Destiny and Deception Read Online Free PDF

sure?”
    He rubbed a thumb across the glass. “ Nyet ,” he admitted. “It says seven-ten … seven-eleven now. But I don’t feel it. I see it, but it doesn’t seem real. Like time no longer connects to me. It sounds crazy, da? ”
    “Not when you consider recent events.” Like the fact werewolves existed. And I’m dating one. Well, I had dated a werewolf. Now I was dating just some normal guy.
    Nice and normal. No prickle of heat between us when he pressed his body to mine, no roasting breath heating my lips when he paused just before a kiss … Snap out of it, Jess. “How much math do you have?”
    “Enough that an apt description of the quantity should include the phrase bordering on the ridiculous .” He shook his head. “There is no need to drown us in numbers.”
    I nodded, watching him. “I guess it depends on what you plan on getting into …,” I whispered, watching the back of his strong neck where his hair ended in slight curls.
    “What?” he asked. He pinned me with blue eyes that pierced straight to my heart even as they sent it racing. Think, Jess. But the hair that usually tumbled into his right eye was swept back, giving him a very studious look. A look that made me want to do things that’d mess it all up …
    His fingers drifted along the chain at his neck and he suddenly sat up straighter. “I don’t need this anymore, I guess,” he mumbled, slowly unfastening the necklace that had been specially designed to keep his animal magnetism in check. He set it on the desk beside his textbook. “Any different?” he asked, his eyes soft, his voice sweet.
    He knew I hadn’t been affected before, but now my reaction seemed even more important. I cleared my throat. “No. You’re still Pietr to me. My beautiful Pietr.” I leaned forward, but he’d already turned back to his jumble of books and papers.
    Dear. God. How had he turned me into this? Unable to focus on anything but him  …
    His mother had just died, and I was imagining touching him. What sort of monster had I become?
    I straightened on the bed and folded my hands in my lap. Focus . He’d been slow to touch me ever since he’d made his final transformation. Modest— shy . Something between us had changed, something I wanted to fix. “What are you going to do—after high school? Maybe math will count.”
    His mouth quirked in a smile. “Math always counts .”
    “So what do you want to do?” I asked, feeling the heat rise in my face as my eyes raced along his body, observing his long, lean lines.
    “After high school?”
    “Yes. That’s what I was thinking. Precisely. What do you want to do after high school?” Not right now. With me. In the quiet privacy of your room.
    “I hadn’t really thought about it. Until recently”—by which I knew he meant after the cure—“the idea of a career, complete with eventual retirement, never crossed my mind. Things are different. Da ,” he added, a note of sadness creeping into his voice. “Very different. I have a future to plan for.”
    I used that as my cue. Pushing to my feet, I crossed the floor and stood before him in two quick steps, my hands on his muscular shoulders. “I hope you mean a future with me…” I breathed deep, qualifying my request. “… at least for a while.” I didn’t want to sound desperate.
    He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me onto his lap. “Of course I want my future to include you. You’re the reason I have a future.”
    Winding one arm around his neck, I played with his hair, letting the contact calm me and hoping it soothed him, too. But he took my hand in his own and drew it back around to his front, kissing it gently.
    Just once.
    “Don’t you have homework?” he asked.
    With a groan, I stalked back to the bed and my book bag. “I’m sure there’s something I could be doing,” I muttered, rummaging through its contents.
    I pulled out my history text and flopped onto the bed with a sigh. Alexi said to keep him