Starbound by J.L. Weil Page B

news, honey,” he said with a wicked grin.
    I narrowed my eyes. “Don’t call me that.”
    His brow arched. “What do you want me to call you? According to the fates, you’re mine.” The way he spoke sounded possessive, which only confused me more.
    He wanted me. He didn’t want me. I wished he would just make up his mind.
    My heart started hammering in my chest. “The fates have a seriously sick sense of humor.”
    There was liquid fire in his green eyes to match mine. “You’re telling me.”
    “And last I saw, Elena was draping herself all over you. Isn’t that just peachy?” I added sarcastically.
    Deep bottle-green eyes held mine. “Jealous?”
    No .
    Hell yes .
    Fine. My whole body was laced with dark jealousy. “Not in this life.”
    “Since when did you become a liar? His voice had lowered into a zone I recognized as dangerous. “Anyway, it’s none of your business.” He stepped toward me.
    None of my business ? Okay, so we weren’t a couple, we hadn’t even ever been on a date, but in reality, we were a hell of a lot more than that. He was, in a better sense, my soul mate—the one chosen for me by the fates. That made it my business. Our lives, our futures were intertwined whether he liked it or not. “Since you took it upon yourself to use magick on me. What do you want from me, Seth? If you don’t want me, then why go to the trouble to make me forget?”
    He had somehow managed to box me against the side of the brick building with his body. Tingles radiated through me at his close proximity. With a gleam of defiance and danger, he ran the back of his hand down my cheek. “It doesn’t really matter what I want.”
    My chest rose and fell in heavy breathing. “I hate you.” Even as the words left my mouth, they felt weak.
    The air surrounding us was electrifying. “That’s just it, Kats. You and I both know that hate isn’t what you feel for me.”
    I shoved at his chest, nowhere else to go. “Screw off, Seth.”
    “The crap that comes out of your pretty mouth never fails to amaze me.” His eyes shifted to my lips.
    I tried not to melt into a puddle at his feet. “Bite me.”
    “With pleasure.” He gave me another wicked grin, a slow curving of lips that erased some of the harshness from his face and replaced it with a devastating hotness.
    Holy crap .
    I didn’t know whether to slap him across the cheek or kiss his mouth. “Stay away from me,” I warned, afraid I was going to do both.
    His eyes snapped back to mine. “Easier said than done.”
    That was it. I’d reached my boiling point. If I didn’t leave right then, I was going to do something utterly stupid and regrettable. My nails dug into my hands as I clenched them in frustration and desire. How the hell could he make me feel both at the same time?
    I clung to my last thread of sanity and pivoted on my heel. My hair soared through the space between us, and my middle finger saluted him. It was my signature move.
    How had that gone so horribly wrong? How had I gone from hating him to wanting him in a blink?
    Damn Seth Nightingale.

 
     
     
    Chapter 11
     
    Seth
    Shit. On. A. Brick.
    Kat remembered.
    Not only had she remembered, but she had me twisted in knots. Closing my eyes, I sunk against the brick building, needing all the support I could get. My body was craving her, exuding with the need for her presence.
    Balling my fists, I was going to wipe Zeke’s face with the floor, and that was before I let him explain how the hell this had happened. If he had duped me, he was going to get a black eye. Forget that we were friends—this was Kat’s life at stake.
    I ran an unsteady hand through my already ragged and tousled hair. Christ, she drove me bonkers in both maddening and needful ways.
    Kat had not left mere minutes ago when I heard the bells from inside the shop chime. The last thing I wanted was to deal with people, not now, but my job had other ideas. So much for hiding outside, I still had a job to do, at