His black gaze did not leave her face. Hard. Watchful. Even his body seemed utterly still. You fear me. He wanted her to face the real issue, not push it aside. You have no reason to fear me.
She tilted her head to one side, red hair cascading in all directions. “You think I don’t? Jacques, you threaten everything I have ever known about life. You changed me. If I was only half Carpathian, or whatever it is—vampire, maybe, I don’t know at this point—you did something to bring me all the way into your world. I’m different now. I can’t eat, I have no human bodily functions, and my hearing has increased even more. All my abilities. Everything. You took away the life I knew and replaced it with something neither of us knows anything about.” She shook her head, then gave in to the desire to tangle her fingers in his jet-black hair. “I will not be like my mother, Jacques, living only for a man. When he deserted her, she waited only until she thought I no longer needed her, and she killed herself. That isn’t love, it’s obsession. No child of mine will ever suffer what her sick obsession with Rand put me through.”
He breathed in her scent, and again the heat was upon him, scorching him with the urgent demand to bury himself in her, to become truly one. I need you, Shea. Is it so impossible to think you might actually love me? I feel your complete acceptance of me. I know it is in you. Rand and your mother have nothing to do with us. You saw the darkness in me, the beast struggling for control, yet you remained. My imprisonment may have destroyed whatever I originally was, and I do not know who I am now. But I know that I need you. Would you really leave me alone?
She felt his despair. “Don’t start believing you’re a monster. The way you touch me sometimes, with such tenderness, that is no monster.” Her body was restless, a need moving over her, through her, a need she had never known before. “You wanted me, Jacques, yet you stopped yourself. You’re no monster.”
Maybe my wounds stopped me, not my self control. She had stopped him with her acceptance of the beast in him.
“You’re tired, Jacques. Sleep for a while.”
He caught her hand, his thumb feathering across the inside of her wrist. I am not a vampire. I have not turned.
“I don’t understand.”
He closed his eyes, smiled in his mind. She was back to using her professional, scientific voice. You were worried that I had turned. Earlier, in the woods, you were afraid I was a vampire. Just now you thought our people might be vampire. We are Carpathian, not the undead. Unless we turn.
“Would you stay out of my head? Wait until you’re invited.”
If I waited for an invitation from you, little red hair, I would be centuries old before it ever came about. The smile in his mind was just a little too sexy for her peace of mind. I was merely attempting to ease your fears. Now he sounded innocent.
She laughed softly. “Do I have naive stamped on my forehead?”
Has anyone ever complained about your bedside manner?
Shea raised her eyebrows. “I’m a surgeon. I don’t need a bedside manner. And in any case, I’ve never had such an outrageous patient before. Stop calling me red hair. And little red hair. And all the other things you call me. Dr. O’Halloran is appropriate.”
For the first time his sensuous mouth softened, curved into a grin. The effect on her was shattering. It wasn’t right for a male to look that sexy. He should be banned from all female company.
Handsome and sexy. I must be getting somewhere after all. His tone was lazy, teasing, a little bit husky.
Shea laughed softly. It was impossible to be annoyed with him when he was in this mood. “You are handsome and sexy, but don’t let it go to your head. You’re also arrogant, dominating, and too ruthless for my taste.” She squashed him without a qualm.