Luna Forsaken (Arya and James) novel Chapter 129

129 The Kiss He Didn’t Hide

Arya’s POVO

* Get 28 >

= Menu

I stopped because backing away would have looked like fear and because some traitorous part of me

wanted to know what he would do with all these witnesses.

Gail was smiling again by then, stepping half into his path with easy familiarity.

“Lev, I was hoping,”

He didn’t even slow for her.

He brushed past like she was a curtain.

By the time she realised he wasn’t stopping, he was already in front of me.

Too close.

Close enough that I could smell him, steel, cedar, skin, and the clean edge of the outdoors clinging to

him.

My wolf stirred instantly.

Ria pressed hard beneath my skin, alert and shameless. He came,

I ignored her and lifted my chin. “What are you doing here?”

His eyes flicked once to Gail behind me, then back to my face. “Looking at you.”

Heat flashed under my skin before I could stop it.

I kept my expression cool. “I’m working.”

“I know.”

He said it like a fact he approved of.

The room was dead quiet now, listening.

Gail’s voice came from behind him, brittle around the edges. “Lev, if you needed something you could

have just asked, ”

That was when he moved.

One hand slid around my waist.

1934

<129 The Kiss He Didn’t Hide

The other came up to my jaw.

Firm.

Possessive.

Unhurried.

My breath caught.

I barely had time to glare before he pulled me into him and kissed me.

Not a polite touch.

Not a quick claim for show.

A real kiss.

Deep, deliberate, devastating.

The hall disappeared.

The women.

Gail.

The light.

The baskets.

The old hurt I’d been balancing all day,

Get 28 >

Menu

gone.

There was only his mouth and the way he took space like he had every right to it, the way his hand at my waist tightened when I made that tiny, involuntary sound against his lips, the way his thumb at my jaw tilted my face exactly where he wanted it.

Heat shot through me so hard my knees nearly softened.

I grabbed his shirt because I had to hold something.

He kissed like he fought, controlled and merciless, giving nothing by accident, taking everything he aimed for. It was not soft comfort. It was a statement. A warning. A claim made in front of witnesses.

My wolf surged, purring and growling at once.

For one treacherous heartbeat, I forgot to be angry.

<129 The Kiss He Didn’t Hide

Then I remembered where we were and who was watching and I shoved at his chest.

He broke the kiss.

Not because I overpowered him.

Because he let me.

Get 28 x

= Menu

Of course he did.

I was breathing too hard.

My lips burned.

My mark throbbed under the memory of his mouth from training, as if my own skin had no loyalty left.

Lev kept one hand on my waist for another second, eyes on mine, expression dark and calm and far

too pleased.

Then he looked over my shoulder.

I didn’t need to turn to know who he was looking at.

But I did anyway.

Gail stood stiff as carved wood, face gone pale-green under her powder, eyes bright with humiliation

and envy so sharp it looked like it hurt to carry. The women around her were trying very hard not to

stare openly.

Rena, I noticed, was not trying at all.

Gail snapped first.

. She muttered something under her breath, my name and whore and maybe begging, and then stalked

out of the centre so fast one of the side stools tipped behind her.

The room exhaled.

Lev’s hand dropped from my waist.

I turned on him immediately, voice low and furious because if I spoke at full volume I might say things

I could not unsay. “What was that?”

His gaze did not move from my face. “You were done working.”

“That is not an answer.”

<129 The Kiss He Didn’t Hide

A faint shadow of amusement touched his mouth. “It solved the noise.”

I stared at him.

Get 28 >

= Menu

He really said it like that.

Like Gail’s poison and my pulse and the room full of witnesses and the fact that I could still taste him were all one manageable problem he had corrected.

“You do not get to use me to prove a point,” I hissed.

His eyes sharpened. “I didn’t.”

The certainty in it made me angrier because some part of me believed him.

He leaned in just enough that only I could hear the next words. “I proved a point while kissing the

woman I wanted to kiss.”

My breath stuttered.

I hated him.

I hated how my body reacted to him.

I hated how often he told the truth in the most infuriating way possible.

I hated that I had no sharp answer ready because the kiss had stolen half my brain and set fire to the

rest.

Rena cleared her throat loudly from behind me, saving me from myself.

“If the two of you are done setting my centre on fire with your mating nonsense,” she said dryly, “I still

need the distribution ledger signed.”

A ripple of laughter broke the tension.

I wanted the floor to open.

Lev didn’t look embarrassed for a single second. “Give it to her.”

Rena handed me the ledger with a face that was suspiciously innocent.

I signed, handed it back, and refused to meet anyone’s eyes.

When I finally stepped outside, the evening air hit my face like a slap.

Lev followed.

< 129 The Kiss He Didn’t Hide

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify