Edge of Dawn Page 0,46
way now. Vince and Candice waited at that end of the corridor, both of them gaping, observing the whole disastrous scene in quiet judgment. Mira had never felt more the fool.
Kellan ordered them to go. “This is private business. I don’t need an audience.”
They cleared out quickly, but Mira didn’t feel any better once she was alone with Kellan. She took a few hurried steps and he was there in front of her again, forcing her to face him. “We can do this all day, Mouse. Calm down, be reasonable for a minute.”
She choked on a hard laugh. “Be reasonable? Fuck you. How’s that for calm and reasonable?”
Once more she spun away from him and lunged into a bolt with all she had. He moved so fast this time, she didn’t see him or feel him—not until she was swept off her feet and scooped into Kellan’s powerful arms.
“Let go of me!” She fought his hold, but he was strong—warm and solid and unyielding, a tangible reminder of the fact that he was something more than man, something deadly, dark, and formidable.
He ignored her struggles and carried her back to his quarters. Kicked the door closed behind him with a heavy bang. He set her down but gave her no chance to get away from him. Before she could take her next breath, Kellan had her spine pressed against the closed door, hemming her in with the bulk of his body, muscled arms caging her on either side.
She glared up at him, trying to ignore the hot spike of awareness that arrowed through her at the near press of their bodies. Her breasts ached to feel him against her, nipples going hard despite the rolling boil of her fury.
Kellan exhaled gruffly, amber eyes searing into her. “Damn it, Mira. I told you not to leave this room.”
“Afraid of what I might see?” She lifted her chin, jealousy still burning like acid in the back of her throat. “Guess you should’ve been more careful, Bowman. You’re the one who left the door unlocked.”
His stare didn’t leave her, not even for an instant. But behind her, she heard the metallic clack of the tumbler sliding into place, turned by the force of his mind alone. “It’s locked now.”
He bared his teeth and fangs as he said it, his voice a dark growl that should not have made her heart race like it did. Her veins shouldn’t have been humming, pulse gone wild and electric, as he held her there, trapped in an unbearable place between anger and hurt, awareness and need.
She didn’t want to crave him—not now. Not when she was fuming, still fighting off bitter tears that threatened to spill at having seen his mouth on another woman. A human woman who could feed him, nourish him, give him something Kellan had never taken from Mira.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” The words, a broken whisper, slipped off her tongue before she could call them back. “Why couldn’t you just say there was someone else?”
Fiery eyes flared brighter. “Because it wouldn’t be the truth.”
“I saw you, Kellan—just now, with Candice. I saw your fangs in her wrist. Her blood was on your lips—”
“Yes,” he admitted, unblinking, unflinching. “I fed from Candice out of necessity. I’ve fed from her many times, because I am Breed and I cannot live without blood. I feed from her because I can trust her and because she demands nothing from me.”
Mira huffed out a harsh breath. “How convenient for you.”
She meant it to sound sharp and uncaring, but there was no hiding the fact that she was wounded. She hated the rawness inside her, hated that he might hear it now, would certainly see it in her moist eyes. She shuttered herself with a downward glance, but Kellan wouldn’t permit it.
Merciless, he lifted her face, then made the ache even worse by smoothing away the trail of one fat tear with a brush of his thumb across her cheek.
“Look at me, Mira. Tell me if you think there’s anything more to what you saw back there than what I’m telling you it was.” His voice was level yet intense. “Look at my eyes. They’re still glowing. They’re still inflamed with hunger, even though I drank my fill of Candice’s blood. Look at my glyphs, Mira. Do you see satiation in them, or are they still livid and churning with hunger and with the dark colors of a different, deeper need when I’m standing here in front of