“What are you doing?” he asked in a voice grown gruff.
Shaking her head, she dropped his hand and marched quietly back to the waters and Giles found himself more confused than ever.
Lilith brought a handful of water to her face and gently scrubbed the sleep out of her eyes then, using a small bristled tip of pine needles, she brushed her teeth. Every molecule of her body was keenly aware of the man standing behind her.
She’d been bombarded by dreams all through the night. Sexual ones. This was only her fourth season in heat, but she could remember that during her first one she’d also had sexual dreams. All of them, however, had involved a faceless alpha doing things to her body she’d witnessed animals doing in the wild but had never experienced herself.
But last night, she’d not dreamt of her faceless Casanova who would play her body until she sang. The male had had a face and it’d been Giles’s.
Blowing out a puff of air she attempted to regain control of her raging emotions. Mother wasn’t a wolf; she’d attempted her best to explain to Lilith the mechanics of it, though. That though a wolf could not control her hormones, she could control who she’d willingly give herself to.
That just because she was in heat didn’t mean she was without will. From the moment she’d spotted Giles, he’d intrigued both sides of her. Hanging her head, she pretended like she was still washing herself, but it was really a way to stall from going back to him before she could regain her composure.
She’d licked his finger. Squeezing her eyes shut, she was so grateful that Giles was no wolf and that he hadn’t understood the symbolism of that act.
That if he’d even so much as blinked a consent she would have taken him then and there. For a wolf there was no such thing as love, there was respect and compatibility. Giles had proven to her wolf last night that not only was he a man of honor, but of power. How he’d taken down three of the most formidable foes she’d ever come against and acted as though it was nothing.
However, her human side, the female side was mortified. Though she liked Giles, she was humiliated by the truth of her actions last night, of how because of her he’d had to come to her rescue yet again. Not to mention that she tempted fate each time she hinted at her true intentions.
Her mother’s words hammered away at her. How many times had she asked Lilith to grow up? To think not rashly, but wisely? To not allow the capriciousness of her brothers to rub off on her, too? Too many times to count. Lilith prided herself on being smart, fierce… Last night she’d been neither.
Nor had she been the night she’d first met Giles. She’d been taking a shortcut home instead of using the spelled trail that would have kept her safe.
Giles was a strong male, she liked him, and she didn’t want him thinking that she was only good to be rescued. She only hoped that she still had time to prove to him she was a capable ally.
Ally—she would chant that in her head until the cows came home if she had to. Her heat was making her forget the dangerous game she played with him. She’d made a deal with Rumpel years ago; she knew the dangers she’d face if she crossed that line.
Determined to stop mucking things up, she took a final deep breath and stood to her feet. “I’m ready.”
It took very little time to find the grove he’d mentioned. They ate until they were full before heading out.
After three hours of miserable silence with nothing more than forest chatter to occupy her mind her determination to ignore him wavered, it seemed that where Giles was concerned she wasn’t very strong at all. “Tell me about yourself.”
His jaw clenched. “There is nothing to tell.”
“Oh, come on, I’m sure there’s something. We all have a past. Where were you born?”
Giles shrugged as he shoved a pine branch out of his way. “No place interesting.”
“Let me be the judge of that,” she said, giving him a soft smile. “People always believe there is nothing remarkable or interesting about themselves, but that is only because they know themselves so well.” She laughed. “To me you’re a total enigma. I know so little of your kind.”
His brows rose then fell, then, heaving a long-suffering sigh, he glanced at her. “You’re going to force me to talk today, aren’t you?”
Encountering a lingonberry bush, she snapped a couple of the red fruity berries off and popped them into her mouth. The sweet juices slid down her throat as she smiled. “That’s the plan—is it working?”
Snorting, he shook his head. “I was born in Delerium.”
She frowned. “Is that on Kingdom?”
He narrowed his eyes and Lilith thought that perhaps he meant not to answer but instead he shocked her by turning her palm over and stealing one of her lingonberries, popping it into his mouth with a cocky grin.