Page 46 of Feral

Even so, my body had a different opinion on the subject. I moved one hand up to the back of her head, her silken hair slipping through my fingers, and the moment my hand gripped the back of her neck, Daphne let out a breathy sigh that nearly undid me.

“Ya like that?” I asked.

“Yes. It makes me feel…”

“What?”

“Safe.”

“Ya are with me. I swear it.”

“I know that. But then you go and say things that are rude and I’m confused.”

I cringed at that, knowing that aye, I had been a right arse to her since the moment we met. But how did I tell her that the instincts firing inside of me scared me more than anything ever had in my life? That if I ever saw that hate and fear in her eyes, it would kill me? None of that made sense to me and I knew the reason for it now. If I told her, Daphne would run from me and…

That would be for the best. And yet, I can’t do it.

I pressed my forehead to hers and closed my eyes.

“I’m sorry. It’s hard to explain why I’m actin’ this way.”

One of her hands glided up to my cheek, threading through the beard that was a part of my glamour. Her touch left sparks in its wake and I nuzzled into it in spite of myself.

“I would never betray you,” she said. “You tell me that I don’t have to be afraid of you. And you don’t have to be afraid of me either.”

Twenty-four hours. That’s how long we’d known one another. And yet, I believed her.

I opened my eyes to find her closer than before. It would be such an easy thing to bridge the tiny space between our mouths and…

The knock on the door jolted us both out of this insanity. Daphne was off my lap so fast she almost stumbled and I had to reach out and steady her.

“I’m alright,” she said with a shaky smile.

When she sat down, Daphne scooted all the way to the window on the opposite side of the cabin and I was glad of it. The further away she was, the more control I could regain. The waitress gave us both a shy grin, as if trying to hide her own embarrassment about walking in on us like that.

“Put them both over here,” Daphne directed, not giving me a chance to eat anywhere but right across from her.

I stared at the lass, wondering why she would want me so close to her after I’d grabbed her like that. When the waitress had left, Daphne cleared her throat and motioned to the place across from her.

“Won’t you join me for lunch, Fraser?”

Words failed me for a moment before I cleared my throat and simply nodded.

Her smile widened, the sunlight glinting off her wavy hair and bringing out unexpected red highlights in dark tresses. When I sat opposite her, she handed me a napkin and proceeded to cut her sandwich into quarters. I hadn’t noticed before how long her fingers were, nor how deliberate she was about things.

“You had said earlier that you were alright with us being friends,” she said, “and I think a good step toward that might be for us to talk about your family, since I’ll be spending a few days with them.”

“After the way I’ve behaved just now, you seem very calm.”

Her cheeks flushed pink and she took a sip of water.

“We need to reset and this seemed a good way to do it. Wouldn’t you agree?”

I would and yet, it also annoyed me that she seemed able to move past the way my body reacted to hers with such ease. Maybe it wasn’t the same for her, maybe her skin didn’t still tingle with the remembered pressure of my body against hers. And if that was case…

It’s good and I must accept that.

“Aye, this would be good,” I said.

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