“How come I am safe with you? My life was better without you. At least I didn’t figure out so many things back then and was living the best of it.”
Priyank couldn’t deny her words. He *was* the reason she had uncovered so many things-about her parents’ deaths, about everything.
But what guaranteed that, without him in her life, she wouldn’t have found the truth anyway?
Sooner or later, she was bound to know it-the truth couldn’t stay hidden forever.
“I believe you are safe with me because I’d give my whole life to protect you. I’d kill myself a thousand times if it meant keeping you safe.”
His words seared through Priya’s entire body. “Is that so?” she asked, her voice serious. Maybe it wasn’t as scary for her as she’d once imagined.
In her wildest thoughts, she had never expected anyone to say something like this-*dying for her*.
Nobody had ever done that for her. Not even Mother Mary.
“Yes, Angel,” Priyank whispered, stroking her cheek. “I’d lie on my deathbed for you.” He closed the space between them, their bodies inches apart.
Priya’s breath hitched as his breath ghosted over her lips. They stood alone on the street, no one in sight. Yet her heart pounded so hard, she could hear it echoing in her ears.
“What are you doing?”
Priyank brushed his lower lip against the corner of hers. “What do you think I’m doing?”
He knew exactly what he was doing-he wanted to kiss her, but only with her consent. One thing he had learned: he liked doing things to her *with* permission.
Though there had been times when he acted without it, those moments hadn’t felt nearly as satisfying as when she gave herself willingly.
“You want to kiss me?”
“You even know what a kiss is now?” He chuckled, a bit surprised. He had never imagined hearing this kind of words from her. Normally, her words came out strange and awkward, filled with explanations.
“I’m not dumb.”
Priyank’s smirk deepened, but there was something softer in his gaze now, like a man standing on the edge of temptation. He let his thumb graze her bottom lip, lingering for just a second longer than necessary.
“No, you’re not dumb,” he whispered, voice low and teasing. “You just surprise me sometimes.”
Priya’s pulse thrummed wildly in her chest. She felt hot, like the warmth was crawling from her neck to her cheeks, and her thoughts were swirling in a haze of confusion and desire. She wanted to say something, anything, but words failed her.
“You think too much,” Priyank murmured, as if reading her mind. “Just feel it.”
His hand slid from her cheek to the back of her neck, fingers tangling gently in her hair. For a moment, he didn’t move, giving her the space to pull away if she wanted. But she didn’t. Her lips parted slightly, breath shallow and uneven.
Then, slowly, he leaned in.
His lips brushed hers, featherlight at first, as if he was testing the waters, waiting for her to respond. When she didn’t back away, his mouth pressed more firmly against hers, and a small sound escaped her throat-soft, unexpected.
The kiss was unhurried, like he had all the time in the world to savour her. His hand stayed at her neck, steady, grounding her even as the world around them seemed to dissolve.
Priya wasn’t sure when her hands found his chest, fingers curling against the fabric of his shirt. The feel of him-solid and warm-sent a shiver down her spine.
When he finally pulled back, just a fraction, their foreheads touched. They stood there, breathing each other in, hearts racing in sync.
“Why does this feel…” Priya’s voice trailed off, unable to put the sensation into words.
“Right?” Priyank finished for her, a soft smile on his lips. “Because it is.”
She wanted to argue, to tell him that nothing about this should feel right. But deep down, she knew he was right. It scared her how easy it was to fall into this moment with him-how natural it felt, even when it shouldn’t.
His thumb traced slow circles on the side of her neck, making her skin tingle. “You don’t have to fight it, Priya.” His voice was barely above a whisper. “Not everything needs to be complicated.”
“It always is,” she whispered back, almost to herself.
Priyank leaned in again, brushing his nose lightly against hers. “Not with me.”
For a moment, she believed him. And that terrified her more than anything.
Since when had she started feeling like this? Where had her innocence gone-the innocence that once made her afraid of his touch, of him, and everything that belonged to him?
How had it happened so suddenly, this sense that *she* belonged to *him* and *he* belonged to *her*?
Was it because of her wolf? But how could that be, when her wolf was cursed, blocked, and yet still made her feel this way?
Priyank was right-something was different, even though she could sense it. Her body language, her way of understanding things, all shifted slowly, as if she was losing the part of herself she had known her entire life.
“Will you hate me if I change?” Priya asked, her breath heavy.
Priyank’s hand gently massaged the back of her neck. “I’d hate myself if I ever had to put ‘hate’ and ‘you’ in the same sentence.”
Was it supposed to make her heart beat more wildly than the kiss? Because if so, it was happening-his words were doing wonders to her, and she was letting those wonders sink in.
“You are the only person I can never hate. I could even hate myself, but nothing in this life could ever make me hate you, Angel.”
Shit! This really gave her butterflies, and there was no way in hell she could deny it. He really knew how to answer with just the right amount of seriousness.