Beneath me, I hear Kane’s booming laugh.
We see another couple and another, each one in various states of ecstasy.
Kane slows briefly partway to campus.
“Why are you slowing?”
Kane points to a nearby standing stone. “These mark the boundary between coven lands and pack lands.”
Branching from either side of the stone is a faint luminous line, magically marking the boundary. I try to remember if I noticed it earlier this evening, but if I did, I’ve since forgotten.
“Why are you showing me this?” Part of me wonders if this is about Nero. Maybe his pack knows my familiar is a panther, and maybe Nero really has been poaching on lycanthrope territory.
Kane is quiet for several seconds, and with each passing moment, I feel more and more like this is about Nero.
But then, he says, “If you ever want to visit me, all you ever have to do is cross the boundary line. My pack mates and I patrol the perimeter here.”
That was not at all what I expected.
I peer over his shoulder at him. “Kane, are you…are you saying you want me to visit you even after tonight?”
Only after I say those words do I realize how much I’ve laid out on the line. Because maybe Kane doesn’t want to see me after tonight and I got it all wrong. Maybe this is where he really does pulverize my heart.
He hesitates again. “Yeah,” he eventually says, “I am.”
And then he begins to run once more, and I’m left with my giddy, churning thoughts until we reach my residence hall.
We pass the stone lamassu, and Kane sets me down in front of the door, catching me when I stumble a little.
His brows come together, and then he leans in, breathing in my scent. “Are you good?” he asks, pulling away. “If you’re not, we don’t have to do anything else toni—”
I grab him by the shirt and resume kissing him. He’s so noble, and damn it, I like that.
Kane is soooooo getting laid. And then laid again.
“I’m fine,” I whisper between one accosting kiss and the next.
That’s all the shifter needs to hear. He growls, the sound not wholly human, and presses me back against my front door as his mouth devours mine all over again.
Somewhere in that kiss, I discover Kane doesn’t taste like I expect him to, nor does his mouth move like I think it will. Each deviation throws me off.
Clearly, this is me trying to sabotage myself because it can’t handle something too good to be true actually, legitimately happening to me.
Right in the middle of the kiss, I start laughing because something too good to be true is happening to me.
“Tell me the joke,” Kane says, still peppering my laughing lips with kisses.
I shake my head against him. “I’ve liked you for so long. I can’t believe I get to kiss you now.”
In response to that, Kane’s mouth returns to mine, and for a brief minute, I’m lost to it. I still have to ignore the nagging thought that something isn’t quite right, but I push it away easily enough.
The cold nips at me, reminding me that I’m still outside in the middle of coven property when I definitely want to be doing more of this kissing in my warm room and on my cozy bed.
“Wait, wait, wait,” I breathe, placing a hand on Kane’s chest and pushing him away. “I need to open the door.”
Kane is breathing heavily, his eyes on my lips. His tongue runs along his lower lip, and I bite back a groan at the sight.
I fumble behind me, my hand groping for the door handle. It takes two tries, a small spell, and me nearly falling again before I’m able to get it open.
Kane scoops me up then before leading us both inside. He carries me up the flight of stairs to the third story, all while kissing me. It’s only as he heads down the hall toward my room that I break off the kiss.
“How do you know which room is mine?” I say, narrowing my eyes at him.
He laughs at my suspiciousness. “Don’t hex me, Selene,” he says. “I just followed your scent.”
“Oh.” Duh, Selene. Get a freaking grip.
Kane sets me down in front of my door, and this time I manage not to fumble as I unlock it. I’m about to open it when I feel the brush of magic against the back of my neck and my cheek. It moves over me like a caress, trailing over my mouth. The sensation is so real and so oddly sensual that I have to touch my fingers to my lips, goose bumps breaking out across my flesh.
There’s only one person whose power affects me this way.
I am yours forever…
“Selene?”