He sat down on the swing and the next words out of his mouth took her breath away.
"I want you."
Jen stopped breathing. Not by choice, she just couldn't. It was like his words had flipped a switch in her and everything that required her brain to run just shut off.
"Jennifer." Her name on his lips, the intensity in his voice had her looking up at him. "Breathe, Jennifer."
"I don't understand, Decebel."
"I don't either," he admitted. "I'm sorry if my dancing with Sasha hurt you."
Jen's mouth tensed at the name of the other female on his lips.
"I don't have any right to be hurt." Jen tried to act like she didn't care but then decided she wasn't going to do this. She wasn't going to play games, not with Decebel. "Okay, it hurt." She angled her body so that she was more fully facing him. "In my mind I know that it shouldn't matter who you dance with. In my mind I get that I have no claim on you, okay? Honestly, I do. But damn if my heart could care less what my mind is telling it." Jen knew she was running the risk of sounding like a needy girl, but it was day one of hell week and if they were going to make it to day seven in one piece, then it was time to lay it on the line. She started to continue but Decebel stopped her with a finger to her lips.
"I need you to know this because when you see me touching, dancing, or talking to another girl, I need you to remind yourself that I've told you – I want you." Decebel paused and took a breath. He had decided during the walk from her room to the garden that he was just going to be honest, no more holding back, no more trying to deal. He was too old to leave things to chance and regardless of his fears he knew that he wouldn't leave Jennifer's safety in the hands of another, "Despite how we feel towards one another, the Alphas are looking for mating signs. The closest thing we have to that is the strong pull we both feel and the way you smell."
Jen jerked. "I smell?"
Decebel chuckled. "Not bad, I assure you." He sounded slightly disappointed by this fact.
"You want me to smell bad?" Her brow furrowed. She really didn't know where he was going with this.
Decebel leaned towards her and pressed his nose to the flesh of her neck and took a deep breath. Chill bumps broke out all over Jen's skin and she was trying, mildly unsuccessfully, not to hyperventilate at his close proximity.
"You're scent is intoxicating to me," Decebel growled as he drew away from her reluctantly. "Mates have a certain scent that they only smell on one another. I only just noticed that your scent changed, became stronger. Do I have a scent to you?" Decebel asked curiously.
Jen could have stopped the blush that seeped into her cheeks about as well as she could stop a freight train with her bare hands.
"Woodsy and spicy," she admitted.
Decebel looked thoughtful. "Hmm, interesting."
"So you're saying the Alphas won't allow us to opt out of The Gathering just because of our attraction to one another?" She asked.
"Right." Decebel leaned back against the swing and draped his arm over the edge. His eyes were drawn to Jennifer's bare back and his mind couldn't help but imagine his markings on her beautiful, pale skin. Before he knew what he was doing he was tracing a pattern on her back gently with the tip of his finger.
Jen froze as she felt Decebel's warm finger tip on her back. He's trying to kill me, she decided. He figures if he just tortures me to death then I'll be out of the picture and poof, problem solved…although death by Decebel doesn't sound too bad at the moment. Jen snorted at her thoughts, but thankfully Decebel didn't stop the swirling stroke of his finger.
"So what I'm telling you, Jennifer," Decebel's voice was deep and raspy, "is that I want to see where this goes between us. I want to get to know you better and spend time with you. But we are both going to have to endure the other being in the company of more than one suitor. As it is, we have both demonstrated that it is more than difficult for us."
Jen closed her eyes. The combination of his deep voice and finger making swirly patterns on her back was pure torture. Exquisite, perfect, wonderful torture. She heard his words but couldn't bring herself to acknowledge them at the moment.
"Jennifer?" Her name was nearly a whisper on his lips.
"Hmm?" Her head lulled around on her neck until she had swung it around to look back at him. "If you want me to be able to hold any semblance of an intelligent conversation with you then you are going to have to quit that."
Decebel's smile was as wicked as any she herself had dished out to him. "Quit what, micul meu lup?" he asked as he continued to touch her.
Jen growled and jumped up. She turned to look at him, but she wasn't angry. "So what do we do?"
"I think you Americans call it hooking up." Decebel raised one eyebrow at Jennifer.
"Do you really want to go there again?" she teased. "It would be more like hanging out, B. Hooking up tends to imply a more physical involvement, if you catch my meaning."
"Consider it caught." He winked, which only succeeded in causing her heart to nearly stop.
I have got it bad, Jen thought to herself.