I wrote Jeb a note that I was going over to a friend’s house and left the paper on the dining table. Ten minutes later, I was standing in front of August’s front door. I lifted my finger to the ringer, but before I could press it, the door opened.
August stood on the threshold, shirt flapping open, as though I’d caught him in the middle of undressing.
“How-how did you know I was here?” My voice tripped in time with my pulse.
He tapped his bare midriff. “I have this nifty, built-in mate-detector. I believe you possess the same one.”
My stomach was tied in too many knots to sense much over my heightened nerves. “Can I . . . can I come in?”
He drew the door wider.
My heels clicked on the gray floorboards, echoing through the dimly lit loft. A slowly moving image of our planet seen from space ebbed on his TV screen, splashing one end of the apartment in a rich-blue glow. The only other source of light came from the glass fixture suspended over the kitchen island, dimmed to its lowest setting.
I closed my eyes to center myself and silence the voice of reason that was telling me to get back into my car and drive away. When I lifted my lids, August was standing before me.
“Don’t-” I swallowed thickly.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t go tomorrow.”
He frowned. “Why?”
“Because . . .” I tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. I was being selfish; I had no right to ask this of him.
“Because what, Dimples?”
“Because I don’t want to lose you.”
His gaze turned so dusky his bright irises became barely distinguishable from his pupils. “Why would you lose me?”
“Because”-I wet my lips-“the Alpha’s daughter. She wants to marry you. And the link-”
“You think I’m going there to get engaged to Ingrid?”
Ingrid . . . I’d conveniently forgotten her name, but August hadn’t.
He never forgot anything.
“It’s just work.” He tilted his face to the side. “But I do have to wonder why it would bother you since you don’t have feelings for me.”
Evelyn’s warning beat against my temples, but then the words she’d spoken tonight trickled over them, blurring the line between right and wrong.
I steeled my spine. “August, I lied.”
A beat of silence passed before he said, “I know.”
“When I was away, I-wait. What do you mean, you know?”
His expression gentled but stayed guarded. “Frank called me a couple nights ago.”
“Frank?” I frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“He overheard you and Evelyn talk the day you came back from your trip. He didn’t want to get involved, but you know Frank, and how sacred he finds mating links.”
My eyes widened.
“And he might’ve mentioned that you looked miserable and that I was obtuse if I actually believed you didn’t want me.”
I didn’t think my eyes could get wider, but my lids stretched higher.
August raised his hand to the nape of his neck and cradled it. “What is it you want from me?” His voice was so raw it had me shivering. “To wait a couple years for you to grow readier?”
“No.”His brow furrowed. “Then what?”
“I want you to forgive me.”
“For what?”
“For lying. I know I hurt you, and I hate myself for it.”
He let his hand drop back to his side. “You think I can stay mad at you?”
“Not staying mad at me and forgiving me are two separate things.”
His jaw tensed. And then, in a voice that scattered goose bumps over my skin, he said, “I forgive you.”
My heart was pounding so hard the fabric of my red dress vibrated. The tether too, probably. For a second, I considered tugging it to pull August toward me, but what if . . . what if it didn’t work?
Or what if he didn’t want me like that anymore?
My arms started shaking, so I clutched my elbows. “I’d understand if you say no, but would you give me a second chance?”
He didn’t answer me for so long that I wondered if I’d spoken too quietly, but then he took a tentative step toward me and crooked my chin up on his finger. “Only if you promise not to let anyone, and I mean anyone-not Evelyn, not Liam-come between us again, because I’m not interested in our Alpha’s rules or societal propriety. It’s you and me. No one else. And even though I could never hate you, if you break my heart again-”
“When I break yours, it breaks mine,” I whispered in a tenuous voice. I hadn’t realized I’d started crying until his thumbs swiped my cheeks. And here I thought I’d exhausted my tear ducts earlier, but apparently they were bottomless. “I’m so sorry, August.”
He pressed his mouth to mine and stroked away my apology with his tongue. And then his hands trailed down my arms, loosening them, before lacing around my waist.
His scent would be all over me, but I no longer cared. Besides, I was pretty confident that Tamara’s pregnancy would make Liam think twice before jumping into a duel now.
I pushed up on my tiptoes and gripped the back of August’s neck to deepen the kiss and to erase any remaining space between our bodies. His mouth slid off mine but didn’t leave my body. It traveled across my jaw and down my neck, traced the slope of my shoulder, tracking wet heat over my sensitive skin.
I shivered. Shuddered. Shook.
When he lifted his head to look at me, I thumbed the back of his neck. “As far as birthday presents go, that kiss might’ve beat the palm tree. Which is a feat, considering how much I love that palm tree.”
He smiled quietly, his fingertips sketching unhurried circles at the base of my spine. “Ness, I have to ask, what made you change your mind?”