Her fingertips deepened the massage, never faltering from their purpose. “And you are supposed to be our most learned ancient. My love, you are the one with the illusion of yourself. And, I might add, of me. Yes, I’m young—compared to you, a child—but I am first a Carpathian. And I am your true lifemate.” Her hands fell away, and he was instantly bereft. Warm water took their place, rinsing away the shampoo.
“I remember before I was born, a terrible pain, both my mother’s and my own. You came to me when I would have chosen to free myself from the pain, and you surrounded me with your comfort.”
“Savannah.” He moaned her name again, covering his face with his hands. “With my will, I bound you to me.”
“You gave me your blood to save my life, you healed my wounds, and you talked to me of the wonders of the night, of our world. When I was just beginning to crawl, you came to me in the form of a wolf. We shared our minds constantly, nightly. As I grew, we reached for each other and shared all that we were.”
“You accept me only because I did these things.”
“That is the illusion, Gregori. I have been in your mind. I see what you are, perhaps better than you do. It took me a little time to put things together, because I was afraid of our bond, how strong it was. I was afraid of losing who and what I was to a stronger personality.” Her hands began to soap his back. She made small, lazy circles with the suds. “I didn’t put it all together at first. My memories from before my birth and my memories of my beautiful wolf, my companion that made me so complete. I didn’t think about how easily and naturally we merged our minds. I didn’t think about why I never needed or wanted anyone else. It didn’t come to me until I realized how completely I merged with you, slipping in and out of your mind. Neither of us noticed it. You didn’t even notice it. You failed to notice that in those years of my childhood, you had a semblance of peace in the time you spent with me. But I felt it. I saw it in your mind. It is there now, for you to examine in your memories. That was why it was so hard for you when I felt the Continent and ran away like the child I was. You see colors, Gregori. You have not seen them in centuries. I see how vivid and brilliant they are to you. Only your true lifemate could provide such a thing for you. Your silly guilt is blinding you to reality.”
Warm water streamed down his back. Savannah moved around in front of him to kneel beside the tub. As she bent forward, her silky hair framed the perfection of her face. The shirt parted to reveal enticing glimpses of her curves. The rosy tip of one breast tempted him. He found it hard to control the direction of his gaze. She soaped his chest. “I am with you on the hunt. With you on the kill. In your mind, sharing your thoughts. No other could ever do what I do because I am the only lifemate you have. I am a shadow in your mind, so familiar to you, you do not know I am there.”
She poured water over his chest, then rubbed the soap between her palms again. Tilting her head to one side, she gazed lovingly at his harshly set face. “You go perfectly blank when you hunt. I know this not because you tell me, but because I am there with you in your mind. What do you want to feel? Sadness? Remorse? You have hunted for nearly a thousand years. You have been forced to kill friends and relatives. You have been isolated and alone for years, without your lifemate. It was impossible in that barren world to feel anything, at all. Only your code and sense of honor and your loyalty to my father kept you going.”
Savannah’s hands searched below the surface of the water, found the thick, hard length of him, and began a slow, intimate massage. Her fingers were magic, sending waves of pleasure surging through him. “I would not want you to think of anything while you hunt, especially not of me. I would hope that would be too distracting.” Her smile was frankly sexy, her hands moving with recently acquired skill. “You can’t feel at such times, Gregori. It would slow you down, cause you to make a mistake. Do you really think you can change a thousand years of training? You programmed yourself centuries ago.”