His eyes were closed, savoring the feel of her body against his, the fact that he could want her with such intensity. He held her, wanting her, needing her, burning for her, not even understanding how such a firestorm could consume him. Reluctantly he lifted his head, his body raging at him. “Let us go home, Raven.” His voice was pure seduction.
A slow smile curved her soft mouth. “I don’t think it’s safe. You’re the kind of man my mother warned me about.”
He kept his arm possessively around her shoulders, shackling her to him. Mikhail had no intention of allowing her to leave his side again. His body urged her in the direction he wanted. They walked together in companionable silence.
“Jacob wasn’t going to hurt me,” she denied suddenly. “I would have known.”
“You were not touching him, little one, and it was lucky for him.”
“He’s certainly capable of violence. It’s always hard to miss violence.” She flashed him her mischievous smile. “It clings to you like a second skin.”
He tugged at her thick braid in retaliation for her teasing. “I want you to come stay in my home. At least until we find and dispose of the assassins.”
Raven walked several steps in silence. He had said we, as if they were a team. That pleased her. “You know, Mikhail, it was the strangest thing today. Not one person at the inn or in the village seemed to know of the murder.”
His finger flicked along her delicate cheekbone. “And you said nothing.”
She flashed him a quelling glance from under long lashes. “Of course. Gossiping is not my form of entertainment.”
“Noelle died cruelly, senselessly. She was Rand’s lifemate…”
“You used that term before. What does it mean?”
“It is like a wife or husband,” he explained. “Noelle had given birth to a child only two months ago. She was my responsibility. Noelle is not food for gossip. We will find her killers ourselves.”
“Don’t you think if there’s a serial killer loose in so small a village, the people have a right to know?”
Mikhail chose his words carefully. “The Romanians are not in any danger. And this is not the work of one individual. The assassins wish to stamp out our race. True Carpathians are almost extinct. We have bitter enemies who would see us all dead.”
“Why?”
Mikhail shrugged. “We are different; we have certain gifts, talents. People are afraid of what is different. You should know that.”
“Maybe I have Carpathian blood in me, a diluted version,” Raven said with a trace of wistfulness. It was nice to think she had an ancestor with the same gift.
His heart went out to her. Her life must have been terribly lonely. Mikhail wanted to wrap her up, safe in his arms, sheltered from life’s unpleasantness. His was a self-imposed isolation; Raven had no choice.
“Our petroleum and mineral rights in a country where most have very little is cause for concern and jealousy. I am the law to my people. I deal with the threats to our position and our lives. It was my poor judgment that placed Noelle in danger; it is my duty to hunt her killers and bring our justice to them.”
“Why haven’t you called the local authorities?” She was struggling to understand, feeling her way carefully.
“I am the sole authority to my people. I am the law.”
“Alone?”
“I have others who hunt, many in fact, but it is at my command. I hold the sole responsibility in all decisions.”
“Judge, jury, and executioner?” she guessed, holding her breath for the answer. Her senses couldn’t lie. She would have felt the taint of evil in him, no matter how good a shield he constructed. No one could be so good that they never once slipped up. She didn’t realize she had stopped walking until his hands ran up and down her arms, warming her shivering body.
“Now you fear me.” He said it softly, wearily, as if she had hurt him. And it did hurt. He had wanted her to be afraid of him, had deliberately provoked her fear, yet now, his goal achieved, it wasn’t at all what he wanted.