Naya resisted the urge to bang her forehead on the steering wheel. Smell her arousal? It would have been less embarrassing had she binged on chili dogs with extra onions and farted in the car! But like the aforementioned stench, pretending it hadn’t happened wouldn’t make it go away. “It’s a residual effect of the magic that manifested when we were … uh … after you.…” Nearly gave me an orgasm from biting my wrist before we dry humped on my dining room floor last week. “I didn’t realize your senses were so fine-tuned. I’m sorry.”
Ronan, in turn, didn’t seem to be any happier about it. A rumble grew in his chest as he turned to face her. His eyes had completely shed their green for vibrant quicksilver. “There’s no need to keep apologizing.”
Wasn’t there? She was sending some pretty damned mixed signals. “Shifters can scent things I can’t.” As though babbling were going to help with the awkwardness that had settled like a heavy fog. “They can smell lies. Fear. Anxiety. Anything that changes someone’s body chemistry.”
“How is it that you keep company with shifters?”
They hadn’t really talked about her life much up to this point and Naya had liked it that way. The Bororo were a complicated people, their ways rigid and set in stone over millennia. She didn’t want to admit to Ronan that she felt trapped. A prisoner of her pod with no worth beyond the magic in her veins and reproductive organs. She didn’t want to appear weak and there was nothing weaker than living a life you weren’t strong enough to escape.
Ronan studied her with an intensity that stole her breath. If he could sense her arousal and other emotions through their supposed bond, she’d have to be either very honest or very careful in her responses to him. So far, he hadn’t given her a reason to be distrustful of him. In fact, with each passing day she found herself trusting him more and more. And it was rare that Naya had the opportunity to form relationships outside of their pod.
“Only Bororo males can shift. Our females are the bearers of magic. Well, some of us are, anyway.”
Ronan quirked a tawny brow. “Bororo?”
“My tribe.”
His eyes narrowed as he continued to study her. “How old are you?”
She gave a nervous laugh. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you that it’s not polite to ask a woman her age? I’m probably older than you think, though I’d be willing to bet that you’ve got centuries on me.”
“You’re immortal?” Curiosity laced his tone. It was a far cry better than his previous sourness.
“More or less. Though really, Ronan, is there anything on this earth that is truly immortal?”
Like all supernatural beings, the Bororo were long-lived. They had an evolutionary advantage over humans in that they had more refined senses, could heal quickly, and were immune to most human diseases. But they were not infallible. Nothing in this world was.
“I suppose not,” Ronan answered. “My own people were nearly extinct.”
The conversation turned right down the road Naya had hoped it would. If he wanted information about her life, then it was only fair he reciprocate. “I’ve been wondering about that. I’ve never met a vampire before. I didn’t think there were any left.” The Bororo had hidden their existence well. Modern anthropologists had declared her people extinct decades ago.
“One,” Ronan said. “For two hundred years a single vampire populated the earth.” His tone dropped to a murmur. “Until recently, that is. Now there are four.”
Wow. And she thought her own tribe was small, with little more than a thousand Bororo scattered across the world. “It must have been lonely for you,” she replied. “Did you turn the others?” She had no idea how a vampire was made or born. Ronan’s presence opened a door of information Naya couldn’t wait to step through.
Ronan chuckled. “I am newly turned, Naya. Soulless for less than a month before you tethered me.”
The words were spoken with such raw emotion that it caused a deep ache to settle in her chest. They hadn’t talked about the tether for a week. Turning back down this road would only further weaken her resolve to keep Ronan at a distance. “What does that mean, you were soulless?” They should’ve been out hunting, but Naya’s curiosity got the better of her. She found herself wanting to know more about Ronan. And sitting in the quiet car, talking like this, distracted her from the erotic thoughts that scratched at the back of her subconscious, as well as the need to experience the rush of magic his touch coaxed to the surface of her skin.