"I never imagined she was." He grinned. "You know, I have to admit, life has livened up a bit since the Leo revealed himself to this pride. I can see I'm going to have to pace the amusements or I may burn myself out."
"Shut up, Vanderale," Jonas ordered him as Mercury stared back at Dane, refusing to be baited by him.
"Invade her bedroom again and you'll be more than burned out, you'll be bled out," he told him.
"Hmm," Dane murmured. "Too bad you can't mate though. She would have made a fine mate. A wonderful mother."
Mercury's chest clenched. He stared back at Dane, wishing he had killed him when he had the chance.
"Dane," Jonas growled. "That's enough."
"Yes, it is." Dane shot Mercury a caustic look. "No worries, my friend. When she's had enough of the hardheaded Breeds here, she'll return home." His smile was smug, confident. "And when she does, I'll be waiting."
CHAPTER 14
Mercury closed the bedroom door, locked it, then attached the small, rectangular temporary alarm over the crevice between the door and the frame.
He moved to the window, attached another alarm and then turned to face her.
Ria resisted the urge to rub her hands over her arms as she stepped from the bathroom, once again in her gown, weariness dragging at her as she caught a glimpse of his face.
Primal and wild just didn't do his expression justice. It was suffused with sensual lust, his eyes glowing with it, the flesh stretched taut over the hard planes and angles of his face.
The clean white silk gown she wore might as well not have been on her body. The way he was looking at her stripped it from her, revealed the hardened tips of her br**sts and the dew she knew was accumulating on the curls between her thighs.
"Has Vanderale been your lover?" he asked her, his voice rough, grating with animalistic fervor.
Ria swallowed tightly. "Not in this lifetime. I grew up watching that man play more games than a chess master."
She had no intentions of allowing him to play games with her heart or her emotions. And Dane wasn't above it. He was a good man, but his focus was set on the protection of his parents and the Breeds rapidly making their mark in society. He would do whatever it took to protect both. And if that meant breaking her heart, he would apologize, he would regret it, but he would do it over and over again.
"And when you leave here?" He stripped his T-shirt off his body, before sitting down in the chair in the corner and unlacing his boots efficiently. "Will you take him to your bed after being with me?"
When she left here. She turned her back on him, straightening the laptop and files she had placed on the small table by the bed, trying not to let herself feel hurt at his easy acceptance that she would leave him. That things wouldn't last between them.
She finally shrugged and said, "I have no intentions of going to bed with Dane."
Could she allow any man in her bed now that she had been with Mercury? The thought of it sent a sharp, painful spike of denial racing through her mind.
She straightened and turned back to him, breathing in roughly at the sight of him naked, aroused. Damn, were all Breeds this sexual?
He moved to her, muscles rippling beneath the dark bronze flesh, the light in the room picking up the shimmer of that fine, silken pelt that covered them.
She loved the feel of those tiny hairs against her flesh, stroking over her, caressing her.
"Are you ready for me to leave already?" she whispered, trying to hold back the hurt as she couldn't hold back the question.
She didn't want to leave him. She never wanted to be without him.
"Can I kidnap you?" he asked her as his hands stroked over her shoulders, her fingers curling against his chest. "When this is over, I want to tie you to my bed and make certain Dane Vanderale can never bribe you away from my side."
She stared up at him, feeling her heart melt. His eyes softened, filled with hunger and desire, and truth.
"You don't want me to leave?"
"I want you in my bed, by my side, for as long as I can keep you, Ria." His hand cupped her cheek. "But after what you saw tonight, can you stand to be there?"
Her lips parted.