At once he raised his head. Her breath caught in her throat. Behind the depths of his eyes crouched a primitive animal; she could see it, the red flames in its eyes, the heat and hunger gathering into a fierce conflagration. Her heart thudded wildly. “Lucian.” She tightened her grip in his hair, two large handfuls, holding on for her life.
“It is all right, angel,” he said tenderly. He kissed her throat gently, lingering over her wildly beating pulse. “I could never hurt you. You are my life, the air I breathe. I may sometimes act more animal than man, but I am truly a man after all.”
“But not human.” Jaxon’s voice was a mere thread of sound.
“Not human,” he agreed. “A Carpathian male, very much needing his lifemate at this moment.”
Jaxon was suddenly acutely conscious of her disheveled clothes. “I think it would be best if you removed yourself from my bedroom.”
“Best for whom?” Amusement tinged his voice. “Not me.” Very gently he arranged her black top to cover her creamy skin. “Do you have any idea how much you mean to me?” He shook his head. “It is not possible that you could know.”
She was afraid to breathe. Her entire body was crying out for his, completely betraying her saner self. “Lucian, I really need to be alone for a while.”
“So you can deny that you want me?”
“Absolutely,” she agreed readily. There was no reason to deny it. He was lucky she wasn’t experienced.
She might just be ripping his clothes off. The idea took her breath away.
He arched an expressive eyebrow at her. “It takes my breath away, too,” he murmured against her throat, proving he was a shadow firmly entrenched in her mind.
She wanted to be annoyed with him. He had no right to listen to her every thought. But she found herself laughing. It just seemed so intimate, lying on the bed with his arm curved around her waist, his black eyes moving over her with such stark hunger in them. “You’re so bad, Lucian.”
Jaxon closed her eyes tiredly. It felt good to simply lie there and be still. Not think. Not do anything but feel his warmth and strength. “I’m so tired. It must be close to dawn. Why are we always talking until dawn?”
“So you grow tired and sleep all day while I am at my weakest. It is a good way to keep you chained to my side.” Lucian stretched lazily “I intend to sleep here with you, so settle down and do not try to argue with me.”
Jaxon thumped his shoulder, then shifted to lay her head on it “I wasn’t going to argue with you. Why ever would you think that? I never argue.”
Lucian smiled at her. She was so small, it amazed him she was such a strong person. “Of course you do not argue. What was I thinking? Go to sleep, honey, and allow my poor body to rest.”
“I’m already asleep. You’re the one gabbing.”
Lucian concentrated on safeguarding the estate. He found he was more than a little distracted with Jaxon snuggled so close to him, her body fitting perfectly into the curve of his. She thought him so controlled, and perhaps it was true in every other matter—every matter other than Jaxon. He was not so sure of his ability to protect her from his own needs and hungers.
“Lucian?” The drowsy note in her voice sent his gut clenching into a ball of fire that was spreading like molten lava.
“Go to sleep.” He draped his arm over her, completely engulfing her. Of their own accord his fingers tangled in the thick mop of untamed hair. His own voice was husky with need.
“Don’t you sleep underground or something? I know you don’t use a coffin, but this seems too normal for you.” Her voice held suspicion.
Lucian hesitated. There could be no untruths between lifemates, and he had always been careful to tell her those details of his life she asked about. But this. What was he to answer? “Go to sleep.”
At once Jaxon tried to lift her head. Lucian didn’t appear to notice. His arm lay firmly in place. “Tell me, Lucian, or I’m going to bug you all day.”
He sighed. “I thought you didn’t like hearing all the gory details of my existence.” His fingers were moving in her hair gently, a tender caress that warmed her heart as nothing else could.
It was the way he touched her, the way he looked at her, Jaxon decided, as if she were the only woman in the world for him. And he was beguiling. A dark sorcerer impossible to resist. Like right now, his mouth skimming the top of her head, the way he inhaled her scent as if he were taking the essence of her into his own body “I’m beginning to be rather fond of your fantasyland, Lucian.” The smile left her voice, and she became very serious. “I want to know everything about you. Not all at once, maybe, but eventually, everything.”
He lay there, his body tight and hot and uncomfortable. He should have been in a burning hell, but instead he was filled with joy. Her words moved him, melted his insides, so that the demon within him was safely leashed. He knew he would have her, he knew he would never allow her to escape him, yet he never believed she would grow to love him for who he was, what he was. Maybe it wouldn’t happen, but Jaxon did want to know him, his reality.
Lucian’s hand moved to the nape of her neck, his fingers curling around it. “To rejuvenate our bodies, such as when we have suffered mortal wounds or used much energy to heal another, the soil of the earth welcomes us. But it is not strictly necessary to sleep within the arms of the earth. It is safer, for little harm can find its way to us there.” Again he hesitated, unsure how she would take the next piece of information.
Jaxon thumped his chest lightly with her fist. She didn’t bother to open her eyes and frown at him, considering her gesture enough of a reprimand. “Tell me.”
“Normally we sleep differently than humans in that we shut down our hearts and lungs and lie as if dead. But that is a dangerous thing to do in a setting such as this one. Beneath this house I have a sleeping chamber. If something should happen and my safeguards failed, then it would be much easier for an adversary to destroy me here than in my sleeping chamber, where they cannot find me.”
Jaxon shoved his arm aside and sat up, her hair spilling wildly around her face, her eyes enormous. “Why aren’t you doing what you’re supposed to be doing? I’m not going to be thrilled waking up next to someone who looks dead.”
“I will not sleep in the manner of our kind, Jaxon. We are bound together. We must touch minds frequently, or it is uncomfortable, even dangerous. Your mind is used to the touch of my mind. Without it you would feel intense grief, much more intense than a human could withstand. Carpathian emotions are extremely strong, Jaxon, due, no doubt, to our longevity. I cannot exactly describe what you would feel, but I cannot take such a chance with you. There is no need for it. I will sleep in the way of your people.”
“Why don’t you sleep like we do all the time?”
He sighed and deliberately pulled her once more into his arms. “You talk too much, when you should be sleeping.”
“You’ve been doing that, haven’t you? Sleeping beside me like a human instead of doing what is good for you,” Jaxon guessed shrewdly. “That’s why you look tired sometimes. Your body doesn’t rest this way, does it?”
“No, it does not rest.” He sounded somewhere between exasperation and laughter. “Go to your sleeping chamber or whatever it is you call it,” she demanded.
“I cannot be apart from you.”
“If your heart and lungs are shut down, then you can’t possibly feel anything,” she said logically.
“You are trying to take care of me again,” he pointed out, wishing his heart didn’t react quite so strongly to her concern. In all the endless centuries he had endured, he could not remember a single individual, other than his twin brother, Gabriel, who had worried about him. And that hadn’t been the same.
“Someone has to take care of you. You don’t,” she replied. “I mean it, Lucian. I can see how tired you are. Please go where you can sleep properly.”