Dark Challenge. Christine Feehan. Dark Series – book 5

“How can that be if I cannot even be away from you for a short period of time?” Desari glanced at her brother, a silent plea for privacy. She had trouble enough accepting such a strange phenomenon without there being a witness to her humiliation.

Julian waited until Darius had signaled the two leopards to his side and disappeared into the dark interior of the trees to hunt. He palmed the nape of Desari’s neck, his fingers caressing her silken hair. “Our physical bodies can be in separate places, piccola, but our minds must touch often when we are apart.”

“You knew this, yet you withdrew. I chose to assert my independence, and you punished me for it,” she said, lifting her chin at him.

“You ignored your own safety, cara mia,” he said softly. “You refused to believe the things I tried to tell you, even when I gave you access to my mind. I had no choice but to allow you to learn firsthand that what I say is true. I am your lifemate; there cannot be untruth between us.”

Desari found one button on his immaculate shirt and twisted it nervously. “It was not as if I believed you lied. The things you believed—I did not doubt you thought them true. But it all seemed so unreal, like a fantasy, a dream. How could mere words bind us together for all eternity? How could one male have the power to so change a female’s life?”

“We are connected from birth, cara,” he explained, moving his body closer when he felt a shiver run through her. “Two halves of the same whole. There is only one true lifemate. I am fortunate that mine is so talented and beautiful. It is unfortunate, however,” he added, “that you are so willful and have no knowledge of what is expected of you.”

Desari leapt away from him, clearing the picnic table in a single bound. She looked wild and untamed, a sexy enchantress capable of taking his very breath away.

“You think me willful because I insist on taking control of my own destiny? Do not talk to me of this lifemate thing. It means nothing to me. Nothing at all. You breeze into my life, do something to tie us together, and then feel you have the right to dictate how I should live?”

Julian watched the expressions chasing across her beautiful, furious face. Everything about her was a miracle to him. How small and delicate her bones seemed to be. The sheen and mass of her silken hair was so luxurious he could lose himself in it. “I am of the Old World, a male Carpathian. I did not take into account that you would not know the ways of our people.”

“Is that supposed to be an apology of some kind?” Desari folded her arms across her body, shivering as if cold. “I do not care about the ways of your people.”

“Our people,” he corrected gently.

“My people are the ones I live with, share my life with. For instance, my brother, the one you tried to kill.”

“If I had tried to kill him, cara mia, he would be dead.” He raised a hand to prevent her indignant interruption. “I am not saying he would not have taken me with him; he very likely would have. But he was not really trying to kill me either. It was more a matter of being sure. Darius was not going to turn his beloved sister over to a stranger who was unable to protect her. It was a test.”

“Darius was testing you?” she repeated slowly. “This is some kind of male thing I should understand? Approve of?”

Julian moved so quickly he was on her before she had time to run. He never gave a warning, never twitched a muscle. He simply was there, his body crowding aggressively close, his hand spanning her throat, his thumb feathering back and forth along her delicate jaw. “Desari, cara, we have no choice but to learn each other’s ways. We are bound together. I would like to be able to say the pretty words you want to hear. That I was wrong to force your obedience—”