Drake had snorted at his words, but Lyndi’s reaction had been more dangerous given the humans around to witness. Her eyes flared red, glowing and brilliant.
“Just because I’m sterile doesn’t make me worthless,” she’d practically spat at him.
Back to that same original misunderstanding.
“Which is not what I meant, and you know it,” he’d answered back.
Only her eyes had gone brighter, sparking with flame. To hide her face until she could get herself under control, Levi had quickly stepped into her and drawn her into his arms for a dance, making sure to use his broad shoulders as a shield.
For once, she hadn’t yanked away. In fact, after a minute she’d huffed a breath. “Thanks.”
The fact that she’d even relaxed slightly against him had made him do something probably pretty stupid. He’d pulled her closer, their combined heat mingling, and inhaled the smoky sweet scent of her hair.
“I always seem to rub you up the wrong way.” He’d gone over this a hundred times since, wondering why he’d said that. Those words came out too easily, lulled by the slow music and the sway of their bodies. “Why is that?”
“Maybe I want you to rub me up the right way,” Lyndi had quipped.
Her response was seared into his memory. She’d sure as hell shocked him. Blood had surged through him, making him hard and hot at the same time. Only the jolt of hope had been followed by a sudden drop when she’d immediately jerked to a standstill in the middle of that dance floor.
Not looking at him, eyes lowered, Lyndi shook her head, then dropped his hand and stepped back. “I don’t know why I said that. A stupid joke. It didn’t come out right. Ignore me.” Her laugh might have sounded forced. He still wasn’t sure because of the dull roar filling his own head. His dragon didn’t take disappointment well.
“Too much wine,” she’d mumbled.
She’d fucking taken it back, just like that. Then she walked away without a second glance.
He hadn’t followed. Maybe that made him a total idiot, but Lyndi wasn’t exactly easy. Look at what happened under that bush and then out from under it. The conflicting signals. He’d been so sure she wanted him, and then she’d shut him down hard.
She’d been shutting him down for hundreds of years.
He intended to end that. Today.
“That’s all,” Finn announced.
Out of the corner of his eye, Levi was aware that his alpha turned to him. “Let’s talk about getting you there safely,” Finn said.
Levi watched Lyndi slip out the door ahead of all the others, not looking at him. Levi couldn’t follow. Not yet. Everyone else shuffled out, still buzzing over the news, casting him furtive looks. Kanta clapped him on the shoulder before leaving him there with Finn and Drake.
“Actually, boss,” he said slowly, turning back to the two alphas. “I need to think about this first.”
“I get that,” Finn said. “But there’s no time.”
Story of his fucking life. Two hundred years hadn’t been enough time to figure Lyndi out. A week… That was nothing, a blip. Blast and damn this war.
With a nod, they got into discussing the safest route for him to take. Something that took a solid twenty minutes. Trying not to look like the hounds of hell were after him, Levi finally left the room with only one thought.
Finding Lyndi.
As soon as he reached the main level, the general chatter of the common rooms of their home hit him. Just the normal, everyday stuff. Sounds he’d taken for granted until now. How was he going to leave this? The second he showed his face in the kitchen, though, everyone went dead silent.
“No. No way,” he said, trying his best to give them an easy grin. “Long faces are off limits around here. I’ll go win this war for the king and then be back before you even miss me.”
“Who said we’re going to miss you?” Hall popped off from where he sat on a stool at the island counter. Snakelike eyes, barely passable as human, glowed lime-green against smooth, honey-bronzed skin.
Hall’s sense of humor always was an acquired taste, but the comment seemed to signal the others to go back to their kind of normal. Which they sort of did, though the tension lingered in the air. An unspoken heaviness of loss. One more hit. They’d been taking a lot of hits lately.
“Hey,” Levi said quietly to Attor who was closest to him. “Where’s Lyndi?”
“Her room, I think.”
Levi was out of the door before Attor finished speaking. Following Lyndi’s lingering scent, he moved into the foyer and up the grand staircase that led to the living quarters, right past his own suite to the one at the end of the second-floor hall. Forget knocking. She’d probably ignore him anyway.
Trying the handle, he found it unlocked and let himself in.
Then slammed to a halt at the sight of her standing, facing the door, eyes wide at his intrusion, tears streaming down her cheeks, glistening in the soft lighting.
Holy hell. Tears for him?
The breath in his lungs deserted him in a harsh whoosh, leaving him light-headed. With only a single thought—making those tears stop—he prowled across the room to cup her face in his hands, brushing at the damp streaks on her cheeks with his thumbs.
“I thought you’d be happy I’m leaving,” he said quietly. “You hate me.”
She huffed a laugh and rolled her eyes, the move so familiar he’d swear she was about to lay into him, only, vulnerable as she was, she could hide nothing of her reaction. He caught the slight quiver to her lips.
Driven beyond the limits of his control, he lowered his head and kissed her. Soft and sweet, trying to offer comfort. Trying his damnedest not to act on instincts that screamed at him to take it further.
With a whimpered sound, she scooted closer, wrapping her arms around him, opening under him, turning the kiss into something…desperate. Urgent.
His entire body went hot and tight with instant, vicious need. Because she couldn’t deny him anymore. His dragon loosed a rumble that was both pure anticipation and warning. They’d both waited a long time for this. Too damn long.
Levi jerked his head up and sucked in sharply. “Gods above, Lyndi.” But he didn’t yet claim what she was offering. “I want you so much I ache with it. Tell me you feel the same.”
A flash of vulnerability set her eyes swirling with the molten crimson of her fire. “I have nothing to give to you,” she whispered.
Levi growled and gave in, kissing her. Hard. He poured an almost violent need to shake her for saying that about herself into the kiss he ravaged her with. And Lyndi, usually all fire and fight, softened against him as though giving in, surrendering. An action that twined around his heart. With a groan, he tempered the kiss, turning it into something else. Something more. Something that drugged his mind and sent her moaning against him.