it stop. All I know is that I was on the verge of an earth-shattering orgasm when a foreign power surged within me.
“Ugh!” someone says nearby.
Oh my God. Saxon!
I uncover my ears and open my eyes. The noise in my head begins to fade finally. Saxon is on the floor, bracing forward with one hand while the other clutches his middle.
“Are you okay?”
He lifts his face, which is twisted in a grimace and red. “Fucking hell. What did you do to me?”
“I have no idea.”
Slowly, he gets back onto his feet, still watching me with annoyance. Did I strike him by accident? That’s never happened before in my entire life.
“You hexed me,” he says through clenched teeth, his tenor voice split between annoyance and disbelief.
“I didn’t mean to.”
He glances away, rubbing his chin. “It serves me right. I shouldn’t have come here anyway.”
I drop my eyes to the floor. And I shouldn’t have let you get that far. Maybe the blood vow triggered the spell. I promised Elena that I’d marry Calvin, and succumbing to my feelings for Saxon was definitely not me upholding my end of the deal. The crazy thing is it wasn’t only carnal desire that spurred me on. My heart was one hundred percent invested in the male in front of me—still is—and that’s a major problem.
“I’m sorry that I hexed you. Maybe we should stay away from each other from now on.”
He glances at me, rage simmering in his eyes. “Yes, I think that would be best.”
“Please don’t hate me,” I blurt out.
My statement seems to stun him for a second. I don’t understand either where it came from, only that it would kill me if he did. For heaven’s sake, why am I having these strange feelings for Saxon out of the blue? Not a week ago, he was just a cocky Blueblood who annoyed me. Now it feels like he’s my soulmate. Ugh.
“Trust me, Aurora, as much as I would love to hate you, that would be impossible.”
He heads for the door, stepping out of my apartment before I can think of anything to say to him.
I can’t believe it. This is how it’s going to end for us. With a bad case of blue balls and a hex. And now he’s in residence at Bloodstone, which means I’ll be forced to see his sexy face everywhere and pretend I don’t give a fig about him.
It should be easy. We didn’t spend enough time together to develop any real feelings. But should is the imperative word here. Somehow, I’m tethered to Saxon, and deep down I know there’s no hex or blood vow that will change that.
14
Aurora
Present Time
I stare at Saxon like a moron as my brain processes his words. “I’m what?”
“You heard me.”
He pushes me to the side so he can walk into my apartment without an invitation. His body is coiled as tightly as a spring, and if I learned anything in the past weeks it’s that anything can trigger his savage beast mode while he’s wound taut like that. The last time he behaved this way was when he found me after my altercation with Boone’s lackeys. He went berserk, ready to tear up Salem in search of the vampires involved in the ambush.
Not wanting anyone eavesdropping on this conversation, I close the door before I reply.
“You told me the female you were obsessed with was a siren,” I say calmly.
It’s hard to keep my voice even; the past month has been hell. On top of dealing with Lucca’s reawakening and all the political crap and murder attempts that followed, I had to suppress my growing feelings for his best friend, also known as the idiot in front of me. And now he just dropped the bomb that there is an explanation for my crazy attraction to him. He’s my mate.
He rakes his fingers through his hair with a jerky movement. “Well, I lied. I didn’t want anyone to know, especially you.”
I wince despite myself. Saxon was supposed to be a hookup, a drunken mistake. Now I’m finding out this is much bigger, but apparently not big enough for him to be honest with me.
“How long have you known about this?”
“Since the beginning.”
I shake my head, feeling the sharp sting of betrayal deep in my soul. “You’re such a jerk!” I snap, forgetting that I’m supposed to be the levelheaded person in this conversation. “I can’t believe you kept this secret from me.”