She breathed out, emptying her lungs, pretending she was doing meditative breathing, sitting tailor fashion as if he wasn’t scaring the total crap out of her. She wished she was like her brother and sister and could find amusement in any situation as they did, but her heart pounded and her mouth went dry. Still. She held herself firm. She wouldn’t flee. She would follow him wherever he led. She owed that to him, and she was determined to see this through.
“Put yourself in the ground, woman.” Aleksei bit out each word, his green eyes glittering and his mouth set with absolute menace.
She lifted her chin. “I will follow wherever you go. It is my right as your lifemate whether you reject me or not.”
He growled. Not low, but a rumbling, scary, mean, threatening growl. Like a tiger might do right before he pounced on you and tore you to shreds. She blinked and dug her fingers into her thighs. His gaze dropped to her hands. Inspected her white knuckles.
“O jelä peje terád, emni.” He said the words low this time, in his own language, and for some reason, that was worse than the growl.
She lifted her chin, trying hard to keep from trembling. “I don’t know what that means. I don’t know the Carpathian language.”
Something moved in his eyes. Something different. Not gentle. Not softening, but still, she had gotten that much through to him. She didn’t know the language. A few words maybe, but those words hadn’t sounded very nice.
“It means, ‘sun scorch you, woman.’”
No. Definitely not nice. She flinched. “I suppose that’s what we’re doing here, isn’t it? Sitting out in the open, waiting for the sun to come up?” She tried a faint smile. “At least you know I’ll obey that order.”
“What is wrong with you? Are you a lunatic? Insane?”
She moistened her lips, and that small action had his gaze dropping to her mouth. She saw his body jerk as if she’d punched him. She probably was a lunatic. Otherwise what would she be doing in the middle of the monastery yard, surrounded by ancients who were there to ensure Aleksei did in fact kill himself? They believed she had betrayed one of them and deserved death. She felt the weight of their eyes, although she couldn’t see them.
Her fingers twisted tightly in the fabric of her soft vintage jeans. “I don’t think I am. But I’m so confused I could be.”
“Put. Yourself. In. The. Ground.”
Her heart nearly stopped beating. She’d really, really made him angry. He was terrifyingly angry. She’d seen him like that already and she didn’t want to go there again. Her fists tightened around the material of her jeans.
“Not unless you do as well. I told you. Your decision is my decision.”
He glared at her. The air thickened. Vibrated with his anger. He was from a different time, she reminded herself. Women didn’t talk back to men in his time. They obeyed.
Suddenly he was on his feet. He reached down and caught her arm, yanking her up, yanking her into him. His body was hard. She couldn’t find a soft place on him. He was enormously strong and his fingers shackled her just as well as any chain would have.
“If I really had a choice, I would throw you down and bury my cock in your body. I would taste you, eat you up, drink your blood. Claim every inch of you for my own. I would not let you rest until the sun began to climb and then I would put you in the ground with me and hold you while we slept. When we awakened, I would start all over again.”
He was deliberately scaring her. She didn’t doubt that he meant every word. Every single word. She could barely breathe. Barely draw in a breath. She caught her lower lip between her teeth, trying to assess her own reaction. Her brain screamed at her to run, but her body melted at his words. Really melted. She actually went damp and her breasts ached.
She didn’t understand how it could happen when she knew she really loved another man, but strangely, she was physically attracted to Aleksei. The chemistry was off the charts, even when he was holding her captive like he was. She wasn’t wild. There wasn’t anything the least bit wild about her; normally she would have run for her life, but she couldn’t. Not if she was going to save Aleksei, and he deserved to be saved.
“Is that your decision, then?” She couldn’t look up at him. She just couldn’t. Not with her heart pounding and her body reacting and her mind screaming at her.
Her question was met with silence. She stared down at the ground, terrified to look at him. Terrified of his answer. They would either return to that horrible carpet on the ground and he would take her body, or they would sit together and burn in the sun.
“Look at me.”
She swallowed hard, studiously staring at the ground. “Aleksei. This is your decision. I told you I would do whatever you wished and I will, but I’m really scared. If I look at you, you’re going to see that and it might influence you one way or the other.”
“When I tell you something, Gabrielle, you are to do it.”
His tone was gentle for the first time. His voice soft. Compelling. But there was no give there. No concession. He meant it. She closed her eyes briefly, summoning the courage she would need. In truth, she had caused this innocent man harm. She’d nearly pushed him over the edge right into the darkness. She knew that. She was responsible. She felt the darkness rising and she should have been able to pull herself together to calm him instead of inciting him further.
She’d been too upset at losing Gary to think straight. She’d been clinging to a way out. There was no way. Not even with Gary.
Aleksei’s fist bunched in her hair in a clear warning. Gabrielle swallowed the terrible burning lump in her throat and lifted her gaze to his. The moment her eyes met his, her heart thudded wildly. She felt the darkness in him, and that was bad enough, but she could see it, too. The demons driving him. His implacable strength. This was a man the complete opposite of the one she’d fallen in love with. He was hard and scary and would demand things of her she wasn’t certain she was capable of giving. Still. Without her, he wouldn’t survive.
“You would tie your life to mine for all eternity.” There was sarcasm in his voice, and she winced as if he’d struck her. “You would give your body into my keeping.”
She couldn’t look away. His eyes were such a piercing green, and they seemed to look right through her. She nodded.