leaned into the glass shower cubicle and turned on the jets.
They spewed to life and it didn't take long for hot steam to start rising. Shower steam had never felt so good before. It seemed to caress every inch of her body as Lance stepped into the cubicle, still holding her in his arms.
She gasped in shock as he leaned her back against the cold tiled wall. Compared to the water that cascaded down on them, it was ice cold.
“Stand,” Lance ordered, and Kayla unwrapped her legs from his waist and did as he told her. She breathed out a moan when he stroked her hair back from her neck and began to wash the blood from her skin.
Kayla watched with morbid fascination as the water ran red down the plughole. And when, finally, it ran clear once more, Lance's lips landed upon her throat.
His body pinned her to the wall, his warm flesh feverish against her own. The hunger she felt within him mirrored her own and she bit at his shoulder with her teeth, her fangs itching to sink into him. They elongated and she grazed them over his skin until he groaned with pleasure.
“Do it,” he growled in her ear, and the command sent a hot tingle running throughout her body.
Instinctively, she drew her head back ever so slightly, and just when she felt the tip of his cock slipping between her legs, she struck, sinking her fangs deep into his shoulder.
She gasped with pain and pleasure as she felt his own sink into the fleshy part of her shoulder between her neck and collarbone.
The searing sensation she felt spreading from his bite throughout her body was like nothing she had ever felt before. It was such a mixture of pain and pleasure, agony and ecstasy, that she tore her fangs from his shoulder and cried out, howling toward the ceiling and the night sky beyond.
