Dayan changed direction immediately, gliding through the crowd once again toward the door, taking her along with effortless ease. She wanted to go with him. Corinne couldn’t understand that irrational impulse. The cold air should have cleared her head, but he moved his body very close to hers, shattering what little composure she had left. She couldn’t think straight with him so close to her.
Dayan took her into the shadows. Everything in him rose up to claim her for his own. He wanted her, he needed her, and his body was going up in flames. She stood there looking up at him with her enormous green eyes, and he was lost. Knew he would be lost for all time. “Good – your color is coming back. Your friend seems to care very much for you. I cannot imagine that she would not be happy about the baby.”
Corinne lifted a hand to shove back the wild mass of her hair. “I shouldn’t have given you the wrong impression. Lisa will be happy about the baby for a lot of reasons. It’s just that I’m…” She trailed off, reluctant to reveal any details of her personal life to him. “It’s complicated.” Suddenly, inexplicably, she felt compelled to tell him everything about herself. He was looking down at her and his eyes were so – hungry. Lonely. She didn’t know what it was, but those eyes were impossible to resist.
He made her feel as if she’d been cornered by a great jungle cat. His eyes didn’t blink, they simply watched her. Completely focused on her. At times she could have sworn there was a red flicker of flame in the very depths. “You have to stop looking at me like that.” The words left her throat before she could censor them, and she found herself laughing. She was a grown woman and ordinarily very logical. He was certainly getting a false impression of who she was.
His smile was slow and very sexy. It started her wayward heart pounding again. A slow burn was smoldering somewhere in the pit of her stomach. “Am I looking at you?” His voice brushed against her skin, heating, tantalizing.
Corinne tilted her head to one side and studied his perfect masculine features. “You know very well you are. You have that smug male look on your face. I can’t think straight when you’re looking at me like that.”
“How am I looking at you?” He asked it softly, gently, a note of tenderness creeping in to turn her heart over.
Like a hungry leopard about to pounce. The thought came unbidden. The smile climbed to his eyes as if he could read her thoughts, making her blush. “Never mind. Just stop.” She put out her hand as if she might hold him away from her.
“You were going to tell me about the baby.” And the baby’s father. We do not want to leave him out of this conversation. You want to tell me. Shamelessly he “pushed” her, needing to know. The man was dead. Dayan could feel that. He read it in the lingering sadness in her eyes. She had cared for another man enough to bring his child into the world. Who was the man?
He captured her outstretched hand, her left hand, found the circle of gold, the symbol of human marriage, the mark proclaiming she belonged to another man.
The thought triggered the dangerous aggression of his species, and Dayan fought down the rising beast. He would not chance frightening her. His thumb rubbed over the ring almost absently, back and forth, a gentle caress, persistent. Insistent. He brought her fingertips to his lips. All the while his black gaze focused completely on her, staring directly into her eyes.
His look was hypnotic. Strangely exhilarating. Corinne’s breath caught in her throat as his teeth scraped along her finger, his mouth warm and moist. Butterfly wings brushed at her stomach. His teeth tugged gently at her gold wedding band. The sensation was so erotic, she shivered. She stared up at him for a long moment, completely fascinated, before remembering to pull her hand free.
“Tell me about your baby, honey,” he commanded, his voice low, almost purring.