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He releases a shuddering breath and shifts his head in the slightest of nods. “I know I shouldn’t ask this, not with so much still uncertain, but can I… can I kiss you?”
A resounding yes springs to my lips, but I hesitate to speak the word. He still doesn’t know that I’m Connor’s mate, and that seemed to matter a great deal to Donovan and Nolan. “There’s one more thing you should probably know first.”
“After,” he insists gently, guiding my arms around his neck. “Tell me after.”
“It’s kind of important,” I argue, but it isn’t all that convincing with the way I press myself against him, drunk on the chance to finally feel his lips on mine.
“I don’t want to know,” he replies, his touch following the curves of my body. “Not right now.” His breath smells of cinnamon as it falls in weighted puffs. “In this moment, can you just be mine?”
“Okay,” I relent in a lovesick sigh, unable to fight the pull of desire even if I wanted to.
Everything I remember pales in comparison to the reality of his kiss. The world shifts beneath me when his mouth finally claims mine, gravity no longer tethering me to Earth. He consumes me, dominates me, until all I can think about and feel is him. As everything around us turns into a dizzying blur of color and sound, he is my anchor in this existence—the sun in which I orbit.
All of my senses are filled with nothing but Kaleb—his spicy taste, the way he smells of sandalwood and old books, and the feeling of his thickly muscled body pressing into mine, molding me to him as his fingers dig into my softer flesh.
A moan escapes me as his tongue expertly dances with mine, and he hums with masculine pleasure, clearly delighted with the way I burn under his heated caresses. I rock up to my tiptoes, desperate to feel more of him against me, and his hands slide to my ass, lifting and pulling me closer.
I can’t tell if I’m floating or drowning, my lungs stinging with the need to breathe, while I’m weightless under the overwhelming power of his strength. My air is his, and his is mine, and I’m ready to exist only on the stolen breath from each other’s lungs so this moment never has to end.
The outside world invades, though, despite my vehement opposition in the form of hoots and howls of nearby onlookers. Kaleb’s hands move from my ass to my waist, holding me protectively as he turns his attention to the irritating interlopers. We seemed to have stopped near a pizza restaurant, and several members of the baseball team are now witness to our very public display of affection.
I go quickly from feeling burning desire to nuclear embarrassment as Kaleb meets the good natured ribbing with a mask of tight, fake smiles. He says all the right things to placate their teasing, but I can tell being the center of attention is making him uncomfortable. Kaleb is a private person, even if that kiss would argue the contrary. Not wanting him to suffer any longer than necessary, I lie that we have dinner reservations to get to, and we make a quick escape.
We walk back to the restaurant with our arms wrapped around each other’s waists, and I’m fluctuating between giddy excitement and nervous trepidation. No matter how much I want it to mean more, until he says he’s in, the kiss was a stolen moment, not a promise of a future.
Kaleb sighs like he’s bracing himself. “What was it you needed to tell me?”
His question brings all the others back to the forefront of my mind, and my throat feels suddenly tight. It’s Connor’s birthday dinner, and I know he felt every moment that just happened. Well, at least he knows we weren’t arguing.
Preparing for Kaleb to react as extreme as Nolan and Donovan did when they heard the news, I savor the last moments of feeling his arm wrapped around me. Staring straight ahead, I state as neutrally as possible, “I’m Connor’s mate.”
Kaleb stumbles and almost launches us into another tree. “You’re what? How? When?”
Happy that he at least hasn’t bolted away from me, I choose my words carefully. “It happened before we left for Arizona last Thanksgiving. I don’t want to get into specifics, but Connor and I had to work through some stuff afterward before I, um, accepted him and the bond. That didn’t happen until a few months ago.”
He stops in his tracks and looks down at me. “The mate bond is something that is supposed to be mutually made. It can’t be forced on someone.”
“It wasn’t forced, so much as I didn’t fully understand what was happening,” I reply, the words coming out more like a question.
I expected fear like Donovan or possibly cutting indignation like Nolan, but Kaleb is something entirely new. Shaking with a rage I’ve never seen from him, he quietly asks, “Are you saying he tricked you into bonding with him for life?”
Oh crap!
“It’s fine now. We worked through it,” I answer, rubbing his back and hoping that will somehow calm him down.
“This is not fine. He tricked you,” he exclaims, his breaths coming out in heated gasps. In a quieter voice, he asks, “Do the others know?”
“That I’m his mate? Yes,” I reply quickly, nervousness causing my heart to beat faster than a hummingbird’s. “But not how it happened. No one’s asked except you.”
With exceptional care, he extracts himself from my touch, and with the righteous fury of a hundred avenging archangels, he storms back toward the restaurant. I scurry after him, trying to explain how I was also angry at first, but we worked it out, and now everything is okay. I want to be his mate.
I might as well be talking to a brick wall.
It’s no surprise when I see Connor sprinting out of the restaurant, frantically searching for me as he senses my growing panic. The rest of the guys tumble out of the door after him just in time to catch Kaleb punching him so hard in the stomach that Connor collapses to the ground.
“You son of a bitch,” Kaleb spits, glowering down at him. “She was raised in the human world, and you used it against her. I can’t believe you tricked her. It’s her whole life, and you took it without her knowing.”
I feel woozy as pain flashes like stars—the echo of Connor’s injury ricocheting into me. “Stop,” I gasp, stumbling between the two of them. “I know you’re angry because you care, but it’s over now. I could have broken the bond, and I chose not to.”
