?


    "Yep. What about you then? Why have you run away for your 18th?"


    "You know Mum...always eyes on. I had no chance of you know, unless I left the pack."


    His brows furrow as he slowly pours me a ss of champagne before handing it out to me. I hesitate in taking it off him, his eyes burning at myst words.


    "No, I don''t know?"


    I shouldn''t have said what I had just said. I''ve potentially just got the barman downstairs fired.


    "It''s doesn''t matter."


    "No, go on tell me..." He finishes pouring his own ss before moving around his kitchen ind and pulling the stool out next to me, sitting down on it, but not before clinking his ss with mine.


    This was ufrotable, I could the heat of my embarrassment spreading up my neck and onto


    my face.


    I must be bright red as a beetroot.


    Intense green eyes continue to gaze upon me, as it takes all my strength not to move my knee that was centre-metres from his.


    I could only describe it as a maic force that was encouraging me to make my knee touch his, like a puzzle piece that needed to be slotted in toplete the picture.


    "Cleo?" He presses as I close my eyes to prepare for the words that were about to leave my mouth.


    "I wanted to sleep with a guy, you know...tick it off my list."


    "Tick what off your list?" He responds choking on the sip of drink he has just taken.


    "I need to lose my V card."


    "Your V card? What''s a V card?"


    I want the grey tiled floor to swallow me up, the entire hotel to copse in on itself and take me


    with it.


    "This is so embarrassing." I mutter under my breath as I ce the champagne flute down and pull my head into my hands, if I was going to admit this out loud, I couldn''t look him in the eyes.


    "Virginity Jace. I came here to lose my virginity."


    "Oh." He swallows down hard, his Adam''s apple vibrating in his throat, as I peer out of my hands that now covered my face.


    "I told you it was embarrassing."


    "It''s not embarrassing."


    "No?" I click my tongue at him, rolling my eyes as I do so. Of course it was.


    "No..." He can barely say the words as he starts tough out loud.


    "It''s not funny." I swat my hand against his shoulder as he ces his flute on the kitchen ind work top, a wide smile spreading out onto his lips. "I forgot how cute you were."


    "Cute? I don''t want to be cute Jace...that''s how the boys in the pack see me. None daree near me from fear of being castrated by Mum. I want to be...sexy. I''m the daughter of the alpha for crying out loud and it''s like I have an invisible barrier around me, repelling all men off me.


    At least I was making headway with the barman...until you nearly drowned him."


    "Drowned him? I wish. Listen to me Cleo, you don''t want your first time to be with a stranger, let alone a human." Laughter still lingering upon his lips.


    "No?"


    "No!"


    "Then who should it be with Jace?" Why was I even talking to him about this? Why was I even sharing this information with him, this inner private detail of mine. He has no right to tell me what to do, who I should be with...he couldn''t even take me seriously. He found this funny.


    I swivel on my stool, being careful not to touch him as I step off and move towards the elevator doors. Yes, I came here with a goal in mind...and to hell with others, I was going to do what I wanted.


    What was right for me.


    Determined, I press the button of the elevator, knowing as soon as I was inside I would select the ground floor...on the hunt to find the barman. He was sweet, he was attentive. Why shouldn''t it be him, he was as good as any other male.


    "I meant what I said Cleo, if you go find him, I will kill him." A growl echoes behind me.


    “Empty threats Jace, you have no authority here, I will do as I please. I''m not on the Dark Phantom packnds, I don''t have to y along."


    The elevator door bings open and I lift my foot out to take a step forward only to stop as his hand wraps around my naked tummy, pinning me against him.


    Tingles dance across my skin from his touch, my eyes darting down to make sense of the fric sensation.


    "I said no."


    "I don''t care what you said Jace, I know what I want...which can''t be said about you."


    "Oh I know what I want Cleo, I''ve just been too scared in taking it. But to hell with it, especially


    when you so easilynd on myp. How could I not take a bite of the forbidden fruit." He spins me in his arms as the elevator doors close behind me.


    A hand snakes up, gripping me firmly but not painfully around my neck as his eyes shift into the powerful predator again, those eyes ckening as his wolf pushes forward.


    A gasp barely escapes me as his lips crash into mine at an insatiable force.