How wrong I’d been.
He slowly opened his eyes, glowing blue orbs that I swore lit up the entire room. I felt my eyes widen more as our gazes stayed locked. And for a long second, neither of us moved. He stared at me and I at him, and then I forced myself to pull out of the trance I was in.
I moved away so quickly I fell off the side of the bed, my shirt riding up, my lower panty-covered half coming into full view. Here I was, sprawled out, my legs spread from the fall, Cian’s gaze latched at the most intimate part of me covered only by a thin layer of cotton.
His nostrils flared, that very inhuman sound leaving him. And God help me… I got wetter.
I snapped my legs closed and crab walked backward until the wall stopped my retreat, then forced myself to stand, my palms flat on the wall, my breathing erratic. I couldn’t move as I watched him stalk around the bed and come closer to me. I felt the electricity in the air, causing the hairs on my arms to stand on end.
He stopped when he was a few feet from me, the heat from his body slamming into mine, my chest rising and falling faster and harder. I felt beads of sweat lining my temples before sliding down, his gaze riveted to the descent. I held my breath and tensed when he reached out—his hand, I swore, was as big as my face. And then I felt his finger trail along the side of my head, collecting that droplet before he pulled his hand back and brought it to his mouth. I bit my tongue to hold off the small whimper that would’ve come through.
And when he slipped the digit between his lips, and sucked that salty droplet off, my mouth parted in shock. The rumble that came from him was sharp and speared right to the most intimate part of me. I clenched my thighs together, my panties sticking to my folds.
He took another step closer, and one more until we were toe-to-toe. My head was tipped back and resting against the wall, my gaze locked on his. He was handsome, astoundingly so. His hair was short and dark, the strands looking so soft, even though he seemed gritty and masculine in all other ways. My fingers twitched to rise up and touch those locks, to tangle my fingers in them and jerk him toward me.
I’d never seen a man so masculine, never seen one so large, so strong. His shoulders were broad, his chest wide and strong and blocking out everything behind him. Even with the shadows and darkness ascending around us, I could see him clearly, being as close as we were, and I grew drunk off the sight of Cian.
I’d never been more sure than in that moment that this man was not wholly human. His size, the way he looked, the sounds that came from him all attested to the fact that there was something very deep within him, something very dangerous, dark, and… arousing.
“If ye’d just…” he said but trailed off, as if he either couldn’t bring the words out or couldn’t form them to make me understand. I saw this war waging on his face, and something in me cracked.
He lifted his hand again, and I flinched. It was an involuntary reaction, and it wasn’t even because I was afraid or thought he’d hurt me, but he clearly thought so by the way his square jaw clenched and he curled his fingers into his palm.
“I’ll never hurt ye,” he said with so much conviction I felt the words. “I’d kill myself, let my body be tortured and torn apart, burned and broken irrevocably, just tae make sure ye’re whole and safe.”
A small sound of shock left me.
“It’s the truth, my wee lass.”
My eyelids fluttered on their own at the way he said my wee lass, as if the words were just as much an endearment as they were a branded stamp that I was his.
“I know,” I found myself saying before I even realized it, before I even knew if it was my actual truth. But as I stared at him and saw that just being here in front of him was some kind of awe-inspiring moment for him, I knew this man—Lycan male—would lay his life down for me without a second thought.
He had his hands on the wall on either side of my head, his big body leaned forward, caging me in, making me feel small. “If ye’d just let me touch ye, hold ye”—he looked down at my lips—“kiss ye, Evie, ye’ll see how good and right it is tae be together.”
His spicy, dark scent made me liquid, causing tingles to move through my body before settling between my thighs. My clit throbbed in time with my pulse, my pussy getting wetter, opening, readying itself for what only he could give me.