“Loren?” she said in a low, gentle voice that curled around his numb heart, thawing the ice that had encased it.
He was afraid too. He had never felt so afraid. He didn’t want to look into her eyes and see her fear of him, or her disgust, and he didn’t want to hear how he had scared her by allowing her to experience such dark terrible emotions through him.
“Loren?” Her tone held a firmer note and he obeyed, unable to ignore a command from his ki’ara.
Loren looked down into her eyes. They filled with pity, softening more with each second that he dared to look into them.
“I’m done now,” she said, casual despite the nerves he could sense in her. “I did my best not to touch him. That was what it was all about, wasn’t it?”
Loren shut down the fury that curled through him on hearing that she had indeed touched Bleu while he had been out here pacing like a caged animal, refusing to let it own him. He was master of his body, not this wretched bond.
He hated to admit it but Olivia needed to know what he had dragged her into so she would know the cause of his outburst and could perhaps help stop it from happening again.
“I could not bear the sight of you touching him,” Loren said, the tight gravelly sound of his voice shocking him. He had never sounded so dark and possessive before. He had never felt it either.
He wanted to possess Olivia. Body and soul. He wanted to claim the heart that was rightfully his.
His to own. His to cherish. His to protect.
His to love.
She belonged to him.
His fangs itched and the points of his ears began to extend. Loren fought the change but it was hard to suppress it and stop it from happening when he was thinking about Olivia, and also thinking about her touching Bleu. It was a one-two punch that knocked his senses reeling and had him back on the verge of losing control. A male doctor coming towards him eyed him, not a challenge but Loren felt it as one, and he wanted to rise to it and beat the male into submission.
The male’s eyes narrowed. He had noticed Loren’s eyes changing. Loren cursed beneath his breath and looked away, fighting to master his emotions. His gaze caught on Olivia’s and he stared down at her, feeling lost and bewildered, tired of the constant battle against his emotions and the effects of their incomplete bond. He wanted a moment to breathe.
He needed a minute to rest, sixty seconds away from this world, alone with Olivia.
Olivia moved closer, raised her hand and touched his cheek, staring deep into his eyes. Bliss. Loren leaned into her touch, finding his balance in it, mentally stepping away from the edge and towards her. His ki’ara.
“It’s fascinating when your eyes do that... and your ears. Why does it happen?” She brushed her palm across his cheek and a hot shiver went through him when she feathered her fingertips up his ear to the tip. He barely stifled a groan. He wanted her to stroke them. Lick them. His eyes began to change again.
“It is a response to my emotions. Certain ones trigger a change and it is difficult to stop it from happening.” Difficult was the understatement of his extremely long life. Impossible. Especially when she was gently caressing his ear, brushing the pointed tip, her eyes filled with the fascination she had mentioned.
“Emotions,” she whispered and then her brow crinkled and her brown eyes shifted back to his. “Such as anger?”
He nodded.
“And?”
Loren frowned. “And what?”
“What other emotion?” She tilted her head to one side, her fingers continuing their exploration of his ear, driving him mad with the emotion she was asking about. “You said emotions. Plural. What other emotions trigger this change?”
Loren stared at her, his gaze drawn to her rosy lips and his mind instantly leaping to recall his vivid erotic dreams of her. He wanted to sample her mouth and know her taste as he had in those fantasies. He wanted to explore every inch of her soft skin and show her what it was like to be loved by him. He wanted to slake his thirst for her.
His fangs grew long again and his ears extended, and he knew from the surprise in her eyes that his had changed and from the arousal darkening her irises that she had figured out the other emotion that would always make him lose control.
Loren claimed her waist with both hands, careful not to hurt her with his claws, and pulled her closer to him.
She wanted to know what other emotion fuelled this change in him and he would spell it out for her.
“Desire.”
CHAPTER 8
Olivia swallowed hard, held captive by Loren’s beautiful rich purple eyes and the passion in them, falling into them with no hope of stopping herself. The feel of his hands on her waist shattered her self-control, plunging her deep into dangerous territory, and her guard slipped. His gaze locked onto her lips, burning her with its intensity, stealing her breath away. Enough men had kissed her in her life for her to know that was what he intended.