The Warrior King (Inferno Rising #3) - Abigail Owen Page 0,50
flames he knew reflected there illuminating her face.
“I’m not doing anything,” she said.
“You’re pulling away from me.”
She started under his hands, eyes going wide.
He pressed a quick, soft kiss to her lips. “Don’t deny us.”
Meira pursed her lips in the way she did when she was thinking hard. “I hardly know you. This is…” Her hand fluttered then landed on his chest. “Lust combined with a fraught situation.”
His dragon snarled in his head. How could she deny this connection? What about every other indication? Seeing her in the mirror. His dragon’s instinct to claim. His need to make her happy. None of those things happened with just anyone. Not for dragon shifters, at least. Realization lined his heart with a thick layer of lead. He couldn’t force her to see. She had to get there on her own.
The dragon inside him wound tighter and strained outward, already not liking where Samael’s thoughts were headed. He willed himself to loosen his hold, dropping his hands to his sides, though he couldn’t make himself lift Meira off his lap. If he touched her again, he’d be lost.
Quietly she climbed off and stepped back.
“If you truly believe in the fates, then you should have faith that things will work out as they should,” she said, her husky voice scraping over raw nerves.
Even Samael had difficulty putting that much faith in the universe. He knew deep in the marrow of his bones that he was right, even though circumstance had laid waste to plenty of mates who’d made the wrong choice. Perhaps that was what scared him most.
However, if he was anything, he was a fighter. Now that he’d found her, had allowed himself to admit what she was to him, no way was he letting her go without trying.
“You’re right.” Samael lifted his head, and she stepped back again, eyes wide. No doubt she was seeing his dragon. “But sometimes the fates need a little help.”
Meira stilled. “What do you mean by that?”
Samael did smile then. “I mean I’m just going to have to prove it to you.”
Her lips clamped tight, and an emotion flashed in her eyes that looked painfully like fear. At the same time, though, her eyes remained more white than blue, and his enhanced hearing picked up the increased flutter of her heartbeat.
She wanted this…even if she didn’t want to want it.
Good. That was something. A start.
Meira’s eyes narrowed suddenly, and he could see her sister Skylar in the expression. Stubbornness was apparently a trait all the Amon women shared. “Let’s concentrate on all the other problems that need our focus.”
His mate might be the most mild-mannered of the four sisters, but damned if she might not be the toughest nut to crack. If anxiousness wasn’t clawing at his insides at the thought of losing her now that he’d found her, Samael might have enjoyed the challenge she’d set in front of him. “I’m an excellent multitasker.”
That earned him a glare this side of adorable.
A knock at the door to the suite where they’d put them interrupted anything she might’ve responded with.
Shooting him a look that clearly said this conversation is over, Meira went to the door and opened it to find Rune standing there, expression his usual brand of dark. “Kasia Astarot would like a word.”
Meira blinked and glanced over her shoulder to Samael then back. “She’s here?”
Rune shook his head. “No. She’s teleconferenced in.”
“How did she find me?”
Rune watched Samael closely, expression dripping in suspicion, eyes narrowed but not yet ablaze. “I’d love to know that myself.”
Chapter Ten
“Kasia?” Meira called out to her sister even as they hurried down the narrow corridor after Rune.
She followed him into a room not unlike one she’d seen in Ben Nevis, though more rudimentary, with wires snaking out the door. It sported a solid wall of screens and monitors with a long console filled with various computers underneath. Older ones, and an odd mix—a Genesis midtower, a Compaq Elite, even a Medion all-in-one. Top of the line, ten years ago. Hopefully they’d at least upgraded their operating systems and software. The room was also crowded—Rune, Tyrek, and one more. A man with Mediterranean coloring and striking blue eyes. A blue dragon shifter. Rune had mentioned his men.
She paused and glanced to Samael. He stepped up beside her, legs planted wide, arms crossed, expression as dark as his eyes. “We weren’t expecting an audience.”
She had to bite back a laugh as the other man exchanged a look with Rune then backed up