Blood Lust - Alexandra Ivy Page 0,76
twisted with fear. Christ. Why couldn’t she do as he wanted just once?
“I get that you’re worried about returning to Valhalla, but imagine how much worse it will be if you’re captured by the Brotherhood,” he pointed out in grim tones.
She ignored his warning. “Would you leave me if I was injured?”
“If it was necessary,” he smoothly retorted.
Her fingers slid into his hair, giving the strands a painful tug.
“And you call me a rotten liar,” she chided. “You’re worse than I am.”
“Bullshit,” he muttered, the pain starting to make his thoughts fuzzy and his words slurred. “I’m a highly accomplished liar who has made millions of dollars on my ability to deceive others.”
“I’m not leaving,” she insisted.
“Myst.”
“No.” She inched closer, shivering as if she was cold despite the fact it was a hundred degrees in the barn. “We’ll wait until dark and then find a vehicle to get out of here.”
He swallowed a resigned sigh. He was too weak to force her to go. And besides, there was a needy, illogical part of him that desperately wanted her near.
He told himself it was a reaction to his fear that she might do something incredibly stupid. How could he know she wouldn’t decide to take her own life? She was convinced, after all, that was the only way to alter the future.
But he knew it went deeper than that.
Since her unexpected arrival in Kansas City, he’d developed a growing terror of her disappearing.
She’d left once and he hadn’t been able to find her, despite his considerable skills and resources. She could do it again if she wanted.
Just . . . poof. And he’d be helpless to track her down.
He needed to find some way to bind her to him so she could never disappear again.
Pulling her tight against his body, he rested his cheek against the top of her head.
“You’re trembling,” he murmured.
Her warm breath brushed his throat. “I’m not much of a hero, either,” she muttered.
“Not true,” he instantly argued, quite certain she had more courage packed into her tiny body than most Sentinels. “You’ve been incredibly brave, cara.”
“Not hardly.” She shook her head. “I’m scared out of my mind.”
His fingers stroked through the satin of her hair, something deep inside him locking into place as she burrowed closer, in need of comfort.
“You risked your life to save me,” he pointed out in low tones. “You sacrificed your heart to protect your daughter. And you’ve devoted your life to trying to alter fate.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You astonish me.”
She tensed, as if caught off guard by his words. Slowly she tilted back her head to meet his steady gaze.
“I didn’t always astonish you,” she murmured.
He heaved a faint sigh. He’d spent four years telling himself that this woman was a flighty, irresponsible female who wasn’t worthy of being Molly’s mother. But he’d never, ever managed to erase her from his life.
She’d haunted his dreams and destroyed any hope of him finding another woman to stir his interest.
“You did,” he assured her. “I just didn’t want to admit it.”
There was a short silence before she at last asked the question that’d no doubt been bothering her since their encounter with Boggs.
“Why do you have my locket?”
“I found it after you disappeared,” he said.
He didn’t add that it’d fallen out of one of the cushions of the couch when he’d picked it up to toss it across the room. He’d been so consumed with frustration when he’d been unable to track her that he’d nearly destroyed his entire office.
“And you kept it?” she pressed.
“At first I assumed you would return, and I intended to give it back to you,” he said.
Her lips twitched. “You thought you were so irresistible I couldn’t stay away?”
He arched an arrogant brow. “Of course.”
She rolled her eyes. “Good Lord.”
He chuckled. It hadn’t just been because he thought he was irresistible, although he couldn’t deny he’d always had success with women. But the passion that’d exploded between them had been so intense he truly hadn’t thought anyone would willingly walk away from such pleasure.
“Later I kept it because I hoped it would help me locate you,” he continued.
She wrinkled her nose. “I had no idea you would remember our . . .” She blushed as she tried to think of a word to describe their afternoon of searing hot, balls-to-the-wall sex. “Encounter, let alone search for me.”
“I remembered. Even when I tried to erase you from my mind,” he growled. “Then you brought Molly