wouldn’t be dangerous. War was a different story.
Unable to stop himself any longer, Levi searched for Lyndi’s smaller form behind the wall of bigger men. He backed up a step and collided with a gaze so full of desolation, all red banked fire and heartache so raw, that he had to look away for a second to get his own violent reaction under control. When he looked back, Lyndi had dropped her gaze to the ground, hiding from him.
Confusion drowned out every other emotion rioting within him, so loud his head almost buzzed with it. What had that look been? Because if it was even a hint of what he hoped it could be…
The gods had shit timing.
Until this second, with the way she constantly sniped at him, and had from the moment they met, he’d believed she hated him. Carried a grudge for that first misunderstanding, and all the misunderstandings that followed. She’d always taken his need to protect her the wrong way. He hadn’t wanted her to build her orphanage in a human home, so unprotected and vulnerable, not because she wasn’t capable but because he expected the Alliance to show up unexpectedly and wipe out all the boys they felt were stains on the dragon world—and she’d be caught in the crossfire. He hadn’t wanted her to join the team because the reason they needed more bodies was because they kept losing team members. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing her, too.
Her temper had always been a little quicker, a little sharper with him than the other guys. Even his jokes. Mike called her Lyndi-Loo-Hoo all the time, but Levi had tried it once and she’d about taken his head off for it.
But other moments slowly began to coalesce in his mind. Small moments he’d written off. A look filled with heat that had suddenly cooled. A smile just for him when she never sent him smiles. Even a few of her frowns had held a different meaning.
Had all her sharp edges been like a hedge of thorns, built to keep him out? Had that one dance at Drake and Cami’s wedding reception been more than he’d let himself believe? A gap in the hedge, letting him glimpse the true heart of her before she’d closed it over with sharper thorns?
He’d relived that moment over and over every day since.
Lyndi had caught the bouquet and then headed across the dance floor to her brother. Levi, to this day, had no doubt she wouldn’t have gone in that direction if she’d seen that Drake was standing beside him.
When she’d got to them, she’d ignored him and flashed her brother that easy smile she gave to everyone but Levi, waving the flowers in her brother’s face. “Nervous?”
“That you’ll be the next to mate?” Drake had lifted a single eyebrow.
“He’d have to be nuts,” Levi had muttered darkly, thinking of ripping some nameless man’s face from his head if he tried it. He might have to leave the team.
Drake had snorted at his words, but Lyndi’s reaction had been more dangerous given the humans around to witness. Her eyes flared red, glowing and brilliant.
“Just because I’m sterile doesn’t make me worthless,” she’d practically spat at him.
Back to that same original misunderstanding.
“Which is not what I meant, and you know it,” he’d answered back.
Only her eyes had gone brighter, sparking with flame. To hide her face until she could get herself under control, Levi had quickly stepped into her and drawn her into his arms for a dance, making sure to use his broad shoulders as a shield.
For once, she hadn’t yanked away. In fact, after a minute she’d huffed a breath. “Thanks.”
The fact that she’d even relaxed slightly against him had made him do something probably pretty stupid. He’d pulled her closer, their combined heat mingling, and inhaled the smoky sweet scent of her hair.
“I always seem to rub you up the wrong way.” He’d gone over this a hundred times since, wondering why he’d said that. Those words came out too easily, lulled by the slow music and the sway of their bodies. “Why is that?”
“Maybe I want you to rub me up the right way,” Lyndi had quipped.
Her response was seared into his memory. She’d sure as hell shocked him. Blood had surged through him, making him hard and hot at the same time. Only the jolt of hope had been followed by a sudden drop when she’d immediately jerked to a standstill in the middle of