You have a family,” Mikhail said gently. “I am your family. Raven is your family. Our child will be, and of course you have Jacques. Someday you will have children.” He sent a slight grin in Gregori’s direction. “You can even claim the healer as family. We do, although he dislikes it intensely.
He thought he was playing her. Seducing her. That was the play, but it felt all too real, and he’d never had real.
Just once, even if it wasn’t real she wanted to feel as if a man saw only her. No one else. For those moments, she was his world. His canvas. He saw beauty in her.
When she couldn’t sleep and the nightmares were too close, she listened to them, sang the lyrics and let them carry the worst of her past away.
He was the very devil stalking her, and she was an angel chased by demons straight to him.
He had to find a woman who would have the genetics to produce children capable of riding the shadows and carrying on their work. That was his obligation. He could never simply fall in love; he had to fall in love with the right person. The odds of finding that were so slim, most riders never believed it could happen.
I know I was born for the sole purpose of being that man who will stand in front of you. When you’re there in that dark place where it feels like a thousand demons are tearing you apart, know I’m there with you. Always, tesoro, because you are my treasure and my only.
For one moment his mask slipped and she saw his eyes go dark with desire. Every line in his face was etched with a sensuality that kept her breath trapped deep in her lungs. No one had ever looked at her like that in her life.
I knew the moment I saw your courage on that plane, Nicoletta. I knew you. What was inside you, and I knew I had to learn to be man enough to deserve to call you mine.
Don’t be afraid of me like you are of him. I would never hurt you. Never. I don’t hurt women.
Communication is very important between us at all times.” He bent his head as he lifted the hair from the back of her neck. “For instance, I find your neck incredibly sexy. You look both vulnerable and sensual with your hair up. With it down, you look wild and beautiful. Just as sensual, but in a completely different way.
It wasn’t her looks that caught his interest or made him stand utterly still. It was her shadow. The sun was throwing light perfectly to create tall, full shadows. Hers leaked long tentacles. Thin. Like streaks reaching out toward the shadows around her. Everywhere there was a shadow, hers connected to it with the long feelers – with long tubes.
Torpedo Ink welcomes opinions, and we listen to everyone with equal attention. Say what you want, baby. You’re free.
Vittorio’s breath left his lungs in a long rush of shock. Something tight in his chest loosened. Someplace vulnerable. Someplace guarded and protected. He pressed his hand tightly over the spot, feeling as if that voice had been a key, fitting perfectly into the lock and turning it before he had a chance to react.
If she drank enough, she might just dare to get on the back of his bike and ride off with him. She wouldn’t look back. She wouldn’t want to look back. He would be enough for her. She could make a life with him, she knew she could.
She was bound to him, body and soul, as he was to her. For the first time in centuries he felt hope. And to a male Carpathian on the verge of turning vampire, hope was the only thing left.
For the first time in her life she felt weak with wanting. With need. Yet at the same time, she did feel sort of attractive. She was aware of herself as a woman, as feminine, when she’d always felt masculine. He’d given her that, and she’d be forever grateful.
Seduction wasn’t difficult when two people were both willing... and she was so willing. Whatever he wanted. Any way he wanted. Anywhere.
She didn’t want to be that girl, the one curled up in a little ball. The one under the covers in the fetal position. She’d been there hundreds of times and every single time she’d told herself to stand up. This time, win or lose, if she just stood up, she had the very real opportunity, which would never come again, to be with a man she’d dreamt of.
He smiled at her, looking more like temptation than ever before. She didn’t care, she wanted everything he could give her.