I wanted to kiss him back. How badly I wanted to. His soft, warm lips against mine was the most incredible sensation, but the words kept ringing in my ear.
"I love you." That's where I snapped.
I pulled my head back and slapped my hand violently across his face. My hand stung but I didn't care. I heard Leah growling at me while I said, "Don't you ever touch me again. No, not just that. Don't ever speak to me again, Seth Clearwater." I walked out the room, my eyes embarrassingly starting to water.
He said he loved me. There was the whole judging before you know someone bit. Seth didn't love me. He didn't even know me.
I continued walking once I was outside of the house. I didn't know where I was going. I was just getting the Hell away from there.
Didn't take long before Seth was chasing after me. I didn't say anything, didn't speed up, just acted as if he didn't exist.
"Maggie, wait. What did I do? Should I have not kissed you? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. I just couldn't help it….You're beautiful, Maggie."He looked at me with those beautiful, dark brown eyes that made you just want to melt.
"You don't love me."
"What? Of course I do. You're my imprint. I love you more than anything in the world, Maggie." He took my hand and stopped walking.
"You can't love a person without knowing a person. Seth, you don't know me. You met me a few hours ago. You know nothing about me. I know nothing about you. This," I motioned between the two of us with my free hand, "is not love. This is..I don't know what this is."
He just stared at me.
"This imprinting thing…you're forced to love me aren't you?"
He looked down, "I'm not forced…It's more like..Like a bond is formed between the two of us, you're what keeps me on this Earth. Like Quil, when he imprinted, Claire was two. He was sixteen. He wasn't in love with her, but he loved her. He was like..like her older brother. He cared for her, he protected her, he would've done anything for her. Imprint doesn't make you have romantic feelings for a person. It ties you to a person, it doesn't make you love them." He gave me this look that made me wish more than anything, that he would just break my rules and kiss me again. "I'll do anything for you, Maggie. Be whatever you need me to be. A brother, a friend, an amazing awesome werewolf sidekick whom you fight crime with," I giggled, "But more than anything, I was hopping I could be the whole lover thing…" He trailed his index finger up my wrist to my elbow and back as he said this, his mouth forming a sly smile.
I sighed. "Let's get a few things straight. We are not in love. We are not dating. We are not going to hold hands or stare into each other's eyes and all that bullshit. And we are not going to kiss again. But you, you are going to have dinner at my house tomorrow."
I walked away before he could respond. Seth just stood there staring at me. When I had walked a few feet I turned around and said, "We might do the whole crime fighting thing, but that's all hush hush as far as the others are concered." I saw him smile as I turned around and walked home.