Sylvan ran a hand through his short, spiky hair in frustration. “We appear to be back where we started.”
Sophia stood. “You started it, I’ll finish it. I’m leaving but don’t think this is over, Sylvan. I don’t see how you can legally keep me from seeing my sister to make sure she’s okay and you better believe I’m going to look into it.”
“Fine.” He spread his hands “Do that. Just know that it’s not my law. It’s the ruling of the Kindred High Council.”
“I don’t care whose law it is, I’m going to fight it.” Sophia pointed a finger at him. “And if there’s one scratch on my sister, if your brother so much as looks at her wrong, I promise I will make you and him and everyone else I can find in your family sorry.”
Turning, she marched toward the door of the HKR building, leaving the large cardboard box at his feet and a stunned look on his face. Watching her hips sway in the tight blue pants she wore, Sylvan felt his fangs sharpening and his shaft getting hard once more.
He felt like he’d been hit with a brick between the eyes. What was it about these Earth women? One minute they were soft and vulnerable and the next they were fiery avengers, demanding justice. They were very different from the women he favored—the icy cool females of Tranq Prime would never dream of having such an outburst. They would have turned their anger or sorrow inward, would have contained and controlled it. Letting their true feelings show, especially in public, would have been unthinkable.
And yet…the image of Sophia’s face, eyes bright with tears and cheeks flushed with emotion made him shake his head. In a strange way, it was attractive. There was no denying that despite her emotional reactions or perhaps even because of them, Olivia’s sister was achingly beautiful.
Not that her beauty mattered to Sylvan. He had sworn never to take a bride and it was a vow he intended to abide by. In the mean time, he was wasting precious moments lingering on Earth. The mate of his kin was no doubt waiting for her things and Sylvan had promised to bring them. Still, as he lifted the large cardboard box and headed for the rear entrance of the HKR building, he found it difficult to stop thinking of Sophia and her beautiful, flashing eyes.
Chapter Nine
“Ouch! Dammit, where’s the damn switch?” Liv stumbled over something in the dark, stubbing her toe for what had to be the fifth time.
After Baird had left, the lights in the suite had gotten gradually dimmer for some reason, not that Liv had cared at the time. She sat on the bed in the dark for awhile, crying and homesick, missing Sophie and Kat so much it made her stomach hurt. But Liv wasn’t the type to let herself wallow in self pity for long. Eventually she decided it was time to stop feeling sorry for herself and at least find out where she was going to be living for the next thirty days. Crawling off the bed, she felt her way to the walls and began groping around for a light switch. Unfortunately, she hadn’t found one yet and she’d been blundering around in the dark stubbing her toes and cursing for the last ten minutes.
“Stupid man,” she muttered to herself, feeling her way down the dim hallway slowly to avoid bruising any more toes. “He could have at least turned on the lights before he left. But no—he had to run off and leave me in the dark, stumbling around like an idiot.”
Her seeking fingertips encountered a gap in the smooth, cool wall and she felt her way into another room. As with the rest of the suite, there was a soft, diffuse lighting coming from somewhere but it wasn’t enough to see much more than shadows and vague shapes in the gloom, no matter how hard Liv strained her eyes.
“Where am I?” she asked aloud and noticed that her voice echoed in the new room in a familiar way. The floor was cool and hard under her feet, unlike the soft whisper of carpet in the hallway. Brushing her fingertips along the wall she thought she felt tile, just like in her bathroom at home. Was it possible this new room was a bathroom?
Feeling her way forward, Liv heard a quiet rushing sound and bent down to find its source. Feeling forward with the tips of her fingers she encountered something wet and warm. Water? She could see a glimmer of the faint light reflecting from a wide oval surface. Was it a bathtub? But why would Baird leave the tub filled if he was going out? And how did it manage to keep from overflowing onto the floor since there was no lip around the bathtub? Must be one of those infinity tubs or something.
Moving carefully so as not to slip into the water, Liv made her way around the room, feeling her way as she went. From what she could tell there appeared to be a perfectly normal toilet, which was a relief. Baird’s “Me Tarzan, you Jane” primal male act was so convincing she’d been half afraid all she’d find would be a hole in the floor with a pile of leaves beside it. Of course he’s not bad at expressing himself when he’s just talking, she reminded herself. It’s only when he starts getting…amorous that the inner caveman seems to come out.