One dark eyebrow slowly rose.

That is so not attractive. Nope. Not at all.

“What exactly do you want me to stop doing?”

“You know.” There was a long pause where neither one of us spoke.

I was too stubborn to look away from him, and it seemed that he was as well.

When he didn’t say anything, I gritted out, “You keep staring at me, and it’s not the kind of staring that is friendly either, if you get my drift.”

“You’re my mate. You’re mine. I’m going to look at you, revel in the fact I found my female after all this time.”

I didn’t answer but I felt my face heat up at his words, this strange feeling moving through me. I didn’t like it. Not one bit.

I kept telling myself that, but even I didn’t believe it.

I’d never had this kind of attention solely on me. I always kept to myself, and after my parents had passed away, leaving me alone with no siblings or close family, I never wanted to be noticed by anyone. I was content to be a lone soul in this world because that’s what I’d become comfortable with.

It was safer that way, so I didn’t have to pretend, to put on this facade, a glamour that everything was okay when it really wasn’t. Because being lonely fucking sucked.

“I’ve waited so long for you?—”

My breath caught and I snapped my gaze up to stare into his eyes.

“— that the pure joy and pleasure I get just staring at you is sustenance to me, female.”

My heart was beating so fast that I actually lifted my hand and placed it over my chest as if my palm would keep it in place.

“Asking me to stop looking at you is like asking me to stop breathing. I could try, but eventually my body would know what to do, how to survive.”

Oh gods. How could he say such sweet things like this to me, profound and deep, as we sat in this dank cave… after he’d ripped open my neck and nearly drained me dry?

I shifted on the ground, pulled my knees up to my chest, and wrapped my arms around my legs as I rested my chin on them, staring at the fire, not sure what to say.

“Why don’t you tell me where we’re at so that I can figure out how to get the fuck out of here?”

It wasn’t lost on me that he changed the subject, or that he just assumed he’d be the one to take control and figure this out. I wasn’t going to argue the fact of my independence, because the truth was, I was at a loss on exactly how to “get out of this.” So if he wanted to be arrogant, then so be it.

I stared at the flames for a moment and told him everything I knew.

“We were thrust into a parallel dimension by a Leandrean. I ran into him squaring off with a handful of guards as I was trying to escape the facility.” Although I could feel the aggression pouring off Sebastian, I didn’t look at him. “I have no idea where we’re at, just that we’re on a different plane. I’ve only been here for two days, as much as I can tell anyway. But what I’ve learned so far is that the sun has yet to set since I’ve been here.”

That’s when I looked up at him. I expected Sebastian to have maybe an expression of shock, or even be more pissed off at the knowledge that we were quite literally stuck in this cave because he couldn’t leave. But in place was an expression of absolute… nothingness.

I was beginning to realize this was just who he was.

“I found a bunch of debris once I woke up here. A couple of canteens, some ration packs, various articles of clothing and weapons.” I cleared my throat. “So I took everything I could find and scavenged, and I’ve been in this cave ever since. That’s until I found you.”

“And you saved me.”

I felt like that should’ve been phrased like a question, but it was more of a stunned statement by Sebastian, as if he couldn’t even fathom someone helping him.

I stared into his eyes, his irises as dark as his pupils, yet I could see the flames reflected back at me in the dark orbs.

“I couldn’t just leave you there. Even if we weren’t mates, I would’ve helped you.”

He didn’t respond to that, but he did glance away. The look on his face was almost as if he couldn’t understand what I’d just said. I felt this pain in my chest as I stared at him.