Page 34 of Bad Bunny

---

Aroused?

I pull air into my nose, and there is it. Something sweet, yet heated. Feminine but untamed. The smell of wild roses that climb a trellis in a hidden, forgotten garden. It’s unmistakable. Universal, yet specific only to Nora.

But why? Who?

Is she thinking of me?

Of that odious ex-boyfriend, Seth?

It better not be Seth.

My hands clench into fists at the thought.

Suddenly I’m not tired anymore. I’m wide awake. I’m wishing my magic powers included telepathy so I could see into her mind and heart.

To know if it’smethat she wants.

It hits me. My mate is in the room with me. In the same bed. Inches away. The animal part of me that acts on instinct alone scrabbles against its cage, claws digging into my mind as it strains toward her.

It begs me to move, to act, to claim what is mine.

I roll away and pull a pillow over my head.

***

Nora

There’s something wrong with me.

I’m supposed to be asleep. Or at the very least planning for tomorrow. My life is in danger. My mother’s life is in danger.

And yet…

All I can think about is the man, rabbit, next to me.

I hold my breath, listening as hard as I can, as though I might be able to track the slow rise and fall of his breathing through the wall of pillows between us. Like if I really focus, I might hear his heartbeat.

Can he hear mine? Like earlier, in the car.

My skin remembers things my mind does not want to.

The bite.

The way my body went loose and heavy beneath his hands.

The way his arm flexed when he lifted my bag and placed it in the car.

The way his eyes followed me in the restaurant when I was too tired to keep my sarcasm sharp. Too overwhelmed to pretend I had everything under control.

Sorren had known what to do.

How to feed me. How to steady me. How to make the world feel smaller. Safer.

I’ve dated men for months, years, and none of them ever looked at me the way he does. Like he’s cataloguing me. Memorizing me. Like I matter.

My stomach twists with too many emotions to name. Need. Confusion.

How can this be? How can I want someone I met yesterday this badly?

---