Page 28 of Research with Rivals
She looked … sheepish was the best word I could come up with. Her foot dragged back and forth across the floor, and she didn’t make eye contact when I entered the room. Her shoulders hunched forward slightly, at odds with the fierce posture with which she usually carried herself.
My wolf awakened then. All senses were on high alert, even though nothing seemed quite so bad now that Evelyn was back in my sights.
I need to address this line of thought sooner rather than later.
The black bird was gone. Something was wrong. I could see it in the way she held herself, in the slow movement of her foot, and the slight downturn of her lips. Had she tried to get into the restricted section and something had happened? She didn’t look hurt. My pace quickened, closing the distance between us.I reached out and touched her arm to get her attention. “Evelyn. What’s wrong?”
Finally, on a deep breath, she looked up at me through long lashes. I was momentarily speechless at the sight.
“Did something happen? Did you try to get the journal?”
Her brow furrowed in confusion. Then she slowly shook her head, pointing to a book I hadn’t noticed yet on the desk of my study carrel. “Lord Arctos showed me which book to get while you got permission.” The hint of a smile was there and gone on her lips.
“Then what’s the problem?”
Her foot swept back and forth again across the floor. I remembered taking the same posture when I was a child and accidentally broke one of Mother’s vases the first time I shifted.
“Evelyn. You’re worrying me.” That … whatever it was twisted in my chest, even though she stood right in front of me.
“You said you were looking for me this morning in the woods.”
I nodded, not sure where this was going.
“And is that unusual for you? To be looking for me?”
What an odd question, though it was one I’d mentally been avoiding. Yes, I liked seeing her at the library. Yes, I thought about her more often than was probably considered normal. Her question was valid, though. It wasunusualfor me to try to find her.
My wolf paced back and forth in my head as I admitted, “It was unusual, yes.”
My hand ran through my hair again of its own accord. The move appeared to tug her lip into a small smile. At least she wasn’t threatening to report me for stalking.
“I can sense when you’re not near me,” she said.
Heat flooded my body at the words. She didn’t just say that, did she? She sensed my presence?
“Something inside me is rather insistently drawn to you.”
Well, this was completely unexpected. I’d been under the impression that my feelings were entirely unrequited. What was she saying? Was I dreaming? My wolf’s tail flicked back and forth in my head with excitement, a sign that I was very much awake.
Before my mind wandered too far, I remembered the look on her face when this conversation had started. The way she’d been waiting rather nervously by my desk. My stomach plummeted like a stone sinking in the bay.
I don’t know how I put it together, but before the words were past her bow-shaped lips, I knew what she would say. My whole body flushed as I pushed every idiotic part of me that had secretly hoped this was some declaration of her feelings back into the box tucked deep inside my chest.
Then the words came.
The reason for this tug in her direction.
The slight, inexplicable twisting in my chest when she wasn’t near. It could be explained—I just hadn’t wanted to consider it. The cut on her finger when we’d shared a meal yesterday. The wound from my run reopening. This information pointed to a single conclusion.
I couldn’t believe my stupidity.
Part of me wanted to stop her. Once she said the words, we couldn’t ignore them. But Evelyn was so much braver than I was.
“We accidentally bound ourselves together last night.”
11
Evelyn
