Binding Ties The Sentinel Wars - Shannon K. Butcher Page 0,79
it was, she was panting and sweating, taking a lot of stink eye from the people passing her.
She couldn’t stay here, whatever she did. She had to move. Do something. The itch inside her was too extreme to just stand around and be tortured. At least if she were moving, she’d be distracted from the way she was slowly dying inside.
Justice found herself in baggage claim, retrieving her hard-sided, cherry red suitcase. Her next stop was a rental-car agency, where she got the fastest set of wheels they had to offer.
Ten minutes later, she was behind the wheel, flying down the highway.
An interstate junction loomed up ahead. She could go left and head for California, or right, back to Ronan Land. Left was freedom and excruciating pain. Right was elation, followed by a bloodsucking vampire.
In the end, there really was no choice. There never had been—at least not for her. Justice had no free will. She was a tool. A pawn. She went where she was told and did what was expected of her, no matter how cruel or disgusting it might be.
Her only hope was that wherever the fates sent her this time, Ronan would be far, far away.
Chapter 28
Joseph realized the instant he could breathe again that he’d made a fatal mistake.
Lyka hadn’t been ready for sex. It was too soon, and now she was shutting down, closing up shop and boarding all the doors on her thoughts so he couldn’t see a single one.
He should have waited. Given her time. Let her accept the fact that she was irrevocably bound to him—that she wasn’t going back to her old life once Eric and the kids were found.
But, no, his dick had to get some, and now he’d potentially ruined his relationship with his mate for the rest of their long, long lives.
How the hell could he have been so stupid?
She slipped from the bed and wobbled to the bathroom. The door shut behind her, blocking off the sight of her lovely ass, as well as any chance he had of reading her thoughts.
He poked at the connection between them, hoping for even a slight glimpse of her feelings, but all he got was a cold, blank wall.
He fell back against the pillows and covered his eyes with his forearm. The longer he waited to bridge the gap that was forming between them, the wider it would become.
The only thing he could think to do to draw her back to him was to help her find her brother, but they’d been working on that with little success so far. So had a lot of other people. Whoever, whatever, had the Slayers, they were covering their tracks well. Not even the best Slayer noses had been able to follow the trail.
Then again, not one of those Slayers had the power of a Theronai at their disposal, either.
Joseph thought about waiting for her to come out of the bathroom, but every second that passed was another chunk of ice clogging their connection. It was time to melt that all off.
His legs were a bit unsteady as he slid on his jeans, but he forced his shaky limbs to carry him to the bathroom door. “Lyka, are you okay?”
“Fine. Just cleaning up.” Her tone was sharp with irritation.
He’d left a hell of a mess inside that sweet body of hers when he’d come, but she’d seemed to like it at the time. Maybe she was one of those OCD chicks who just couldn’t stand a man’s semen touching her.
If that was the case, then she was just going to have to get over it, because he planned on messing her up again. Frequently.
Whoa. Down, boy. Getting pissed over something he didn’t even know was true was not the way to get Lyka to open up to him.
He put a muzzle on his irrational burst of anger and forced his voice to come out nice and calm. “Can I come in?”
“Isn’t there another bathroom?”
“Not one with you in it.”
She let out a long, agitated sigh. The door opened to her gloriously naked body posed with one hand on her curvy hip. He was sure her expression would have shown him just how pissed she was if he could have found the strength to lift his eyes past her flushed breasts.
He loved the way her nipples felt against his tongue, the way she squirmed and panted when he applied just the right amount of suction.