Dark Promises(48)

She moaned softly in despair. There was no going back. He wouldn’t let her. She knew that, she knew by his implacable expression and the hardness in his green gaze. He had said she was wild. That she matched him. She didn’t want that. She was afraid of who she was. What lengths would she go to? He would rule her life if she allowed it and she was very, very afraid she would if she didn’t find the courage to fight him.

“You will forget this man, Gabrielle. If you do not, I will kill him. You do not know me, so you cannot know I do not make idle threats. He has no right to any part of you and I refuse to share you with him.”

“I would hate you forever if you killed him,” she whispered.

His hand tightened in her hair, forcing her to stare into his eyes. “If this man is in your mind and heart, there is no room for me,” he said. “You gave yourself to me. All of you. Are you a woman of your word?”

She wanted to be. She moistened her lips. She knew he was telling her she had to let go of Gary, but he didn’t understand it was so much more than that.

“Say it,” he snapped, his fingers tightening in warning. “If you are not honest with me, I will take your mind and see to every corner of it and sweep this man away myself. I am giving you this concession. Talk to me honestly even if you know it will make me angry. If you do not, I will not ask again.”

“I know I did something wrong,” she said, unable to contain her rising temper. “I tried to make up for it. Punish me if that makes you feel any better. I don’t know what else I can do. If I give him up completely, I’ve lost everything I was. Everything I am. Everything human. I’ll be so lost I won’t know how to get back to me.” The stark truth burst out of her before she could sort through her desperate thoughts.

Again he just watched her. Forever. For what seemed an eternity. Abruptly, still holding her hair, he pulled her head back farther and leaned into her, taking her mouth. She kept her mouth closed. She was determined that he wouldn’t have any more of her right then. She was too vulnerable. Too exposed. Too fragile. One more blow and she might not survive. She didn’t want to know that her body was already his. She just wanted to be numb and not think about anything at all. Not ever again.

She turned her face to the side but he clamped his hand around her jaw, holding her face toward his.

“Kessake, you cannot be afraid you will lose yourself. I can always find you. I will always find you no matter how lost you are. You put yourself into my keeping, and I may be rough and half savage, but you do not have to fear these things. I will see to your happiness. I will cherish you and protect you.”

His lips brushed over hers gently, almost tenderly, and her eyes burned with tears all over again. How could he be so sweet one moment and so frightening the next? She was just so tired.

“I will teach you the things you fear. You are intelligent, Gabrielle. You know information is power. You fear what you do not know. You will grow powerful and skilled in the ways of our people. That will not lessen who you are or who you were, only enhance it.”

She pressed her forehead to his. “You’re making sense and that scares me a little,” she admitted. She lifted her head. “How? How do I do what you ask?”

“You have no choice, kessake, because I have no choice. I cannot share you with another man. I will not. No other man touches you.”

“I know that,” she said. “I wouldn’t betray you like that. Not even with him.” And she wouldn’t. She’d given her word, and truthfully, she wasn’t certain any other man would ever satisfy her. Worse, she wasn’t certain she could allow another man to touch her, not even Gary.

“I want all of you.”

It was a demand, and it said everything about him. He was ruthless. Arrogant. He would kill. He had killed. He was hard and scary and everything that Gary was not. She let her breath out slowly and closed her eyes.

Gary. She breathed his name with regret. With sorrow. I’m so sorry. She was sorry. For everything, but mostly because she already belonged to Aleksei. Maybe not her heart, but she had chosen and she would stick with that choice, no matter how terrified she was.

She didn’t know how to let Gary go, but she was going to try. Gary wouldn’t feel the sorrow she did. She knew the love he had for her would barely be a memory to him if Gregori and Mikhail had managed to save him—and she was certain they had. She would have known if he was gone.

She breathed her good-bye and took another breath. When she opened her eyes, she found herself staring into Aleksei’s brilliant green eyes. He didn’t blink. He refused to release her gaze.