He’d done it anyway.
He watched Esha squeeze Cadan’s shoulder in comfort and the gesture made him grit his teeth. Jealousy? It was ridiculous.
“I’ll be back soon,” Cadan said. “Call me if Diana returns before I do.”
Esha turned back to the room and her gaze stopped on him. “Why are you looking at Cadan like you want to tear his head off?”
He scrubbed a hand over his face. Gods, now she was noticing that he was acting crazy. “I wasn’t. Where’d he go?”
“To check something at the university. He didn’t explain.” She strolled into the kitchen and hopped up onto the counter across from him.
It was bloody hard to keep his eyes on her face. Not only would he be alone with her now, she was sitting so close he could smell her. Damn it. He really needed to get himself together. He was a mess over her. A soulceress.
Her kind were dangerous. He had every right to be wary of them. In fact, he should be staying the hell away from her. The hell he’d gone through as a result of tangling with another soulceress was directly responsible for the celibacy that she was threatening. He could only imagine what a mess he’d be in if he actually slept with her.
“Can I ask you something, Warren?” She swung her long legs. Back and forth, back and forth. Like a metronome to which he wanted to keep his eyes glued.
He dragged his gaze up to hers. “Is it about going to Diana and interfering?”
“Damn it, you know I had to do that. And I didn’t screw anything up!”
He frowned, then flattened his mouth to wipe it away. “Nay, you dinna.”
“That’s right. And that wasn’t my question.” She hopped down off the counter and stepped toward him so that she stood right in front of him.
Her eyes glinted gold in the light and her lips were a red that drew his eyes. He swore his mouth actually watered at the scent of her, so close and so lovely. His mind was starting to fog.
“Your question?” His voice was rough, embarrassingly so.
“Why are you hot and cold with me?”
“Hot and cold?” He swore his brain was shutting down and it was making a ball of pa
nic rise in his throat.
“You know, you used to avoid me on campus, but then you invited me to join the Praesidium.”
“That’s just good business. You’re good at what you do.” It reminded him of what she was. Of why he needed to be wary. He felt his face harden.
“See,” she said. “There it is. Your face changed. You were looking at me like you liked me, like you wanted me, and now you’re looking at me like I’m a snake in your garden.”
“I doona know what you mean.” But he did. She’d nailed him. The hot and cold of what he wanted from her and what he knew he couldn’t have. She made him want to chuck his celibacy out the window.
“I think you do. I think you like me.” She raised a hand to his neck and a shudder wracked him.
“You like that. I can feel it,” she said.
A woman hadn’t touched him like that in centuries. He wanted it so badly he ached. Touch, warmth, a release from the self-imposed iron cage of control that kept his demons at bay. She offered it all.
His cock swelled and punched against his pants and that fog fell across his brain again. She was so warm and soft and close. He reached up to cup the back of her neck to draw her to him.
The heat of her skin against his fingertips shocked some sense into him. He jerked his hand away and stepped backward until he bumped into the counter. Gods, that was so close. He’d been so damn close to losing it. And he would, with her. One touch, one taste, and he’d be lost.
To a damn soulceress.
“What?” she asked, confusion and hurt on her face. She moved toward him.
He sidestepped. This had to stop. He couldn’t fight it.