Page 146 of Night's Fall
AndIdidn’t want to make him feel bad.
It had been emotional.He’dgiven no indication before or since that was something he was prone to do.
He’d been murderously angry at his brother, and although he’d shared his feelings without a single attempt to sugarcoat it, he hadn’t lost his mind shouting and cursing.
“Say it,” he ordered.
I focused on him. “Sorry?”
“Whatever’s on your mind that you seem hesitant to share, say it.”
I gave him the side-eye, becauseIwasn’t real certain howIfelt about how quickly he was learning how to read me.
“Laura, we must be able to talk to each other.”
“Okay then, you hurt my feelings, a lot, when you shouted at me after we got back from the gallery.”
It reminded me of my parents, was the partIleft out.
He nodded, not seeming offended in the slightest. “Ican’t sayI’malways completely in control of my temper, but that was out of line.”
It felt like every muscle in my body relaxed, andIhadn’t realized how much tensionI’dheld about it since it happened.
Aleksei carried on, “Mygreatest hope is that we will never be in that situation again, and therefore, me losing my temper like that won’t happen again.ButIcan’t sayI’llnever get angry, or very angry.Thedifference is, you put yourself in the way of danger?—”
He touched his fingers to my lips and kept them there whenIopened my mouth to speak.
“No, darling, let me finish.”
I closed my mouth, and he took his fingers away.
“In retrospect,Icould see it was instinct, andIcan just imagine how seeing the male who attacked you played with your head.Youwere panicked and shouting about a weapon before one was even produced.Whatyou did was understandable.Andmaybe, when your creature fully awakens and bonds with mine, you’ll understand whereIwas in those moments, because my response was instinctual too, andIwas feeling it double.Isaw my mate in danger, and my creature saw his.Somy emotions were high.Thatdoesn’t forgive me losing my temper in that manner, butIhope it explains it.”
I couldn’t stop staring even asIasked, “Howdo you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Get more wonderful with every word that comes from your mouth.”
Purple flame flickered in the backs of his sky-blue eyes.
“Germaine told meIhad to act like each one formed a drop of nectar,”Iwent on. “Ihaven’t looked at the social tapes, butIfigureIbested that and then some.”
He rolled me to my back with him on top, at the same time his hands started roaming.
“I have seen the tapes,” he murmured, dipping his head and scraping his teeth along my neck.
I shivered.
He moved his mouth to my ear. “Beingsare rather enamored with that broach you were wearing.”
“Mm,”Isaid, making it my mission to memorize the swells and valleys of his back.
“Your ass in that dress though,” he growled at the same time his fingers found a different target and curled around my breast.
“You looked fantastic in your suit too,”Itold him. “Butthen, you always do.”
He ran his lips along my jaw and his thumb over my nipple.
