Page 43 of A Lion's Heart
“Well, since you technically stalked me for about what? Six months? Without me knowing, then I’d say I had nothing to do with that, so how could I know anything.”
“But you felt it. That day as you packed your Tracer. You didn’t startle when I came up behind you because you knew I was there,” he said, keeping his gaze leveled on hers.
Yes, he enjoyed looking at her body and yes, they were only about three feet apart and he figured he could just reach out and touch any part of that body he wanted to at the moment. But he wanted to look into her eyes, to know what he was feeling was reciprocated. Decan had no idea why that was so important to him now. It had never been before.
“I knew someone was there. We were packing to leave. I had a team,” she said.
“You wanna know why I watched you all those months?” he asked as he took a step toward her.
She wrapped the towel around her body and tucked it beneath her arms. “Why?”
“Because I knew,” he whispered. “I knew there was a connection.”
Thecompanheiroconnection.
He’d known and yet he’d tried to resist it. To ignore its lure and implications. He did not want a mate. The years he’d been a captive in the SIC had shown him the dangers of being a shifter. Of mating and possibly creating more shifters. No. He would not be a part of bringing new life into such a volatile world.
“Each time I tried to leave Assembly Headquarters, I was brought right back. When I wanted to go in the opposite direction of where I knew you would be. I ended up just feet away from you once more. I was drawn to you and you were to me.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t know you were there.”
“Didn’t you?” Decan asked and this time he did touch her.
He grabbed her by her waist and lifted her to sit on the small vanity.
“Didn’t you feel me?”
“No,” she whispered, her voice just a little shakier than it had been just seconds ago.
“Not physically,” he told her and then touched his fingers lightly to her temple. “Mentally.”
“You see, thecompanheiroconnectionis stronger than the physical hunger of mated shifters,” he continued, letting his fingers slide down her cheek. “It’s a mind, body and soul connection that very few shifters experience before the lust takes over.”
“There was lust,” she said and licked her lips. “All those months I wondered why it was getting stronger. Right from the start there was lust between us. It’s only grown in the short time we’ve been together.”
He nodded.
“And again, the mental.”
Decan lowered his face to hers, he touched his forehead to hers and closed his eyes. “That night you thought I called you by another woman’s name,” he said quietly. “I didn’t. Not verbally. You knew that name because you pulled it out of my mind. You used our connection to see a part of my past I wished I’d never lived through.”
She gasped.
“You’re the only one that’s ever been able to do that,” Decan continued. “Just you, Nisa. Just. You.”
His hands were on her knees now, pushing them apart.
Nisa swallowed. And she did not speak.
Well, to hell with that, she was tired of playing like she didn’t possess a coherent thought, or logical vocabulary.
“I heard you say her name,” she told him. “You said Mar—“
He leaned in and touched his lips to hers at that moment. His tongue moved slowly against hers and damn, hers followed its direction as if it were made for that reason alone. In seconds she was tilting her head and leaning into the kiss. Her eyes were closed, his hands warm against her skin.
Marlee.
She heard the name and was about to say something to him, but then she realized he was still kissing her. His hands were moving steadily up the inside of her thighs but his lips were most definitely still on hers, his tongue stroking against hers in a fashion designed to drive her crazy with desire.
