Page 32 of Total Eclipse of the Moon
"That’s it?" he asked, following as she stalked back to the kitchen.
"Spell should be undone, if there was one."
"Will that work on the bigger curse?"
"That one’s more complex. The mirror trick won’t cut it."
"If that was supposed to work, then why do I still…"
She turned to face him, finding him a lot closer than expected. He didn’t break eye contact. The air thickened. His eyes darkened with a need that made her breath catch. Her body itched to move closer. To feel his mouth on hers again. One more taste. One more touch. Anything to ease the escalating buildup of longing she’d harbored for over a year.
Air moved in and out of her lungs in choppy gasps.
She couldn’t decide if she was loopy from the low oxygen or from the need for this gorgeous, completely off-limits lycan standing in front of her.
Shane growled under his breath and squeezed his eyelids shut. "It didn’t work."
"I don’t think it’s spell-induced."
Chapter Ten
"We can’t,"Shane declared, backing away from her. "Whatever this is has to be a no."
"Glad we agree. It’s absurd." Brusquely, she grabbed one of the grocery bags and walked it into the kitchen, shoulders stiff and back tight. He couldn’t unglue his gaze from the curve of her hips in the tight jeans.
Nobody made him this unbalanced. This crazed. All he could think about was touching her, kissing her, and undressing her. He was furious at her, but not for the stupidity of handcuffing him naked and leaving—all right, perhaps still a little bit annoyed about that. He was angry for the decades of being cursed to serve a human monarch. Decades of him and his brothers fighting beings no one should ever have to face. Of almost dying once or twice on a weekly basis. Of being forced to fake his death to release his brothers from their worry over him while he got the demon trapped in his mind—because of fighting one of those evil beings they'd been forced to hunt—sorted out. To top off everything, now he desired her with a mind-consuming foolishness he found both distracting and addictive.
It was the same level of want he’d felt when he first saw her in the Puerto Rican bar. Even though this was about to become incredibly painful, he wouldn’t initiate anything with her. That kiss in the gardens—it’d been mindboggling—had been a mistake.
Baku said,"This nauseating need for sex is annoying. She's pretty, I guess. I vote you screw her, realize it isn't all that, and then we can focus on her being the dragon healer."
"I’m not sleeping with the woman who inflicted this curse. She’s the reason my father died trying to free us from this. She’s the reason all of us have suffered for decades. If she really felt any level of remorse, she’d have found us and worked to undo it. I don’t trust her. She’s a witch. Everything she says could be a lie."
"You’re such a crybaby. You're going to make a move. It's inevitable. Do it now but be warned I might be puking in your head."
Shane rubbed his temples as his head began to pound."Stop it."
"You okay, Shane?" she asked.
How long had she been staring at him? Had she asked him anything else while he’d been arguing with Baku?
"I’m fine," he muttered.
"Okay," she said sarcastically. "Looked like I lost you there. You kind of zoned out and weren’t yourself. Your eyes swirled with that darkness. They looked like a kaleidoscope." She squinted and looked deep into his eyes. "Now they’re blue again."
"I’m in control." He needed to keep his mind focused on his mission to get free of their curse once and for all. Then they could track down everyone associated with FenCor.
He asked, "Why exactly does MI6 want you dead?"
She pulled out ingredients to make marinara. "I'll start pasta for you, but I still must go. Soon. I'm sorry. As to why they want me dead? I’ve been running since the day after your curse was cast."
"They're punishing you for casting it?"
"No." Madeline pinched the bridge of her nose and dropped her head. "You think I wanted to do it? That I wanted to force you four to serve that bitch? If I had a choice…if I hadn’t done it…the why's of me doing it are moot at this point. We’re all in this mess."
"Why are they determined to kill you?"
"Isn’t it obvious? There’s no way in hell she wanted any of you to talk to me. We might collaborate. We might figure out how to reverse it. If I die, you four can never get free. She wanted all four of you to be her legacy to all her heirs."
