Dark Curse Page 0,18

chose life for me. Our souls are one."

Lara frowned. She had a vague idea of the ritual binding words from the story her aunts told her. The words were imprinted on the male before birth. Once uttered, they bound two souls together so one could not survive without the other once the ritual was actually complete. She didn't know what the rest of the ritual was, but if it involved sex with this man, she really wasn't up to the task.

She tilted her head and looked at him with a cool steady gaze. She didn't feel cool or steady, but she wanted him to understand her-to know that if she'd ever been serious about anything in her life, she was serious about this. "I know very little about your traditions or culture. Just stories my aunts told me when I was a child, but no matter what you've done to tie us together, know this: I don't know you. I don't love you. I don't care anything at all about you. I spent the first years of my life a prisoner and I will never- never-allow anyone to imprison me again. If you try to take anything from me by force, if you try to break my will or manipulate my mind, I will fight you with the last breath in my body. So you make up your mind-choose life or death for us."

His eyes darkened to obsidian, glittering with a sensual lust that burned through her body. He cupped her chin with gentle fingers and bent his head slowly. Mesmerized, she couldn't pull herself away. She could see the long length of his lashes, the tiny crinkled lines around his eyes, the straight nose of the aristocrat, the mouth sinfully carnal, but stamped with the mark of a man who could be cruel.

Her breath caught as his hair brushed her face. She felt his mouth on her neck. Hot. Burning. Velvet soft. His tongue rasped over the twin pinpricks at her frantically beating pulse, stopping the tempting trickle of her blood.

I choose life for us.

The words slid into her mind like a caress. She moistened her lips as he straightened to his full height. "Fine then. We understand each other." She turned to go back to the inn-to safety, because no matter what this man agreed to, she knew she wasn't safe with him and it wasn't entirely his fault.

Once more his fingers settled around her wrist like a bracelet. Warm.

He stroked the pads of his fingers against the bare skin of her inner wrist, halting her. "I do not think you quite understand me and I would not want you later to say you were not in possession of all the facts."

Lara turned back reluctantly. "I'm listening."

"You are the one woman-the only woman-mywoman. This is something I take very seriously. Your health. Your safety and your happiness. I will see to these things, but I will not share you. I will not allow others to interfere in our relationship.No other . Man or woman. If you have a problem with something, you tell me. If you are afraid of something, you tell me."

"I don't know you. And I don't trust that easily."

"I did not say it would be easy. I just want you to understand who I am."

She couldn't push down the rising panic. She saw him exactly for what he was. A predator. A hunter. A man who made decisions and expected those around him to follow his lead. Already the ritual words had bound them together. She could feel the pull of him on her mind-even on her body.

Lara let her breath out slowly. "I don't share my blood."

His lips curved into a small smile. She caught a brief glimpse of his white teeth and then that predatory smile was gone and he once again wore a face carved of stone. "I noticed."

Color rose in her cheeks. "I have toget back inside. I have a friend who is hurt. Maybe you can help him. You obviously know healing."

All warmth leeched from his eyes. "Your friend is male?"

She shivered, suddenly cold. "Yes. I came with two colleagues. We're doing research nearby and we're staying here."

"What kind of research?" There was a bite to his voice, a note of suggestion.

Now her entire body was blushing. She was annoyed with herself for the fluttery nerves in the pit of her stomach. She was trying to establish herself as someone to take seriously, yet each time she looked closely as