“He certainly went about it in an interesting way. I noticed him all right. He almost got Barry and me killed.” Her voice betrayed her rejection of Lucian’s assessment.
“I was there, honey. I read his mind accurately. You wreak havoc among the males in your department, and now, unfortunately, you will do so even more.”
Jaxon laughed softly at him. “You are smitten with me, aren’t you? No one wants me. They just think I’m dynamite at my job, which I am,” she said without false modesty.
“You are surrounded by men all the time where you work. It is improper for a Carpathian woman to be unprotected in the company of men.”
Now her eyebrows shot up. “Lucky for me, I’m just a plain little human woman who works for a living.”
His hand caressed her hair, then moved to stroke her soft skin before returning to the untamed blond strands that so intrigued him. “Not any longer. I am no modern man, angel. I believe strongly in the duties I have sworn to carry out. You are my true lifemate, my heart and soul, the light to my darkness. I do not think running around seeking danger is what I want for the light to my darkness. Think what it would mean to the world, my love, if something were to happen to you. I have held out against the darkness for more centuries than I can say, but if something happened to you, I would truly become a monster. Even the hunters in my family would find it impossible to track and destroy me.”
“I don’t think so, Lucian. You forget, I’m getting used to being in your mind. You wouldn’t become a monster. You’re just trying to get me to do what you want.”
“So you think you know me.” His voice was softer than ever.
At once Jaxon frowned and moved to sit up cautiously, testing her body for its responses. “That’s just it, Lucian. I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. I don’t even know how I got here. I don’t know how I’ve allowed you to take over my life. And now this. I don’t know what you’ve done, but I know it’s not something I want, and you didn’t bother to consult with me one way or the other. Is that part of being old-fashioned? Born centuries ago? The little woman doesn’t have a say in her own life?” Her hand crept defensively to her throat. She wasn’t the same at all. She could feel the difference. Reality was creeping in whether she wanted it to or not.
She was in bed stark naked with a man she knew relatively nothing about. He wasn’t even a man. He was some powerful predator she found sexy. Gasping, she shoved at the solid wall of his chest and, grabbing for the sheet, wrapped it around her. “I don’t know you at all. I can’t believe I slept with you.”
Lucian’s face was more sensual than ever, a slight, puzzled frown making him so attractive, Jaxon wanted him outlawed on the spot. “Do not modern-day women sleep with their husbands?”
“We aren’t married. I didn’t marry you. I would have known if I had done that. I didn’t, did I?” She shoved a hand through her hair, sending it flying in all directions, then had to grab hastily for the sheet slipping so precariously. She glared at him, daring him to smile at her predicament.
Lucian found that his centuries of self-control stood him in good stead. He kept his features completely expressionless when he wanted desperately to smile with the joy flooding his heart. She melted his insides, turned him into something gentle, when he had been so certain there was no chance for him to feel such things. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and kiss her until her eyes went dark with desire and her body went up in flames with his. “What do you think a lifemate is? We are married in the way of the Carpathian people. We are bound for all eternity, one to the other, body and soul.”
She jumped out of bed, trying to be dignified with a sheet swirling around her like a toga, bunching at her feet, preventing freedom of movement. “There you go again with words like
eternity
. See? That’s exactly what I’m talking about. We’re not in the least bit compatible. And I don’t sleep around. You’ve done something to me. Some black-magic trick. Voodoo. I have a few morals. I don’t sleep with just anyone, you know.”
A smile hovered dangerously close. Lucian’s black eyes gleamed at her, moving over her with a slow, burning possessiveness that said more than any words could possibly express. “I am not just anyone, Jaxon, and I am more than grateful that you do not ‘sleep around.’ “ He moved then, a sleek jungle cat stretching lazily.
At once her heart was pounding overly loud and she was backing away from the bed, her eyes wide in her face. “You’re asking me to be something I’m not, Lucian. You didn’t give me a chance to think about things.”
“What things? What was there to think about? I must rest in the ground. I cannot do so if you are not beside me. You have a penchant for getting into trouble.”
At once her dark eyes flashed fire. “That’s it! I’ve had it with you. You don’t even seem to know what you’ve done. You show no remorse at all. I’m the one who has to do all the compromising, except there is no compromise. You simply decide I’m going to do something, and then I do it. And it hurt like hell!” With that parting shot, she stormed from the bedroom. The hem of the sheet trailing behind her caught on the edge of the door and brought her up short. Jaxon simply allowed the sheet to flutter to the floor, giving Lucian a last glimpse of her soft, pale skin and beautiful curves before she disappeared from his sight.
Lucian stretched again, reveling in the feel of his strong muscles, in the way his body felt so alive. He wanted her again. He would want her for all time. The day could never come when he was fully sated. He was smiling, unable to stop. She was such a perfect miracle to him. Right now, when most women would be hysterical at the thought of conversion, she was giving him hell for being an arrogant Carpathian male. Lucian knew she was going to have to come to terms with what she had become, and it wouldn’t be easy on her, but it had been necessary to ensure her continued safety. Jaxon was not a woman to be put on a shelf. She would always be in the thick of things, no matter what he decreed. Once Lucian had accepted that fact, accepted her personality, her protective nature, he had taken the only course open to him to prevent disaster.
He padded on bare feet across the room and stooped to pick up her discarded sheet. He smiled again. It had never occurred to him he would ever experience jealousy, yet he found he didn’t like the idea of other males being close to her. He didn’t even want them thinking about her, fantasizing over her. More than that, he didn’t want her to smile at them with her innocent, sexy smile, or to touch them in the way humans often did one another. Living with emotions was an interesting experience. Worse, now that Jaxon was fully Carpathian, her ability to attract males would increase. Her voice would become more alluring, so memorable that those hearing it would want to hear it again and again. Her eyes would draw men to her—as if they didn’t already. Lucian sighed and shook his head.
He moved through the house and up the stairs to her room. Drawers had been yanked open so she could grab some clothing. Jaxon was in the spacious bathroom. He could hear the shower running. Lucian touched her mind very gently. She was panicked and trying to calm herself with normal human activities. There were tears in her mind, running down her face. At once he found himself needing to be with her.
But the door to the bathroom was firmly locked, and she had placed a rolled-up towel at its base. In spite of everything Lucian found himself smiling again. She had no real idea of his true power. He could mentally command her to open the door. One touch would burst it open. He could open it a thousand ways. His solid frame shimmered for a moment before it became insubstantial, transparent, then dissolved into mist. The droplets streamed through the keyhole of the door and poured into the bathroom, mixing with the steam from the shower.
Lucian stepped out of the fog, his muscular frame solid once more. He could see Jaxon clearly through the glass shower door. She was leaning her forehead against the wall, the water pouring over her head and down her back. She looked beautiful, pale, and fragile. She took his breath away. Silently he slid into the tub and reached for her, turning her into his chest with his strong arms, giving her no chance to protest.