Loren looked away from her.
“Yeah, you’ve got that noble thing pegged, but don’t pretend you haven’t thought about being with her. What’s the difference? You break the bond and you get stronger... you complete it and the same thing happens. Right?” Sable leaned into his line of sight. “Right?”
Irritating and interfering little mortal. She had been playing with him and Olivia, distracting Bleu so they would be alone together, and now she was annoyed because her plan to push them together hadn’t worked. Olivia didn’t want him. Couldn’t her friend see that?
“The same things happen, but the consequences are vastly different.” Loren shifted his gaze to meet her golden one. “If I complete the bond with Olivia, she is still a target. If Vail captured her, or killed her... I could not bear it. He would seek to do just that. Breaking the bond will free her. She will be safe.”
She frowned. “But I don’t get it... I see the way you look at her, Loren. You can’t bear not having her.”
“This is not true.” He turned to face her fully and she peered over the edge of the building again, the light from the street below softly illuminating her face but casting shadows around her eyes.
“Liv has a tendency to work late... she’s always working... and when she gets like that, you have to understand she does it for a reason.” Sable stared down at the people walking along the street below them, her tone distant. “You can deny your feelings if you want... but if you decide to admit to them... everyone at Archangel has a reason they’re here, even Olivia. If you want to get to know the real her, the one she hides behind the white coat, then ask her about the scars on her right inside forearm. Maybe then you’ll understand her behaviour... and both of you will stop dancing around your feelings.”
Loren stared at her in disbelief. Sable was matchmaking? She glanced at him, shrugged and smiled, and took off towards the roof exit, leaving him alone with his thoughts.
Why would Sable want to give him a shot at winning her friend? Olivia couldn’t stand him. Her behaviour the past few days had made that painfully clear.
His eyes widened.
She had a reason she was treating him like this and Sable’s words gave him the feeling that he was wrong about Olivia. Olivia did want him. She was trying to push him away to protect herself for some reason. She was trying to make him jealous not because she wanted him to hurt Bleu.
She wanted him to drop his guard again and show her that she didn’t have to be afraid because whatever she was feeling, he was feeling it too.
He wanted her.
Loren focused on her and discovered she was still in the laboratory. He closed his eyes and teleported there.
Olivia sat on the high stool where he had left her an hour ago, her microscope in front of her with the slide still in place, and her body twisted at an angle so she could lay her head on the long white table top. She had her cheek pressed against her notepad and right hand tucked under her temple.
Some of the glossy waves of her chestnut hair had fallen down and snaked across the white top or brushed her pale face.
Her left hand rested on the table beside her, her little and ring fingers still wrapped in bandages and tape.
Sleeping here wasn’t going to do her any good. She needed to rest in a bed and for longer than a few snatched minutes.
Loren approached her silently and carefully lifted her into his arms. She murmured in her sleep but didn’t wake. He held her close, staring down at her beauty as she slumbered in his arms. His female. He wanted to stroke the strands of hair from her face and take care of her, doing all he could for her. She was his to claim, destined for him, and he had waited too long for her to give up now. Sable was right. He couldn’t stop thinking about Olivia and he had never felt anything as strongly as he did this desire to have her.
Olivia belonged to him.
His gaze lowered to her right forearm. Would she tell him if he asked about the scars her white coat concealed? Would it give him the insight into Olivia that Sable believed it would, explaining her reasons for keeping her distance from him and giving him a chance with his ki’ara?
Loren hoped that it would.
He focused on the small two room apartment that had become Olivia’s quarters in the building and took them there.
She stirred as they reappeared, her lashes lifting to reveal sleep-filled brown eyes that lit upon his, their softness awakening his desire to keep her safe.
“What happened?” she whispered and blinked slowly, fighting the fatigue he could sense in her.
“You fell asleep at your desk again. I thought it would be better you sleep in your bed.” He carried her to the double bed and gently laid her down on the pale blue covers.