Page 80 of Caelum

My mouth quivered and, though I didn’t mean to say the words, they just fell out: “I’m going to miss you.”

His eyes darkened. “Truly?”

He didn’t sound put out. If anything, he sounded…pleased?

I nodded. “Yes. Very much,” I rasped, aware of how husky my breath was and even more aware of what he could read into that.

Lips curving, he stepped closer, pressing into me in a way that should have set my nerves on edge but didn’t. I enjoyed the way his heat hit me from the front. It was a huge contrast to the cold chill of the window at my back.

“I’m going to miss you too.”

Gulping, I whispered his word back to him. “Truly?”

“If you could come, I’d take you with us.”

If?

My brow started to pucker in confusion, but his thumb moved down to my mouth. He ran it along my bottom lip before reaching up to trail over the arch of the upper.

If my response had taken me aback before, that was nothing to now. My lungs heaved as an ache forsomethingburned inside me.

I’d seen the movies, watched the couples kissing and writhing around on top of each other.

Did I want that?

I wasn’t sure what happened. They never did deep enough close-ups, and surely they weren’t actually doingiton camera.

Or were they?

My eyes flared wide at the thought before they retreated to half-mast again when he tapped the fleshiest part of my mouth then dragged it down slightly, opening me up in a way that no one else ever had.

His skin dragged against the moisture from my bottom lip, and it was natural to suck on the tip of his thumb, to, albeit hesitantly, lick it too.

His response startled me. He released a hiss then staggered back.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” I demanded, my voice low and so unlike my own that I didn’t recognize it at first.

He shook his head. “Stefan deserves your first kiss.”

I blinked at him. “Huh?”

Another shake of his head was all I got before he ground out, “It will make sense soon.”

Before I could argue, before I could say another word, he stormed off, slamming the door behind him. The frame actually jolted at the weight he packed into the move, and I stared at it, trying to regulate my breathing, and ignored this intense ache I suddenly felt deep in my belly, and, oddly enough, in my breasts.

Gulping, I reached up and gently caressed one. They felt heavy, swollen. Why? I didn’t know, and I was suddenly furious at being so damn ignorant about the most natural things in this world.

At that moment, I hated my parents. Hated the compound. Hated the New Order.

Why couldn’t I just be normal?

If I were, Eren wouldn’t have stalked off like I’d grown three heads! And what did Stefan have to do with it?

Clenching my eyes closed, I shook off those thoughts. As painful as that experience had been—painful because I’d been denied something that I felt sure would be delicious—it had told me something.

Eren wanted me to go to Aboh with him.

That had to count for something.

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