Allure Magnified (15 page)

“Are you okay?” Ismini knew she couldn’t hide the worry.

He glanced toward her, most of his face hidden in shadow. She tried to keep her distance, she really did, but her body was rebelling against her in the worst way. Next thing Ismini knew, she was walking closer to him again and the closer she got, the more she saw that he was, in fact, trembling.

“I’m serious. What’s wrong?” she asked again, fighting the urge to reach out to him.

“Ismini . . . ”

Ismini had been told that beings like him couldn’t get sick. But at that particular moment, she was doubting that with every fiber of her being, and the mere thought of something happening to him made her want to die.

She wasn’t being melodramatic, either. Vedlyl had explained that if Dyletri did somehow die, Ismini was going with him, no matter what.

A mated being couldn’t live without their mate, plain and simple.

“Please. Please tell me what’s wrong.” She continued her advance, not even realizing how odd it was that he was walking backwards.

That he seemed to be
fleeing
from her.

Dyletri’s back met the end of the balcony, where the wall was. “I need you to stay back,” he said, his tone menacing.

Ismini couldn’t see his face. But she could still see those damned tremors. She couldn’t have forced herself to walk away even if she had wanted to.

Dyletri shook his head and stepped away from her. “No. I need you to stay back.”

Huh?

“I’m serious, Ismini. Stay back!”

She was a mere three feet away from him and couldn’t stop. His energy had leaked into the air and was throbbing around her, vibrating and hypnotizing her and drawing her closer.

“There’s something wrong with you. You’ve been looking sick for days!”

Please, just tell me you’re okay. I’ll force myself to leave somehow . . . just say you’re all right.

Ismini stopped in front of him. Past the point of rational thought, she raised her hand and placed it on his shoulder.

She had thought he’d done all he would do to imprint himself on her mind and body.

Ismini had been
so
wrong.

Moving at top speed, Dyletri grabbed her and turned them both. He pressed her front against the wall he’d just been backed up against. Ismini almost
died.
The very air she breathed became molten inside her.

He was close to her back. Too fucking close. So close Ismini just wanted to whimper and press herself against him. She wanted to rotate her hips and beg him to do something about the ache inside her.

Exhaling shakily, she wished there was a way she could dig her nails into something. Anything.

The same way his hand was digging into the stone next to her head.

Dyletri leaned closer, his face nuzzling her hair. Ismini swore that the strands had developed nerve endings all of a sudden. She felt his touch shooting through them. Up into her scalp. Down into the fabric of her skin.

Lower.

A gasp left her. She was barely holding on to her sanity. “Dyletri.”

His hand, the one that that had been digging into the stone, disappeared. It came back, slamming so hard into the wall that Ismini jumped. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the cracks spreading out from where his fingers were.

Ismini shouldn’t have been able to see those details in the dark, but Dyletri’s skin was glowing again. His veins were lighting up in the same way they had in the alley back on Earth. No, wait, it was more than that. Every individual vein on the back of his hand glowed.

Then Dyletri murmured her name. “Ismini
 . . . ”

She shuddered and almost came right there. His voice was seductive against her ear. Her entire uterus throbbed and threatened to leave her body, and the resulting gush was embarrassing. She shook as she fought the urge to force herself on him.

There was no way she could ever overpower him, but she wanted to. God, did she want to.

Ismini heard the stone on the side of her head crack some more. Heard the stone railing to her left fracturing as well. She should have been frightened by how powerful Dyletri was, but instead, she felt something inside her snap loose. Felt whatever control she had over the mating turn to ash that was swept away and consumed by a tornado of need. She was defenseless.

“Ismini . . . stop me. Tell me to stop.”

His voice slid into her. There was something in his tone that her body instinctively recognized. Something her body bowed to, but her will refused to obey.

“No,” she whispered. “No, I don’t think I want to.”