She wanted to forget more than anything. Would a few hours of being his, whatever that meant, let her forget? God, what would it be like to let him do as he so boldly implied?
The trail of heat he left between her legs had woken up more than just a few nerve endings. A burn of desire settled between her legs and she wasn’t sure she could stop the need no matter how hard she tried.
If he let her go, she’d collapse. Her legs were weak, a wobble setting in with her nerves. She’d known Tan for months longer and yet, she’d never felt like she knew him. Deo though, she saw everything in his eyes, and she couldn’t understand why.
“Is it always like this?” she asked.
A hand against her back held her tighter.
“Is what always like this?”
She had to think. What the hell had she meant? Lust? No, she’d had that a few times in her life. What had he called it, mating? Claiming? What did those mean? She didn’t actually know any shifters, not really.
“This? Love?” Her heart hammered away, and she was positive he could feel it. She said the word, love. Is that what she meant? Was that what this was?
God, his eyes. They were such an odd shade of an orange and blue that swirled. No, he wasn’t human.
“This is much deeper than what you define as love. What I offer is my soul. Your soul recognizes its true mate and no, it is different for each of us. One thing is always true, though. We know our mate the moment we see her.”
The world swam a bit. Oh crap, she’d been holding her breath.
“I, what about that date?” she asked.
Oh, gees. Had she just asked him out? He’d offered her sex, which she was positive would be mind-blowing if the bulge pressing against her stomach was any indication, but no. She’d just basically cock blocked herself.
“Aisha? You’re okay?” Tan asked.
Nope, Tan had just cock blocked her. Where the hell had he just come from?
“I. Yeah. All is fine.”
The sound of footsteps against the pavement had her pushing away from Deo.
She was still engaged. Right? Or had she just agreed she was fated to be Deo’s?
Damn it. What did any of this mean? If her soul belonged elsewhere could she really and truly actually have gone through with marrying someone else? Maybe this was why she could never see him, or anyone else as more than just a friend.
Her soul was a bitch.
Damn it, Dad! She wanted to curse her father next for being human. If he’d been something paranormal. Anything other than human. He’d still be here, and she wouldn’t have agreed to marry a stranger. Okay. He wasn’t a total stranger. They’d met when they were two, before her father had moved them away.
That wasn’t what love was supposed to be. This was the modern world, and she wasn’t held to any standards being a half witch, half human. She was supposed to be free of all social expectations, not fitting into either world. Except, her father still believed in traditions. He still believed his daughter needed to be cared for. Arranged marriages still existed for her father.
“Aisha?”
Shit, Tan was still here. She looked at him. “Yes? Where’s your new friend?”
His hands were in his pockets. “Home? But I wondered if we should go inside?”
Her eyes grew wide at the murder written all over Deo’s face.
Her mouth dropped as she watched in an almost slow-motion moment as Tan turned and started to run. Deo a blur in her eyesight as he chased him down.
“Shit. Stop. Deo, stop.”
Damn. She’d never seen a man move so fast, and she meant Tan. Deo was a fucking freight train. Tan had motivation.
Aisha took off after them, trying to catch them at least until her legs burned and her damn boobs hurt from bouncing.
Wrong fucking bra today, that was for sure. Had she known she would be running, she’d have worn some kind of sports bra, not that they ever worked. That’s why she never exercised, that and being too busy at the lab. Hell, who was she kidding. She didn’t exercise because she wasn’t built for it.
“Deo,” was the only word she got out as she took one, two, three more steps and officially stopped. Oh, Lord. She was having a heart attack. This had to be a heart attack.
No. No, that was what it felt like when you pushed a body that called climbing two flights of stairs cardio. Her hand rested on her chest as she tried to will her heart to slow the hell down.
“Deo.” She tried again.
He finally stopped a few blocks away, the black dot in the night the only thing she could make out. Tan was definitely the smaller dot.
“Deo, stop. He lives in my basement.”
Oh God. The world was spinning. She put a hand out as she sunk to the ground. Oh, Lord. She couldn’t catch her breath. Yeah. No. She needed to get back to running. Strike that. She needed to start. Right after she took a little nap. Here. In the middle of the street.
“Are you all right?”
Aisha looked up from her street view at the Deo tower.
“Weren’t you just like a mile away?”
He looked back down the street. “Perhaps? Does it matter?”
She shook her head. “Yeah. No. Whatever. You’re a dragon.”
Holding out a hand, he offered her help to get up. Lifting her lead arm, or well it seemed to be lead at the moment, she struggled to grip his hand.
“Yeah. No. I need a second. I don’t do this running thing. Also, stop chasing off people. Tan lives in my basement apartment. I rent it out for extra income and well, when Dad brought him here, he needed a place to stay.”
Deo eyed her. “Your basement?”
She leaned against her hands.
“Yes, you crazy ass dragon man. The
