Johnson led the way through a maze of rooms to the back stairs. “If you think it will be necessary, I could have a couple of my men keep an eye on Ms. Dubrinsky for a few days.”
“Thank you, Detective, but that will not be necessary,” Gregori declined softly, a hint of menace in his velvet voice. His hand found the small of Savannah’s back. “I protect my own.”
The staircase was narrow and dusty, the carpet worn through in several places. The couple moved down it together in perfect synchronization, like a pair of dancers. Gregori caught at her before she could push open the door. “Someone is outside.”
Savannah glanced at the cruel edge to his mouth. “We don’t know who it is, Gregori,” she cautioned softly.
“Scanning is easy enough,” Gregori answered. “That reporter is dangerous, Savannah. He is more than a simple nosy newspaperman.”
“You read that detective’s mind, his memories, didn’t you?” Her fingers curled around his thick wrist, her enormous blue eyes fixed steadily on his face.
Gregori didn’t flinch from the accusation. He didn’t pretend to look repentant. “Of course I did.”
“Gregori,” she said softly, “you have that look about you.”
His eyebrows shot up. “What look is that?”
“Like you’re really hungry and you just discovered lunch.”
He smiled in answer, but there was no warmth in his eyes. “Be very careful with this one, Savannah. He is not going to just let it go.”
She shrugged carefully. “So let’s give him what he wants, and maybe he’ll leave us alone.” She was afraid she knew what Gregori had in mind. If the reporter couldn’t be controlled, if he became a threat to their race, Gregori would have no choice but to destroy him. She couldn’t bear the thought of any more needless bloodshed; she wanted a peaceful co-existence with the human race.
“We will try it your way,” Gregori conceded, his stomach churning. Why did he give in to her nonsense? Her eyes, large and sad, defeated his good sense every time.
Savannah pressed a fingertip to his lip, tracing the hard edge until it softened, and he took her finger into his mouth in a slow, erotic caress. He needed that connection with her always. She was so young, the ugliness of his life so far removed from her. How could she understand his need to ensure that such ugliness never touched her?
She smiled, a small, secret smile he felt he would never understand. He knew the earth, the wind, the shifting water, fire, air, even space itself. He could command them all, but Savannah eluded him. Completely eluded him. Why did it matter so much that she understand? Wasn’t her safety the most important thing in his world?
Savannah shivered at the unexpected heat burning through her body. Gregori had such power over her. When he released her finger from the hot, moist cavern of his mouth, she leaned into him, her hand sliding down his throat to rest on his chest. “I think you should be outlawed, Gregori. You’re lethal to women.” Her voice feathered over his skin like the touch of fingers.
“Just one woman,” he answered, his silver eyes molten mercury. He took possession of her hand; he had to, before his body went up in flames. Bringing her knuckles to his mouth, he sighed as he pressed a kiss against the back of her hand, her fingers, her open palm. “Let us get this over with, ma petite, before I change my mind and turn this reporter to stone.”
Her breath caught in her throat, her blue eyes enormous. “You can’t really do that, can you?” She was looking at him with a mixture of awe and fear, with maybe a hint of pride thrown in.
Gregori’s face was completely impassive, the silver gaze reflective. “I can do anything. I thought that was a well-known fact among our people.”
She searched his face, trying to determine whether or not he was teasing her. When she couldn’t be certain one way or the other, she turned and pushed open the door.
Almost at once a man placed himself solidly in front of her, and a flash went off. Blinking at the sudden, excruciating pain of the brilliant light in her sensitive eyes, Savannah instinctively put up a hand to cover her face. Gregori turned her into his chest. You would insist on this.