Page 58 of A Lion's Heart
CHAPTER 14
She wasn’t in control.
She was accepting.
She was believing.
Nisa was driving herself insane. Decan had left her in bed for the second time. Only a few hours had passed since he’d been gone but she could still feel him as if he were lying right there. Actually, she could feel the waves of stress and anxiety that had covered him even though he’d insisted there was nothing wrong.
“There’s something,” she’d said when he’d sat in the chair across from the bed.
They’d had crazy hot sex…again. That may have been the only part about this that Nisa understood without too many questions. She was convinced that her body was made specifically for this shifter. Everything he did, every touch and kiss…all of it was exquisite and never failed to bring her to another soul-shattering orgasm. It was the before and after the sex that still perplexed her.
“There’s nothing, Nisa,” he’d said with impatience. “Everything is not a puzzle that you have to figure out.”
She’d pulled her knees up to her chest as she sat on the bed, wrapping her arms around them as she continued to stare at him.
“Believe it or not, you’re not the first person to tell me that,” she’d admitted.
Decan continued to tie his boots.
“But there’s still something,” she continued regardless of whether or not he wanted her to. “It’s like a weight sitting right between us.”
He stood then, his face stern when he looked down at her. “It’s nothing! Let it go!”
She thought about Shya’s words and considered for another moment. Hell no, that was Shya’s nature, not hers.
“I won’t let go a feeling that’s threatening my sanity, Decan Canter!” she yelled back at him.
Then she was getting off the bed and going to stand in front of him.
“You may be older and worldlier but you are not the only one in this room with a brain or an inclination to use it,” she told him. “One of the first things I learned in training was to follow your gut. Well, that’s what I’m doing and I’m telling you that something is going on.”
There was a low rumble, his lion no doubt. Displeased with her too. Well, it could get in line. Her father was angry with her for not wanting to leave with him in the morning. Gold was still irritated with her she figured for what happened at the gala and Kyss who was normally all smiles and love for everyone hadn’t shown her face in the last couple of days.
He inhaled deeply like the action would actually calm the lion inside of him. It hadn’t, she could still feel the beast’s restlessness. It was making her edgy, as if she were pacing the floor herself.
“There is nothing going on,” he said, his voice calmer this time.
Unfortunately, his eyes and the lion that continued to give away everything the man did not want her to know, told a different story.
“You should be packing to leave with your father in the morning,” he’d continued.
Whether or not it was intentional—which it probably had been to distract her—Nisa folded her arms over her bare breasts and stared up at him.
“Who said I was leaving with him?” She shrugged. “I didn’t come here with him.”
“You should leave with him,” Decan told her and then he touched her chin.
His fingers had rubbed lightly over the line of her jaw, then back to her chin as he watched her. He continued to breathe steadily, in and out, focusing on each breath. Nisa had begun to focus too, mimicking her breaths to match his and wondering why the act wasn’t calming her in the least.
“You’ve done what you came here to do. Now, you should go. You’re safer at Assembly Headquarters with your father.”
“I’m not in danger, Decan. Those innocent humans above ground who are being murdered because of a familial connection are. The shifter who hacked into our system is. But not me. I’m fine,” she’d insisted.
“That’s not true.” His voice had been solemn. “You are a target to anyone who still hunts your father. That rogue scent we picked up that first night in Florida, they knew you were there.”
“What?” Her arms had dropped to her side once more. “Nobody knows me above ground.”
