Page 26 of Mane Attraction
She pulled her dress over her head and smoothed it down her body. Lev watched her transform back into the poised reputation consultant, but the mate bond betrayed the chaos beneath her composed exterior. Fear. Resentment. Confusion. And underneath it all, a longing she was fighting desperately to suppress.
He dressed in silence, pulling on his boxers and trousers, leaving his ceremonial jacket forgotten on the floor.
The completed bond continued to pulse with her conflicted emotions as the castle’s towers came into view through the tinted windows. Desire warred with terror. Compassion battled with anger. Her feelings crashed over him in waves, each one more turbulent than the last.
“I’ll give you space for a while,” he said as the royal vehicle rolled to a stop.
“That’s a good idea.” Her voice was steady and professional. “I need to figure out what to do.”
But through the mate bond, he felt the truth she wouldn’t speak aloud. She had no idea what to do with a connection that couldn’t be controlled, managed, or fixed.
SEVENTEEN
XELENE
The castle doors slammed shut behind Xelene with a resounding echo that seemed to chase her up the grand marble staircase. Her heels clicked a frantic rhythm against the polished steps as she attempted to outrun the magnitude of what had just transpired in that royal vehicle. The ornate tapestries and gilded portraits of Lev’s ancestors blurred past as she climbed, their regal faces seeming to mock her with their composed expressions.
If I move fast enough, maybe I can pretend it didn’t happen.
But even as that thought crossed her mind, she knew it was futile. The mate bond thrummed beneath her skin like a second heartbeat, a constant reminder of the connection that now bound her to the Marcan lion prince. Her body still hummed with the aftershocks of their encounter.
“Why did I have sex with him?” she whispered to the empty hallway as she reached her guest suite door.
The answer was as clear as it was terrifying. She’d gotten lost in Lev’s intoxicating presence, in that kiss that had sparked every cell in her body and made her feel absolutely alive for the first time in years. One moment she’d been the composed reputation consultant, and the next she’d been undressing himwith desperate hands, pushing his ceremonial jacket from those impossibly broad shoulders.
Her fingers trembled as she turned the ornate door handle. He had asked if she was sure—she’d give him that much credit. But she’d foolishly said yes, that she wanted him and wanted the mate bond. Thinking back on it rationally now, she couldn’t fathom why those words had left her lips. She hadn’t even understood what the mate bond truly meant, but she’d been so consumed by the intensity flooding through her body, pulling her toward Lev like gravity itself had shifted.
The guest suite door clicked shut behind her, and Xelene leaned against it, her chest heaving as if she’d just run a marathon. The elegant room felt suffocating now—all cream silk and golden accents that reminded her too much of Lev’s tousled hair.
More memories crashed over her. Lev laying her back on that leather seat, his blue eyes dark with desire as he’d kissed his way down her body. He’d given her pleasure unlike anything any other man had. But it had been more than just physical technique. When she’d straddled him, when they’d moved together in perfect rhythm, she’d been lost in his body and the sensations and whatever mystical force was happening with the mate bond between them.
“It was beyond intense,” she murmured, pressing her palms against her heated cheeks.
Clearly it had been the same for Lev, because he’d been so lost in their climaxes that he’d given her his mate mark without realizing it until it was too late. And now, because of that massive accident, their souls were bound together.
Forever.
The word echoed in her mind like a death knell. She wanted to find Janice, call Gerri, and return to Earth immediately—backto her life that she could manage and control on her own terms. But even as that thought formed, she knew it was impossible.
With shaking hands, she peeled off the black dress that still carried the scent of their joining. The fabric whispered to the floor, leaving her in just her panties. Her gaze fell to her left hip, where four precise claw marks decorated her skin like some primitive brand of ownership. The wounds had already begun to heal—apparently another perk of the mate bond—but they served as an undeniable reminder that her life would never be the same.
“Even if I’m far away from him, I have a feeling we’ll always be linked,” she said to her reflection in the ornate mirror.
The woman staring back at her looked nothing like the composed reputation fixer who’d arrived on Nova Aurora yesterday. Her hair was mussed, her lips still swollen from Lev’s kisses, and her eyes held a wildness that made her stomach clench with anxiety.
What was worse than the permanent nature of their connection was the ache in her chest—a longing to be near him that seemed to intensify with every step she’d taken away from the royal vehicle. The completed mate bond tugged at her like an invisible thread.
“Stop it,” she commanded herself, jerking open the wardrobe and pulling out a pair of jeans and a simple t-shirt. “Think clearly.”
But Xelene’s body betrayed her even as she dressed. She could still feel Lev’s emotions humming through the bond—his regret, his desire, his protective instincts all tangled together in a mess that made her head spin.
God, she couldn’t escape him.
This connection was invasive and intimate in ways she’d never imagined experiencing with any man. All those years of carefully orchestrated one-night stands, all her meticulousefforts to avoid commitment—none of it seemed to matter now. She was irrevocably bound to Lev Marcan whether she liked it or not.
“What am I going to do?” she whispered to the empty room, sinking onto the massive four-poster bed.
Through the completed bond, she felt a pulse of longing so intense it made her gasp. He wanted her back, wanted to comfort her, wanted to explain and apologize and claim her all over again.
