honor by breaking the curse, and he banned my dad from ever speaking to a woman, let alone having sex with them. Of course, it's not that easy to do when you're out there saving the damn world and running into women all the time. My dad wanted to give me the same command, but he knew it was impossible, so he instead taught me to identify women who might bring me down and to get out before they could get to me." The irony of the moment, that he was telling his story to a woman he'd made love to until his soul had exploded was not lost on him. "By the time I was ten, my dad was suffering. The curse was pressing him hard for a woman he'd seen from a distance once. It was killing him."
Alice raised her brows. "Was it his sheva?"
"Yeah. She wouldn't have been able to affect him so intensely from such a distance otherwise." Ian closed his eyes, remembering that night all too well. "He came to me in the middle of the night and told me that he couldn't fight the curse much longer because the separation between him and this woman was killing him. He gave instructions on what I was supposed to do after he killed himself."
Alice put her hand on his arm, her face softening. "I'm so sorry. That's terrible." She couldn't imagine what it would be like to have your parent tell you that they were about to kill themselves. How helpless and vulnerable would that make a child feel? And how terrified? "Did you try to stop him?"
"Of course I did. I went out and found the woman and brought her home. I figured that if he couldn't take the separation, then maybe it would be better if he had her in his life." He flexed his hands restlessly, and Alice could feel the raw strength he was exerting trying to keep the memories superficial. "The moment he saw Helen, their connection was instant." He looked over at her, his dark eyes hooded. "Like us."
Alice felt heat flood her cheeks, but there was no way to deny it. Even just sitting beside him on the floor, she was aware of the rhythm of his heart, the strength emanating from him, and the potent sexuality that seemed to heat up the very air between them. She'd chosen to sit on the floor instead of the cot, because the bed seemed too dangerous in this small room with him. "So it worked?"
"For a couple days. He even told me he was feeling better."
Alice could hear the edge in his voice, the precursor of something terrible. "So, what happened?"
Ian lifted her arm and traced his fingers down the smooth expanse of her skin. "They completed the sheva bond. All five stages." He raised her arm to his lips, pressing a kiss against it.
Desire and awareness pulsed through her. "So, that's good, right? For them? I mean, he had cemented the bond, which is what you want to do with me." She wanted to pull her arm away from Ian, but she couldn't make herself do it. Not with the feel of his breath drifting over her skin, the delicate way his fingers were clasped around her wrist, as if she were a fragile porcelain doll that would shatter.
"No. Not good." He pressed another kiss to her arm, never taking his gaze off her face. "Remember the sheva legend?"
"Oh...yes." She'd forgotten about the ill-fated destiny of the Calydon and his mate, having been slightly occupied with clear and present dangers instead. But even remembering it didn't lessen her need for him. She could barely resist the urge to melt into him. Was her response because she really was his sheva? Or was there something else about him that made her come to life? "Has anyone survived the bond?"
"In the last two thousand years four couples have survived, but it's unclear whether they defeated fate, or simply delayed it. The jury is still out." He leaned back against the wall, resting his head against the luminescent shell. "But the curse changes it for us, for my father. He lost Helen, the way destiny commanded, but instead of going rogue, the despair of the loss was so great that he took his own life." He was staring across the room, not looking at her. "She'd simply gone to buy bread," he said. "That was all. But that loss was enough. I was