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310 Lisa: Humans Have Pheromones?
LISA
Kellan's stare leaves me unsettled. It's been intense ever since our reunion.
I'm grateful for the space he's given me-this whole fated mate business is like being slammed into by a rogue freight train-but there's a whole lot of little things that keep throwing his feelings into the foreground, making it impossible to ignore. Like how he touches me a little too often.
How he watches my every move.
He hasn't kissed me again, but it doesn't make the current situation any less awkward.
"Can't sleep?" he asks, as if us sharing a bed and him lying on his side to stare at me for the past hour is somehow conducive to falling asleep.
"Nope." The word pops out with a little more sass than I intend, but damn it, does he have to
stare at me like that?
"Oh."
And awkward silence again.
"So, why couldn't I just bunk with Dr. Blackwell?" My question breaks the uneasy tension
between us.
"They don't have an extra bed," he explains easily.
"And no empty beds anywhere else? At all? Just-none?"
"None."
"No sleeping bags?"
"No."
"Extra blanket?"
"Not even one of those."
He's lying through his damn perfect teeth.
"You have a couch," I point out. I saw it. I know it's there.
"People come in and out at all times of day. It isn't the safest place to sleep. Better to be in bed."
and warm and smelling like Downy-I dare to glance in his direction again, only to be caught by his unblinking gray eyes. "You could sleep on
"I don't want to."
do what they want and damn the
anave, ahout it to then
17:09 y
Humans
sort of sound and watch the ceiling in
like that he's
Ava and Lucas
I'm sure they are.
huskiness of his voice has all my lady
Lisa. Bad! He thinks you're his mate and he's being all caveman about it.
to change the subject from the tension simmering between us. "It's only right to give the newly mated couple their own
nods, his intense gaze softening slightly. "Absolutely. Ava and Lucas need to be around each other
piques, momentarily overriding my
the beginning stages. It's like... imagine a sapling that's just been planted. It needs constant care, water, and sunlight
will demand that time together. She'll feel wrong and anxious without his
lot less romantic when you suddenly get slapped with the label yourself one
different now. Less awkward, more... contemplative. I find myself studying Kellan's face in the dim light, noting the
something?" I
"Anything," he replies immediately.
I mean, with us? With
very still. It's like he isn't even breathing, until
up
I don't expect you to just fall into my arms and live happily ever after.
don't want this? The
He's quiet again.
are you? Drag me
strangled when he responds, "Of course
The tension that had been coiling in my
Humans
I mean, I don't-" I stumble over my words, trying to backpedal. How do I explain that it's not him specifically,
soul. The
does that mean you are going to do it and you're just
would never do that to you. Never." His gray eyes
of the past few days, the whole mate situation being dropped on me like a bomb-I believe that Kellan won't force me
too enticing for a woman like me. Especially when I'm trying so hard to not fall into his arms. "I know this is a lot to take in," he says softly. "Hell, it's
you need."
I ask
"Of course."
being so kind as to explain things, I may as well ask all the questions we humans want to know. "What exactly does being mates mean? Like, practically speaking. Is it just... attraction?
it. It's a deep, instinctual connection. Like finding a missing piece of yourself you
gone."
stomach. It sounds romantic, sure, but
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