He leaned even closer until she felt his breath on her cheek. "Fuck, Layla, don't do that. Right here, right now, it's just us. I don't want to talk about other males or females. I want to know you, lass, and only you."
Her dragon spoke up. He means it, I can tell. Stop trying to push him away already.
At her dragon's words, she resisted a sigh. I promise I don't try to do it deliberately.
Don't tell me. Talk to him.
Chase watched her, waiting. Unused to speaking freely about her thoughts, it took Layla a second to say, "Sorry. It's just unreal still, aye? You being here, looking at me like that."
He smiled, humor in his eyes. "Like what?"
"You know what."
He gently ran his thumb over her knuckles. "No, I don't. Enlighten me, lass. I can be a bit thick at times when it comes to females."
She narrowed her eyes and Chase waggled his eyebrows. She couldn't help but laugh. "You're incorrigible."
Kissing her hand again, he murmured, "I'm still waiting for you to describe this look I have."
For most of the last seventeen years, ever since she'd started her medical training at eighteen, Layla had learned to hold back part of herself in order to do her work. Yet, as she stared into Chase's eyes, she realized how much she wanted to be able to say whatever came to mind. So, for the first time in a long time, she did. "You keep looking at me as if I'm the only female in the world, and that you'd like nothing better than to eat me up."
In a flash, Chase tugged her into his lap and held her close. With his strong arms around her, his solid chest against her side, and even his arousal pressing against her outer thigh, her entire body was on fire, aching to have more than just an embrace.
Layla was starting to understand how a mate-claim frenzy had begun as an afterthought, if all true mates had the same chemistry as she and Chase.
Not that chemistry was enough, she reminded herself.
Chase nuzzled his nose against her cheek as he said, "Your assessment of my look is correct." He moved his mouth to her ear, his hot breath tickling her with each syllable. "And it's not going to fade anytime soon, so get used to it."
She snorted. "If I didn't know this clan so well, I'd dare you to keep looking at me like that for as long as possible."
He moved to catch her gaze again, a smile on his lips. "And because you know the clan so well?"
Without thinking, she moved a finger to trace the bridge of his nose. "Because I do, I know your stubbornness would try to see it through, no matter what, especially if a bet was involved. And then our secret wouldn't be one anymore, would it?"
"I don't need a bet to keep looking at you like I do, Layla."
The truth in his words did something to her heart. "How can you be so certain of that? Neither of us had parents with some happily-ever-after love story. Love and wanting can fade, Chase. It happens all the time."
She expected him to deflect and change the subject, but he searched her eyes as he said, "Aye, both of our parents' happy endings didn't last. But their stories aren't ours, and we can make our own, lass. Even given how much of a bastard my father was to my mum when he abandoned her, there are people out there like Lorna MacKenzie, who loved her mate for nearly thirty years after his death."
"It's easier to stay in love with someone if they remain a memory."
He tucked a section of hair behind her ear. "What's made you so cynical, Layla? Tell me."
Chase was asking for even more of herself. She shifted in her seat, debating what to do. No one knew the full extent of her sister's silence, not even the clan leader. Her mother was determined to pretend everything was normal, and her father had agreed. After the second or third year, Layla had lacked the energy to keep fighting them as she became head doctor.
So telling Chase would be a bloody big deal.
Her dragon spoke softly. You're doing it again. How can he get to know us if you don't share things?
She finally met Chase's eyes again. At the patience and curiosity burning in them, she finally blurted, "What do you know about my younger sister, Yasmin?"
Chase had known that Layla put on a façade to be the clan doctor, showing a certain side of herself to everyone.
However, despite his years of watching her, not even he had realized how little she talked of herself until this evening.
Some males might be upset at all the hesitating and attempts at deflection. But to Chase, it only made him more curious. And not just because he wanted to become the one she leaned on, either. The more he learned about Layla MacFie, the hungrier he grew to know even more. Aye, she was a doctor, but there was so much more to her, he was certain. And he was starting to think he'd do anything to bring out that other side of her, the one she kept from everyone else.