The Breed Read Free Page A

murmured in my ear, his
deep voice soothing. He was rocking me gently, swaying to some
music only he could hear. For a moment I felt like we were dancing.
“I’ve missed you so much. So very, very much.”
    “You have a funny way of showing it,” I said,
nuzzling closer to press my face against the warmth of his throat.
I liked the rough scratch of his whiskers against my skin. No
matter how often he shaved, Lukas always had a five o’clock shadow.
“Never calling,” I continued. “Never coming around…”
    I had a vague idea that I should have let go
of him by now—our hug had gone on much longer than was really
proper between a brother and sister. But somehow I just couldn’t
bear to stop holding him. Being near him made me feel better…about
work, about the strange changes I’d been going through, about everything .
    It was exactly the way I’d felt when we were
kids and I would run to him with a scraped knee. Lukas would always
gather me close in his arms and kiss the hurt spot and tell me a
silly story or sing me a song until I was laughing instead of
crying. I hadn’t had that feeling of comfort and safety from my
older brother in a long time. A very, very long time. And I
was surprised at how much I still enjoyed it.
    “Mmm,” he held me tighter, his voice rumbling
through me. “You smell good.”
    “Thanks, but I don’t know why. I haven’t put
on any perfume today.” I’d been in a hurry that morning and had
somehow skipped my usual spray of j’latique.
    “You don’t need perfume.” He inhaled deeply,
rubbing his hands up and down my spine in a way that was both
soothing and pleasurable.
    I was beginning to get a little uncomfortable
with how comfortable I felt. I know that doesn’t make any sense but
it’s the best way I can describe it. It seemed wrong to let myself
melt against him this way, wrong to feel so good in his arms. I
tried to think of the last time I’d hugged him—of the last time I’d touched him in anything more than a very formal way and drew
a blank. Could it be that we hadn’t hugged each other since we were
kids? Was that normal? Was what I was feeling now normal?
What exactly was I feeling?
    “What are you thinking?” he murmured. His
warm breath tickled my ear and sent a shiver down my spine. “What’s
wrong, Lexie?”
    “Nothing,” I said a little too fast.
“Just…wondering when the last time I hugged you was.”
    “Right before they sent me away to that damn
military school,” he said, surprising me. “Remember? The car was
waiting to take me to the port and you came running out to hug me.
You were supposed to be in school but you skipped that day, just so
you could see me off.”
    “Of course,” I said as the memory came
flooding back. “I got in so much trouble. They had to pull
us apart because I didn’t want to let you go. We were both crying
but you were pretending not to. How could I forget that?”
    “I couldn’t.” Lukas held me even tighter.
“I’ve carried the memory of it with me for years.”
    “You have?” I drew back a little to look at
his face but there was none of the sharp cynicism or sarcasm I’d
come to expect from him. Only complete sincerity.
    “Of course.” He looked back at me, his eyes
holding mine, making it impossible for me to look away. And then I
shifted my weight and felt something hot and hard brush my thigh. What the hell? Was our hug turning him on? Was it turning me on? I jumped away from him, ending the overlong embrace
abruptly.
    “What’s the matter, Lexie?” He arched one
black eyebrow at me and just like that, the sarcasm was back.
“Something bothering you?”
    “No. No, of course not.” My cheeks were hot
but there was no way I was going to admit what had really caused me
to stop hugging him. I’d probably imagined it anyway.
    Lukas gave me a knowing smile. “You’ve
grown,” he said, his eyes flicking over my breasts which were
straining the buttons of my jacket. “Have some work