“Silly woman,” he said affectionately. “There is nothing at all to hide from a lifemate. There is never any need. I am in your mind as you are in mine.”
“Well, if you’re in my mind, then you should be perfectly aware that I’m having a difficult time accepting our weird relationship.”
He brought their linked hands up to his mouth, his lips teasing the skin of her inner wrist. “You accept our weird relationship; you just are afraid to trust it. Or yourself. It makes you happy, and you do not trust that.”
She glared at him. “Have you been hanging out with Father Mulligan again? He’s always handing out that two-cent advice of his.”
“He only charged you two cents? He made me fill his poor box,” Nicolae said, straight-faced. “And he didn’t offer a single word on marriage. He just said to have courage, whatever that meant.”
Destiny burst out laughing. “The old fraud, he probably said that on purpose just to make me crazy. Where’s Vikirnoff?”
Nicolae rugged on her hand until she began walking along the street with him. “He is out seeking information on the woman in the photograph. The healer is on his way, and my brother is determined to keep the cities free of vampires. We do not need Vikirnoff cluttering up the skies tonight. I have plans.”
The three little words set butterfly wings fluttering in the pit of her stomach. She had already been too long away from him. Desire shot through her, shaking her very foundations. Her mouth grew dry, and her body hot, just hearing his words. Just the thought of his hard body made her tremble. She didn’t dare look at his mouth; her knees would give out.
“What kind of plans?” She had no idea how she managed to get the words past her strangled throat.
He moved closer, his larger body brushing against hers so that electricity seemed to arc and crackle between them. Little dancing whips of lightning sizzled in her bloodstream. Just walking with him was a miracle to her.
Nicolae glanced down at the top of her bent head. She was the miracle to him. He still couldn’t quite grasp the fact that he had found her at long last. The endless search for her was over and she was with him. A part of him. The intensity of his feelings shocked him at times. “You said you wanted to go to the movies. I found an all-night theater.”
She glanced up at him from under her long lashes, rewarding him with a small smile. “I’d like that, thank you.”
The thought of sitting with her in a darkened theater was a reward in and of itself. He couldn’t stop the erotic fantasies filling his mind. Destiny blushed wildly, catching his thoughts. She had never considered what one might do in a dark corner of a theater.
Destiny cleared her throat, searching desperately for something to say. Searching desperately for a safe subject “MaryAnn is worried about money again. She didn’t want me looking at her books, and now John Paul has wrecked her office. She tried to act as if it were no big deal, but it obviously is.”
“I do not want you robbing a bank or risking your life taking money from a drug dealer.”
“You sound just like her.” Destiny laughed at his severe tone.
“She had a point. I will get her the money she needs. Living in the world for centuries, we Carpathians have a certain expertise in acquiring money. There is no need for you to do anything illegal or dangerous to help MaryAnn.”
“I’ll hold you to that. I don’t like her worrying so much.”
“Good. I’m an expert fund-raiser. Count on me, Destiny.”
Of course she could count on him. She had known, on some level, for most of her life that he would always be there for her. Now he was real. Solid. Beside her sharing her life and her thoughts. She did count on him.
He bent his head, feathered kisses down her cheek even as they walked along the darkened streets together holding hands. “I share your body too,” he murmured wickedly.