Page 48 of Lost Touch

The rest of the world faded away completely as everything narrowed down to the pressure of his lips, the grip of his hands, the heat of his body against mine as he curved protectively around me.

Drew. I couldn’t feel anything but Drew. And even though I couldn’t take the pleasure in his kiss, in his hard, possessive touch, that I ought to have, that I longed to…it didn’t matter in that moment.

I needed him, and he had me in his arms, and nothing could hurt me when he kept me so close and desired me so passionately.

Because it really seemed like he did. His whole body had gone rigid with restrained need—and his cock had, too, stiff and demanding against my stomach.

I sank into it, letting Drew overwhelm me. Letting myself go. Clinging to him, my grip on his lapels probably ruining the perfect press of his tux, but who cared, God, when Drew wanted to kiss me like that…

“Why don’t you just mount him on the table and give us a show? I want to see what’s worth all this bullshit. He must have a fucking incredible ass.”

Drew broke the kiss and spun, shoving me behind him. I stumbled but caught myself by grabbing hold of his upper arm, peeking around his broad back to get a look at whoever that low, ugly drawl belonged to.

Another blond guy, it turned out, about Drew’s age and nearly as tall, lean and athletic and with a nasty smirk and faintly glowing eyes, blue beneath the gold.

Another alpha. Cousin Blake? The other blond must be his brother, the one who’d had the bad taste to disappoint his parents by coming out a garden-variety werewolf.

“Blake,” Drew snarled. “Stay the fuck away from him.”

Aaand Alyssa’s advice not to let Blake get to him had clearly been both necessary and futile.

“Don’t, Drew,” I whispered, knowing he’d hear me but hoping Blake wouldn’t. “It’s not worth it!”

Blake’s smirk went crooked, and his eyes flicked to me, malice glinting behind the alpha glow. Apparently he’d heard me. I resisted the urge to shrink down behind Drew and try to disappear.

“Neither are you,” he said.

Drew lunged, and I desperately pulled him back. Blake stepped forward, not back, claws gleaming at his fingertips, and…

Alyssa popped up from the other side of the giant vase, breathing hard, and flung herself in the middle.

Drew stopped dead, his bicep like iron under my fingers and his shoulders heaving.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Alyssa demanded in a low, urgent tone, barely loud enough for me to hear. Hoping the rest of the room didn’t notice, I figured, although good luck with that. “I told you not to let him—”

“Drew,” another voice interrupted, this one female, smooth, and cool enough to chill a glacier.

Victoria, I realized, as she followed Alyssa into our alcove and stood there with one hand on her hip and the other languidly waving a glass of champagne in Drew’s direction. I’d seen her across the room, chatting with Alyssa and the woman I had to assume, by process of elimination, was Drew’s aunt.

She’d seemed intimidating at a distance, Amazon-tall and with a figure like Marilyn Monroe.

Up close, I didn’t know what to gawk at first: her perfect blonde hair, her perfect crimson lipstick, her perfect lips…perfect everything, really, and all wrapped up in a slinky red dress that probably cost more than Drew’s mortgage.

“Nice to see you again, it’s been what, fifteen years?” she continued, completely ignoring the fact that she’d interrupted a brewing brawl with a sang-froid I couldn’t help admiring. “I’m glad to see one of the Castelli alphas grew up.”

She took a dainty sip of her champagne.

“Grew up what?” Blake demanded, taking a step toward her—trying to intimidate her, it looked like.

Victoria raised an eyebrow at him. “Grew up at all,” she said.

Alyssa let out a choked giggle, Drew relaxed a bit under my hand, and Blake stared, went white, and stomped off, nearly shoulder-checking Victoria on his way.

Silence fell.

The aftermath of way too much adrenaline made my mouth start moving before my brain could catch up.

“I didn’t know you all had known each other—I mean, I thought Drew had never met you or your parents,” I said. Yet another bit of information Drew had left out, and I wished it didn’t sting quite so badly.

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