Page 70 of Tainted Gifts
"Aria," he mutters while pressing his lips to mine, and I wrap my legs around him to pin him in place. "Shit," he growls. "I can't. You can't have sex for forty-eight hours. I would gladly, so gladly, give you exactly what you want otherwise."
Fucking shit. I forgot about that.
He groans while rolling over to his side, bringing me with him as he presses my bare body to his. I feel so good now, when just moments ago I almost prayed for death.
"Why do you want me so much when you're with me, yet you don't want me when you're with him?" he asks, letting his fingers trace the lines of my back.
I sigh out, painfully acknowledging the toll this is taking on him.
"I always want you. That's never the issue. The fact of the matter is I'm not supposed to. I'm supposed to feel this way about him. I don't even want to be with him when I'm with you. I barely want to be with him when I'm with him. It's fucking ridiculous."
For the first time, I said it all aloud to him. It feels so good and so painful at the same time.
He sighs, silently agreeing with how crazy this has all become. He's read my mind though. He knows what I feel for Kellan, and it's nothing in comparison to what I feel for him.
"I wish you were my counter," I murmur in such a soft whisper that I wonder if I even really said it aloud.
Tears start slipping free from my eyes with a new purpose, and he presses his lips to my head, letting his delicious chill cool me more.
"So do I, but I'm not strong enough to be such a thing," he says, making me rise up with quizzical eyes.
"You mean... because you're full blood," I say to correct him.
He shakes his head, his lips thinning. "I have something to tell you, and I pray you take it a little better than you took learning about the fact I was commander. You'll be the only one in your family who knows."
I tilt my head, bemused.
"O... kay. Tell me."
He looks toward the door, making sure it's shut, keeping the room soundproof, and then he leans back, staring into my eyes with his pale blues. I gasp when they turn a cosmic blue... a hybrid blue.
"Jase! What the hell? You can't be a-"
"I'm not," he says in interruption, letting his breath come out heavily. "I'm a full blood hybrid. Just like the children with mismatched eyes. When they hit puberty - when the change hits - they'll be able to choose their eye color just as I can. Just as... Melania can. They can also choose their temperature, if they're like me instead of her."
I cover my mouth while staying against him. This is huge. This is so fucking huge.
"It is," he murmurs, scared of my reaction.
I pull him to me, letting my lips find his again, and then I feel the relief flood through him as the thin material of his boxers starts to let me feel his desire in firm form again. I push my hand to be beneath the fabric, finding his skin, and he gasps.
Then I pull back, narrowing my eyes as I stop playing vixen. "So Melania... she's like you? She's not really a forgotten? She's really your sister?"
He shakes his head. "I never told you any of that. Your uncle did. I didn't want to lie to you, at least not to the extent he did. Melania isn't my sister, but she wasn't a forgotten. She is like me, just like me, just not as strong. My father is hybrid, my mother is full blood. Apparently that's a stronger combination. Mel's father is full blood and her mother is hybrid. Though we would both be considered level sevens, her power isn't anywhere close to being as strong as mine."
This is all so surreal.
"So... why did she claim hybrid and why did you claim full blood?" I ask, confused by all of this.
"Our full blood parents lived together. They pretended to raise us as their own, while our hybrid parents lived together, pretending as though they were just friends. Funny thing is, their apartments were and still are side by side, so they just go through the private door installed between the two for them to swap discreetly.
"We were both supposed to pose as full blood once our eyes changed and we could quit wearing contacts. Our blood is immortal, just like yours. Mel's gift slipped up and came out though. At a training seminar, a guy snuck up on her, threw her against a wall. He was showing how guarded you should always be, but he was the one caught off guard when she used her gift to bring him to his knees. She has the ability to force you to feel the burn of uranium.
"Needless to say, we had some explaining to do. Hale Banner stepped up. I came to learn that he knew about us all along. He's the one who introduced our parents and gave them the solution of how to keep their secret.
"The committee called my parents to meet with them and the commander, though they had no idea Hale was in on it. Mom was freaking out, worried about what would happen to Mel. Her mom was twice as panicked since she couldn't even be there.
"When they got there, Hale told the committee he knew Mel was hybrid, and he suspected she might one day be gifted. Mom said he was awesome. He had complete composure, didn't seem the least bit rattled. He excused her eyes by presenting cases of others whose eyes really had changed to mimic the eyes of the ones raising them. He even told them they had told others she was full blood because they didn't want her to know she was adopted until it was time.
