Chapter Five
917 Words
"I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going… my friend and..."
I turned to Cassy, but she was gone. I couldn't see her anywhere. I turned to meet the stranger's eyes again. This close contact was doing strange things to me. My body was responding to his hold on me. The heat is gathering between my legs even now. Mortifying.
He gave me that jaw-dropping smile again.
"No harm done, but as thanks for saving you a fall, I must insist on a dance?"
Dancing. I had had enough of dancing for an entire lifetime after tonight.
But something told me this sexy stranger wouldn't entirely bore me to sleep like the rest of my suitors. Before I could object, he held my hand and walked me to the dancefloor. The contact zapped at my skin again. I was breathless as he settled us between other couples. The entire floor was seemingly ignorant of the emotional hell that I was battling with. My wolf was going wild. She wanted all manner of things from this man, and it had nothing to do with dancing.
I had never had to fight her like this in my life. His scent alone was driving me insane.
It has to be Cassy's brew; it has screwed my mind.
But as the dance started and his hand slipped round my waist, I had to stop myself moaning. His eyes were intense, making goosebumps run down my spine; his gaze was striking me, daring me to look away, burning into mine. We spun around the floor. The world around us is nothing more than a twinkle of lights. He was an excellent dancer, moving with me rather than forcing me around like the others. I found myself smiling; everything felt so right. But I needed him closer still. Every cell in my body was demanding it.
He leaned in, his breath ticking my ear.
"You are beautiful, Serina."
I was taken aback.
How did he know me?
Common sense made me think he was in our territory and would know of my father. But I don't remember him from the greeting ceremony, and I certainly remember the way his touch branded me.
"Do we know one another? I don't remember you from before?"
That smirk crossed his handsome face again, and I swear I could see a hint of fangs. My body grew even hotter, and he must have been able to scent me.
How humiliating.
"Are you sure you can't remember me, Ser? Your body has certainly warmed up to me."
Ice.
Pure ice-cold shot down my spine.
I physically jerked in his hold…
Ser, he called me Ser.
Only a few knew me as that, and one other person. He must have seen it when I recognized him; the realization hit me like a bus.
"Hunter"
There was that smirk again. I hated it; worse, I hated what it still did to me.
He leaned in close again, his scent filling my senses and making me dizzy.
I had to fight this; this was Hunter Crescent, my personal nightmare.
His hair brushed my face as his lips stopped inches from my ear.
"Don't be like that, Ser, not when we were getting along so well."
I was trying to push him off me to walk away when he gripped my hips and lifted me into the air, spinning me in a move that had others clapping around us.
So much for my quiet exit. How could I not know him?
Looking at him, he had changed, grown into a man. Filled out,
was he always so handsome?
All I remembered from Hunter was that he was bad news.
"Let me go, Hunter, I need to find my friend."
He smiled that devastating smile again, and my temperature spiked. Something was definitely wrong with me. No one had ever had this effect on me.
"Don't be so cold, Serina. I know you can feel it. I've missed you. It's been too long. Cassy is fine; she and Luke are … catching up." He gazed over to the spot on the balcony where the steps led out to the surrounding gardens. Cassy was so drunk; gods knew what she would get herself into, and I had even heard of what a playboy Luke had become.
"Let me go, I have to get her; she's not… feeling well."
Even though I was still fighting the drowsiness, Hunter's closeness had certainly sobered me up. But it was still there at the back of my mind, threatening to take over.
His hands wandered, sliding up from my waist, up my ribs, and across my neck. They left a tingling burn in their wake, distracting me from whatever I was thinking. Before I knew it, I was pressing into his body, exposing my neck to him. His dark chuckle and arms banding around me followed.
This needs to stop.
I had no control, and my wolf was practically a mess on the floor at this stage. I reached up to him, my hand tangling with the whips of his hair at the back of his neck. A slight growl echoed from his throat. Good, quicker than anyone else could see, I yanked and brought my knee to his nether region at the same time.
I am not thinking about what I felt there.
He released me in a second. I took the wind from him, dashed to the door, and entered the gardens.
- Writer
