Page 30 of Entranced
Mel dug into her popcorn and settled into the movie.
“You going to eat all that?”
“Hmm?” Distracted, she turned her head. Then jerked it back quickly. She’d practically been lip-to-lip with Sebastian. “What?”
“You going to share, or what?”
She stared a moment. Wasn’t it odd how his eyes seemed to glow in the dark? When he tapped a finger on the box of popcorn in her lap, she blinked.
“Oh, yeah. Help yourself.”
He did, enjoying her reaction to him every bit as much as the buttery popcorn.
She smelled … fresh. Sebastian kept part of his mind on the twists and turns of the plot and let the rest wander at will. He found it pleasant to be able to scent her soap-and-water skin over the aromas of the theater. Ifhe let himself, he could hear her pulse beating. Steady, very steady, and strong—and then a quick jerk and flutter when the action heated up on-screen.
What would her pulse do if he touched her now? If he were to shift his body and take that wide, unpainted mouth with his own?
He thought he knew. He thought he could wait and see.
But he couldn’t quite resist a gentle poke into her own thoughts.
Idiot! If she knows somebody’s after her, why is she bopping down the street in the dark? How come they always have to make women eitherdumb or helpless? There she goes—running into the park. Oh, sure, it makes perfect sense to haul her butt into the bushes where he can slit her throat. Ten to one she trips … Yep.
Oh, well, that one deserves to get iced.
She crunched on more popcorn, and Sebastian heard her wish absently that she’d added more salt.
Her thoughts stuttered to a halt, then tangled into confusion. What he was reading in her head he could see on her face.
She sensed him. She didn’t understand what it was, but she sensed an intrusion and was instinctively blocking it.
The fact that she did, the fact that she could, intrigued him. It was very rare for anyone outside his family to feel his scannings.
There was some power here, he mused. Untapped, and certainly denied. He toyed with the idea of pushing a little deeper. Beside him, Ana stirred.
“Don’t be rude, Sebastian,” she said gently.
Relenting, reluctantly, he gave himself over to the movie.
He reached for some popcorn, and his fingers brushed Mel’s. She flinched. He grinned.
***
“Pizza,” Morgana said when they stepped outside. “With the works.”
Nash ran a hand down her hair. “I thought you said you wanted Mexican.”
She smiled, patting her belly. “We changed our minds.”
“Pizza,” Ana agreed. “No anchovies.” She smiled at Mel. “How about it?”
Mel felt herself linked in this ring of good fellowship. “Sure. That sounds—”
“We can’t,” Sebastian interrupted, laying a hand on her shoulder.
Curious, Morgana pursed her lips. “I’ve never known you to turn down food, darling.” She shot a quick, humorous look at Mel. “Cousin Sebastian has outrageous appetites. You’d be amazed.”
“Mel’s much too practical-minded to be amazed,” Sebastian said coolly. “What astonishes, she merely dismisses.”
