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I set the bottle down slowly, then turned to Lukas. Bad news for my sanity because he looked fucking good in this light.

“Why’d you leave?” he asked, taking slow, measured steps toward me. Each click on his boots on the floor shot right to my core. My skin felt wrong, empty, and his hands were the only cure.

“I was over it.” Great. I sounded out of breath.

Lukas’s mouth lifted on one side. “Well, you could have told me. I’d have left with you.”

I took a step toward him. I couldn’t help it. He was like a magnet. And all I wanted to do was feel the light dusting of hair on his forearms and the corded strength beneath. “We don’t have to do everything together, you know. That’s not a condition of our arrangement.”

“I know. But you were my favorite person in that room, baby. You leave and I’m going with you,” Lukas said, coming so close to me I had to tilt my head back to keep eye contact.

My heart all the way down to my stomach fluttered at his words. He had no idea what he did to me.

“Well, maybe I didn't want you to come with me.” I restrained a wince. My tone was far too flirty.

“Oh yeah?” Lukas was having none of that. His eyes darkened to the shade of the deep sea. “And here I was chasing you down.”

I smiled. Lukas was too witty for his own good.

“You ran here, huh?” I asked, except thehuhcame out too breathy to keep my feelings underwater.

Lukas’s eyes ran over my blush-stained cheeks and heaving chest. “Looks like you did.”

“I walked.” For the love of Zeus, it was like I wanted him to call me on it.

“Mmm,” Lukas hummed, and the vibrations coming from his chest set my blood on fire. “You look awfully out of breath.”

“I’m not. I just needed to leave and distract myself.” I couldn’t shut up, could I?

Lukas smirked right in my face, brushing his hand over my shoulder to push my hair behind it. “Yeah? From what?”

“My thoughts.”

“Let me in on them.” Lukas brought his hand down to cup my chin and tilt my head back. I really needed him to stop touching me. Because my restraint was about to snap.

Guess I was closer than I thought because I conceded to his request without protest. “I’m, um, feeling a little warm.”

Lukas hummed again, then eyed the open doors and the curtains rustling from the summer breeze.

I felt it before I saw it. The realization.

His grip on my face tightened, his fingertips pressing harder into my skin. When he looked back at me, there was a mixture of disbelief and curiosity in his eyes.

“What type of warm, Daph?” he asked, barely above a whisper. The question hit me right in the center of my chest.

“The, um.” I had to pause and start over, because Lukas’s eyes were so intense, I had the urge to look away. “The non-weather kind.”

He was staring straight into my soul and holding me hostage in his grip. His other hand settled on my hip.

And then something seemed to flip in his demeanor. His eyes narrowed slightly, and he leaned a little closer. “I’m sorry, baby. What are you going to do to make it better?”

You could do something about it.I wanted to say, just to see what he would do. I could almost see his face if I said it. His nostrils would flare as he absorbed the words and he’d run his tongue over his teeth.

It was so clear.

Too clear.

And that was when I realized I’d said it out loud.