Page 6 of The Demigod Complex
However, given her feelings for him, this mating ceremony was the last place they should be together. She didn’t want Castor’s last memory of her to be breaking all his rules and throwing herself at him.
“Is it me? You don’t trust me?”
She turned her head to face him, taking in his intense blue eyes trained on her in a way that made her want to squirm. His hand still covered hers, the heat of his skin like a brand.
She tipped her chin. “I just…don’t like wolf-shifter matings.”
His strangely focused expression unsettled her. A heat lit his gaze in a way she’d never seen before, not directed her way at least. Only it couldn’t be real. She gave herself a mental slap.Snap out of it, woman. Wishful thinking gets you nowhere.
“So, you do trust me?” Something in his voice snagged at her. Like this was important to him.
She swallowed. “I trust you, Castor.” Just not herself.
He squeezed her hand. “Good. I don’t want to lose you.”
She ignored the warmth his statement sent directly to her heart.He’s talking about your work, dummy.
“And I wouldn’t push, but I need you for this,” he continued.
If she leaned the tiniest bit forward, she could kiss him. Would his kisses be as electric as everything else about him? Taste like the sky, the way he smelled? Leia swallowed down the crazy urge. “Why?”
He shrugged. “I’m attending to support a good friend on an important day in his life. However, as you’ve pointed out, things can get a little…interesting…at a wolf-shifter mating. I don’t need the complication of sex muddling things up, and you have a unique resistance to me.”
“Oh.”
“Delilah did an amazing job sending you to me. You’ve been refreshingly…err…impervious, as well as an excellent assistant.”
Leia’s heart did a decent impersonation of the Hindenburg, going up in flames as it fell to her feet. He wanted her to go with him because she didn’t want him. Message received. She cleared her throat. “Thank you. I think.”
He nodded. “I can’t go to this alone and risk doing something I’d regret. I’m asking you to protect me from all those raging pheromones. Please.”
Damn the man to Hades and back.
He’d asked nicely and given her a reason that meant helping him out in a big way. Her Achilles’ heel. Ironically, she’d known the real Achilles well and had mourned his death. The demigod had been a cousin of sorts, his mother Thetis being a sea nymph.
That had been before Leia developed her aversion to the gods.
Leia took a long breath. “Okay.”
To give him credit, he didn’t gloat. Not that he would. Instead, he looked at her closely, as though gauging her sincerity. “Okay?”
“Yes.” She drew her shoulders back. “I’ll go make our arrangements now.” And then when they got back, she’d resign.
He didn’t move away or take his hand from hers. They gazed at each other, neither seemingly willing to break the strangely intimate connection. The freshly spicy scent of him filled her yet again. She’d given him that aftershave for his birthday. Now she was both regretting and savoring the gift.
This has got to stop before we get to the mating.
“May I?” She indicated the door with a jerk of her head.
Slowly, his gaze not leaving her face, Castor stepped back.
With more haste than elegance, she yanked the door open and walked to her desk.
“You’re an angel,” he called after her.
“Or a sucker,” she muttered.
“I heard that.”
