Page 124 of Mortal Shift
“But I didn’t do it. And more importantly, you didn’t do it. And you’re an idiot for confessing.”
“Had to keep you safe,” he said with a grunt, and then paced across the small cell. “When they told me he’d been attacked, I thought it must have been you. So I confessed, to keep them off your trail.”
“That’d be romantic, if it wasn’t so boneheaded. But Thaden’s your friend. I don’t get why you’d take the fall for me if you really thought I’d done it.”
“Don’t you?”
I shook my head and he crossed the room back to me, looming in my space and seeming to suck all the air out of the room.
“Really?” he murmured, and I shook my head again, my heart thudding in my chest, and my skin tingling with electric awareness of his presence. My mouth went dry as he lowered his head just a fraction, and my eyes darted to his lips.
He lifted one hand and tucked a stray lock of hair behind my ear, then trailed his fingers across my jaw and down my throat. I swallowed hard and my breathing hitched, and I couldn’t have torn my eyes from him if the whole world caught fire behind me. Fuck, I’d have let it burn for a single taste of his lips.
His crooked finger caught my chin, raising my eyes to meet his that smoldered with intensity.
“How about now?”
And I couldn’t deny it. Whatever this thing was between us, this physical attraction, this need, this urgency that had driven me to force my way in to see him, it couldn’t accept that he would die. And the heat in his eyes told me he felt it every bit as much as I did.
He would defend me, even if he thought I’d attacked his closest friend and ally. The brother of the woman he’d been planning to marry.
I reached up and slapped him.
He jerked back and stared at me, stunned.
“What the fuck was that for?”
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me you were engaged?” I demanded.
His head snapped round to the door, making sure we were still alone, and then he turned back to me, rubbing at his cheek with a wry smile.
“You found out about that, huh?”
I folded my arms over my chest and glared at him. “That’s one hell of a secret to keep from yourmate.”
He shrugged. “I won’t apologize for something that happened before I met you.”
“I don’t expect you to. I expect you to apologize for hiding it from me.”
“Oh, you expect, do you?” He leaned over again over me, his eyes brimming with dark promise that I desired more than anything I’d ever wanted before. Everything about me craved everything about him; his taste, his touch, his possessive alphahole streak. His gray sweatpants, and what they were hiding. Everything. His claiming bite.
I wanted him.
His lips glided across mine, teasing and tormenting, and I whimpered with my need.
I needed him.
“Mine,” he growled, and I growled the word in response.
I craved him.
The door swung open and Cole whirled on the spot, an inhuman snarl bursting from his throat as he positioned himself between me and the guard.
“Shut the fuck up, Bryant,” the guard snapped. “Your time’s up.”
“Fuck off,” Cole spat in response. “We’re busy.”
“Let me put it like this, mutt. She comes with me now, or she can stay here with you and rot.”
