His hand framed her face. Exquisitely gentle, his fingers trailed over her cheekbones, lingering with tenderness. “You are everything I want you to be. There is no need to worry about such things. You do not know me. How can you decide?”
His touch wreaked havoc with every cell in her body, caused a small rebellion of her senses. A mutiny of blood and bone and nerve endings. He confused her. Every time he came near her, she felt different from normal. Restless. Needy. His voice found its way into her body, wrapped itself tightly around her heart and lungs, so that each time he spoke, he robbed her of breath. Of life. Of the ability to hate. Him. Herself. What she was.
“It was easier without you.”
“You have never been without me,” he pointed out. He curled his fingers around hers, brought her knuckles to his mouth.
Her heart jumped at the touch of his lips against her skin. A whisper of velvet. A stroke of heat. He was so beautiful there in the night. Tall and strong and alive. Too real. Too masculine. Too strong. There was a lump in her throat that made it almost impossible to speak. “You are, you know. Too strong for me.” Her voice came out husky, strangled, so unlike her.
His thumb feathered along her cheek, traced the path of an imaginary tear. His palm cupped her forehead, removed every trace of the tiny beads of blood. “You were honed in the fires of hell, Destiny. No one will ever be as strong as you are. I know you fear you will lose yourself by being with me, but that would be impossible. I am not asking you to join with me. I am not asking anything of you other than for you to grow accustomed to my presence. I have shared your mind for many years, shared your fears and every unspeakable evil that was done to you. I shared your battles and I know your every secret. It is my physical presence that is unsettling to you.”
He leaned closer, so close that his lips skimmed over the corner of her mouth. Her blood heated and her stomach clenched. “I need you. To live. To save my soul. I am willing to wait as long as it takes.”
Her eyes met his. She flinched away from the dark sensuality she saw there. From the tremendous intensity. “I know that you’re willing to wait. But you can’t really wait, can you? I’ve read your mind. I know that this thing you call lifemate is essential to keep you from turning vampire.”
He didn’t even blink at the accusation. He nodded, his gaze drifting possessively over her face. “I can wait, Destiny. If it is difficult, that is not your failing but mine. Let me worry about how I will manage it.”
“I can’t be intimate with you.” Her chin rose slightly; her soft mouth trembled. “I could never be intimate with you, and that’s a big part of what you want from me.”
“We are already intimate, Destiny. Sex is not necessarily intimacy. We have shared far more than other couples, shared intimate details of our lives.” He tilted her chin, studied her vivid eyes. “Come with me. Let me show you what you are, not what you imagine yourself to be.”
“Why does everything you say sound like a temptation?” A faint smile gleamed for a brief moment in the depths of her eyes. “Can’t you just be dull and uninteresting?”
He laughed softly, brought her hand once more to his astonishing mouth. His teeth teased the pads of her fingers. “At least that is a start. I would much rather be a temptation than dull and uninteresting.”
“Where are we going?” She moved backward, a subtle retreat. “I haven’t spent so much time with people in my entire life. It’s”—she searched for the right word—”uncomfortable.”
At least she was willing to come with him. He couldn’t ask for more than that. When he was near her, his pulse pounded and his head throbbed. His body was hard and full, aching for her. The ritual words beat in his mind, and deep within, the crouching beast lifted its head and roared for release. Nicolae didn’t flinch from the knowledge in her eyes. He had deliberately given her an advantage. She needed to be able to touch his mind at will. To feel she could know his true intent. He had no intention of hiding his difficulties from her. It was the Carpathian way of life, the male struggling to keep darkness at bay. It was a fact, and finding his lifemate created its own complications.