And there was no real life scenario that she could dream of happily ever after, a white picket fence, and 2.5 kids with Devon Fallinsworth. That would be emotional suicide. She was so not going there again.
Kate had her life and her career neatly and precisely mapped out and it didn’t include a domineering dangerous man, no matter how much he made butterflies take flight in the pit of her stomach or how moist her core became simply by remembering the way he stared at her with molten hot eyes.
She needed to finish her dissertation, apply for professorship and begin her grant work to fund her archetypes and the collective unconscious study, so it didn’t matter anyway. She had no time for a boyfriend or a boy toy or even a fuck buddy. She’d probably never see him again anyway, so instead of dwelling she stuffed him back into the box of things that could never be and sealed that baby up tight with an entire roll of packing tape.
Kate pushed everything to the back of her mind as her students rolled into the classroom and got settled, focusing instead on one of her other passions. Teaching. This semester she was instructing a course on the Psychology of Human Sexuality. It was always well attended. Go figure.
“Good afternoon everyone. I hope you’re ready for a lively discussion on the subject for today’s class…understanding random hookups.”
After the clapping, whistling and whooping subsided, she started her lecture.
Ironic topic, because even though she tried not to, hooking up was all she could think of doing with Dev. Only he didn’t feel so random to her. Not by a long shot. And that possibility scared her more than anything else.
Chapter 9
Dev
Dev was going out of his everlovin’ mind. He could not stand to be away from the one woman he’d waited so long for. This was absolute torture. He’d followed her all over the damn city. She went home first, then to the gas station, picked up dry cleaning, and finally went to Walgreen’s before she ended at the university campus to teach her class. Which he found out was the Psychology of Human Sexuality. Interesting. A grin curved the corners of his mouth. Very interesting indeed.
“How are you doing over there, boss?” Ren asked.
“Peachy. You?”
Not true. He wasn’t peachy at all. He was in hell. He’d been wracking his brain trying to figure out how he was going convince Kate to come with him. In all his wildest dreams, he never thought he’d have to woo his Moira, although that had been downright naïve. And he wasn’t exaggerating the danger she was in. She was a dreamwalker and now his Moira. That put her directly in harm’s way from any number of people who may want to get to Dev, including Xavier.
“Couldn’t be better.” Ren cleared his throat. “You know…I can arrange a security team to follow her. Watch over her. She’ll be protected. You can’t follow her around indefinitely.”
Ren had been restrained enough not to say anything about Dev’s out-of-character reaction to this woman. He knew it wouldn’t last. Ren was the only one with enough cojones to challenge him. Pissed him off sometimes, but that was why he trusted him implicitly.
Dev slowly turned his head toward Ren, with barely contained menace simmering underneath his skin.
“No one else will go near her. Do you understand?”
The thought of someone else, anybody else, watching her voluptuous body move, doing even the most mundane of tasks, nearly turned him feral. He’d better figure out a way to get her with him quickly or he could be a serious menace to all those around him.
A knowing, shocked look crossed Ren’s face. Dev could almost hear the gears click. “Holy shitballs. She’s your Moira. That’s the only reason you would be acting like some deranged lunatic, who isn’t taking his safety into consideration at all.”
Dev stared at Ren for several moments, tightly nodded once, daring his friend to say anything else.
Ren held his gaze. A genuine, full smile spread across his face as he slapped him on the back. “Well, I’ll be damned. Congratulations Dev.”
Finding a vampire’s Moira could take centuries. Some never found theirs and his hope at finding his one perfect match had been waning of late. Vampires were not made, contrary to popular belief. They could not be bitten and turned. That was simply preposterous. A fallacy. Vampires were born of a union between vampire and their bonded human female. And a vampire couldn’t bond with anybody except their Moira.
“Don’t congratulate me yet. I think the fair Ms. Martin is going to be a hard one to reel in.”
“You didn’t try to compel her, did you? You know you can’t compel your Moira.”