Dark Fire by Christine Feehan. Dark Series – book 6

His voice wrapped itself around her and found its way into her heart.

She sighed softly and tried not to think too much about the word prey. “You know what, Darius? None of it matters. I don’t have to understand, because I can’t do this. You can see that now, can’t you? I have no way to deal with this. It’s better if I just get out now.”

His black eyes never once blinked, never left her face. She found her heart beating faster, threatened in some elemental way she didn’t understand. “It isn’t as if I would ever say anything to anyone. They’d lock me up if I did. You know you don’t have to worry.”

His black eyes were merciless, boring into her deeper and deeper until they penetrated her soul. She found it difficult to breathe. “Darius, you know I’m right. You have to know. We aren’t two different races trying to find some common ground. We’re two different species.”

“I need you.”

He said the words so quietly that she barely heard them. He made the statement starkly, utterly without embellishment. There was no mental push, no other form of persuasion. Still, the way he said it was like an arrow piercing her heart. She had no defense against those three words. No way to combat the truth of them. The truth she heard in his voice.

She stared at him for a long moment; then, without warning, she picked up and flung a handful of leaves at him. “You don’t play fair, Darius. You really don’t. You have those eyes and that voice, and now you go and say something like that.”

A slow smile softened the hard edge of his mouth. “I knew you liked my eyes.” He sounded immensely satisfied. He didn’t appear to move, but all at once he was towering over her, his body close enough to share its warmth. His hand found her throat, and his palm lay still so that her pulse beat into its center.

“I didn’t say I liked your eyes,” she corrected. “I think they should be declared illegal. They’re sinful.” She lifted her chin belligerently at him, trying to hold her ground against something she didn’t even understand.

“I meant my apology, honey. I will never place you in such a position again. I will make certain the others are aware you are under my personal protection at all times.” Darius bent his dark head toward hers, drawn to the seduction of her velvet lips.

Tempest’s breath caught in her throat, and she shrank back against the tree trunk and held up her palms to push against the hard wall of his chest. “I’m thinking maybe we shouldn’t do this. It’s safer, Darius, really, for both of us to just not touch.”

His smile climbed to his eyes, spreading heat through her body. “Safer? Is that what you think? It is always far safer to do what I wish.”

He hadn’t moved, not a single inch, despite the pressure she was putting on his chest. Tempest sighed softly. “You would say that. Personally, Darius, I’m at the point where I might run screaming into the forest, or doubt my own sanity and have myself committed. Don’t push me any harder right now.”

“Do you think you could stand on your own without the tree trunk supporting you?” Amusement tinged his voice.

Tempest patted the tree trunk, reluctant to find out. She was quite proud of the showing she’d made so far. No fainting. No hysterics. None of the things a sane woman would do. But she didn’t want to fall on her face. Her long lashes swept down for a moment. Darius easily read the faint self-mocking humor mixed with concern on her transparent face, the sudden determination just before she shifted, ducking beneath his arm to stand on her own. He liked that, her sense of humor, her ability to laugh at herself in the most extreme situations.

She grinned at him. “Well, it worked.”

He held out his hand. “Come on, honey. We can just walk and talk.”

She regarded him suspiciously. “Just walk and talk. That isn’t code for some other weird activity, is it?”