Corinne filled him with hope again. No one would be completely safe until she was bound to him, until the ritual had been completed, but Dayan could breathe easier. He had found her at long last, his Corinne. She would save him, and with him, any that he might have endangered.
“I wish I could read minds,” Corinne teased. “You go very quiet and you never exactly answer my questions. What happened to our conversation regarding those men in my house? It seemed very important to me.”
“Was it?” His voice was that perfect whisper of sound. “I find you the most important thing in my life. It is difficult to keep my mind on anything else, but since it is of such importance to you, I will try.”
He was staring down at her as if she were the most beautiful woman in the world. His black gaze drifted over her face, possessive, hungry, aching with need… with some inner torment she didn’t understand. He was looking at her the way a man looks at a woman he wants to spend the entire night making love with.
“Eternity making love,” he corrected, proving he really could read her mind.
Her eyes widened in astonishment. A blush worked its way up her neck to her face, putting color into her cheeks. She realized it could be embarrassing having Dayan read her mind. She thought about him way too much. Thought about every detail of his appearance – his long, thick hair as shiny as a raven’s wing, his black eyes, so intense and needy, his sculpted mouth, perfectly chiseled, molded and shaped into a sensual masterpiece. Half laughing, embarrassed that she couldn’t control her wayward thoughts, she put her hand over her eyes to block him out.
“Do not do that, honey,” he reprimanded softly. “Do not ever do that. I would not be happy if you did not find me attractive.”
“You’re too attractive,” she confessed. “Not real. I don’t exactly have these kinds of feelings every day.”
His perfect white teeth flashed at her. “That is a relief.”
“Now you’re laughing at me.” She tried to stifle the yawn welling up. “It’s almost morning and we haven’t gotten anywhere with this. Did you call the police? Is it safe to go back into our house?”
Dayan shook his head. “Maybe to get a few things, but you cannot stay there. When those two men do not return to their people, others will be sent after you. The first place they will look is your home.”
“You didn’t call the police, did you?”
“Why would we want to do that? The police cannot do anything to these people; they cannot touch them.”
“What did you do with the two in my home? Why aren’t they going to return to their people?”
“They had orders to kill you, honey. You did not expect me to allow them to walk away.” He made it a statement. “It was fair enough – they had guns.”
She tangled her fingers in the silky mass of his hair because she had wanted to do that from the first moment she laid eyes on him. “You don’t make sense, Dayan. You answer me, but not so I can understand anything. I’m tired.” Her long lashes were continually fluttering down despite her efforts to stay awake. “I’m too tired to figure out your sentences with all the holes in them. But don’t worry, I’m fairly good at things like that when I’m fully awake.”
Dayan stroked the hair from her forehead, his fingertips lingering in a gentle caress. “You can go to sleep, Corinne. You will be safe here and we can finish this conversation when you are not so tired. The baby needs to sleep too. A little girl.” There was the slightest of “pushes” in his voice, a hidden compulsion to give in to her desire to sleep.
She smiled up at him, at his strong, sensual features. That’s right, a girl. How did you know?” Corinne found herself suppressing a yawn.
“When I attempted to heal you, I checked to make sure she was in good health. She is beautiful, and very aware of you already.” He lowered his head, his heated gaze moving over her face, dropping to her mouth. It moved even lower to brush the slender column of her neck, rested on the pulse beating there.