Obsession: A Rejected Mate Shifter Romance (The Mate Games #1)(12)
Vampire, able to kill me with the flick of his wrist? Check.
He stepped out, making no move to walk around me, just crowding my personal space until I was forced to step back.
“Where do you think you’re going?” His voice was smooth and skin-tingling, like he was whispering dirty nothings into my ear when all he’d done was ask a question. I blamed the British accent.
“Better question, asshole, is who the hell are you?”
“Noah.” He extended an index finger to point to the door I’d left wide open in my harried escape. “The man whose bed you slept in.”
“Ha, that’s cute. Because I was in my bed when I went to sleep last night. Which makes you a creepy psycho kidnapper. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go report you and then shower for about ten years to get the scent of you off me.”
“Why don’t we just go back inside—”
“Absolutely not. If you don’t let me into that elevator right now, I am going to scream.”
He seemed to read something in my face because he took a few backward steps into the elevator and gestured for me to join him.
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously, not trusting him, and yet unable to deny he didn’t seem to be making any threatening advances. The knowledge gave me courage as I stepped inside and pressed the button marked ‘3.’
“So, Noah, do you make a habit out of kidnapping women from their beds?”
“No.” He said it so simply, and just that one word annoyed the living hell out of me.
“Ah, I see. I was your first. Looks like you’re not a very good serial killer then. You should probably give it up.”
His lips turned up in a slight smirk. “You weren’t.”
“Wasn’t what?”
“In your bed. I found you in the forest and brought you back here since I didn’t know where you belonged.”
His words caused my stomach to clench painfully. The forest? What the hell happened last night?
“And I’m just supposed to believe you swooped in like some sort of gallant knight and didn’t lay a finger on me? Yeah, right. I was in your bed.”
His eyes flashed, and he took two steps forward, closing the space between us and crowding me until I had no choice but to press up against the corner of the elevator. Was this the slowest lift in the entire world? I needed space, for the doors to open, for something to give. If only so I could breathe and stop toying with my kidnapper.
No part of us was touching, but I could feel him everywhere, my traitorous body responding to his magnetic pull. The air between us crackled with energy as he lowered his head until his lips hovered just above mine.
“Trust me, dove. Had I touched you last night, you’d not only remember it, you’d be begging me for an encore.”
My mouth went dry, and it took me a second to recover from the undeniably sexy images he’d summoned in my mind. I managed to shove the images away, crossing my arms to force some space between us—even though the move only brought us into direct contact as my arm brushed along his chest.
“I’m just supposed to take your word for it, am I?”
“I can prove it if you’d like?”
My breath caught as he reached out and skimmed his knuckles down my cheek and then further, along the side of my throat. I finally knocked his hand away when it had drifted down to my collarbone—though I had the feeling the only reason his hand actually stopped its pursuit was because he allowed me to stop it.
“I’ll pass, thanks.”
He shrugged and stepped back. “Suit yourself.”
Then, because I couldn’t help myself, I asked, “So you were a perfect gentleman?”
He threw me a cocky smirk. “I never said that.”
The chime of the elevator reaching my floor saved me before I could say anything further. As the doors slid open, I tossed him a final fleeting look over my shoulder. “Well, thanks for coming to my rescue, I guess, Noah.”
His eyes flared again, the side of his mouth lifting in a slow, sexy smile. “My pleasure, Sunday.”
Chapter
Eight
SUNDAY
The sun’s rays beamed in through the window at the end of the hall, bathing me in light and casting my walk of shame in stark relief as I skulked down the hallway and reached the door to my room.
“Oh, my God, there you are. We’ve been looking all over.” Moira’s voice caught me off guard as my fingers touched the doorknob.
My head snapped to the right, where I stared down the hall. She stood, her acid green asymmetrical bob nearly glowing in the light spilling through the window. A hulking god of a man stood next to her. His eyes were framed by full, dark lashes, the irises blue, vibrant, and piercing even from a distance. His complexion was tanned from hours spent in the sun, and his dirty blond hair was pulled up into a bun, with a thick, full beard lining his chiseled jaw. He looked like sin and sex and every fantasy I’d ever had about being rescued by a handsome warrior.
“I . . . had a nightmare. Went for a walk.”
I opened the door and stepped inside my room, where I found our small space ransacked. Clothes were strewn around, drawers hanging open, papers everywhere. “What the hell happened in here? You really are a slob.”