Page 16 of Ulune's Daughter

He's weird and edgy and beautiful and everything I’ve wanted since the first time I saw him.

I swallow my heartbreak and step back from him, bumping my shoulders into the museum door.

He strides forward and shoves his face into mine. Those eerie white eyes fill my vision.

“Why are you following her?”

I shake my head. He knows why I’m following her. I don’t need to articulate how low I’ve sunk.

“Rho, what in the Nine Hells are you doing?” he asks, his voice softening.

Putting my heart through a woodchipper.

“Sorry,” I croak, edging away.

“Stop ignoring my messages,” Luca says, pivoting on his heel to track my movements. I’ve never seen him look and act more feline than he has this past week. Probably his fated mate calling his Cait nature to the fore or some fae bullshit.

“Gotta go,” I say, even though I have nowhere to go, since I’ve already missed my first class of the day and the next one doesn’t start for two hours.

In one of those quicksilver Cait movements, Luca shifts in front of me, blocking the stairs. He throws his arm around my neck and pulls me to him until our foreheads touch.

“Tell me what’s going on.”

“Nothing.” I put my hands to his chest to push him back. Instead, my fingers sink into the softness of his sweatshirt, tangle, and pull him closer.

“Lie to yourself if you want, but don’t lie to me,” he growls. “You don’t believe me, do you? I told you I’m not giving you up. Why don’t you trust me?”

“She’s your fated mate?—”

He grabs the hair at the back of my head, his nails scraping my scalp. “I love you.”

I reach back and try to loosen his grip, but he holds fast.

“Lu, let go.”

“No.”

“I have to go to class.”

“No, you don’t. You’ve already missed your seminar. You don’t care about class. You care about me. Say it. You love me.”

“Fuck’s sake, Luca, not here.”

He shakes my head with the grip he has in my hair. “I don’t give a fuck where we are. I’ll march into Dean Quinn’s office and do this in front of her if we have to. Say you love me.”

Knowing he won’t give up until I give in, I grumble, “I love you. Even when you’re a pain in my ass.”

“Makes up for the times you’ve been a pain in mine,” he says, his lips spreading in a grin that shows the tips of his sharp teeth.

“You are the world’s toppiest bottom,” I tell him.

“And you love me.”

“I’ve said it already.”

“Say it again.”

“No, you’re over quota. Let me go and stop stalking me, fucking stalker.” I pretend to push him away but curl my fist in his sweatshirt and pull him even closer.

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