There she was. Saving him. This little slip of a woman. He needed to make certain he brought her into his world as gently as possible. She looked fragile, but he knew from touching her mind so often that she had a will of steel. If she got her back up and tried to fight him, it wouldn’t be good for either of them.
“I have another chamber set up more comfortably. It is difficult to get to, but a little safer than this cave.”
Deliberately, Andre had not gone fully to ground, luring the vampire with his trail of blood. Carpathians buried themselves deep in the earth when they went to ground, not shallow where a master vampire’s newly acquired apprentice would unravel safeguards meant to delay, not keep out. His plan hadn’t worked; instead, his lifemate had somehow wandered into his cave and found him.
“You do? What’s more comfortable mean?”
He reluctantly moved away from her. He didn’t have any more excuses to wrap his body around hers, so in order not to look like a pervert taking advantage, he had to move to the other side of the fire.
“A few chairs, torches up above to the light the room. A bed. Nothing great.”
Teagan smiled at Andre as he settled across from her, grateful for the respite of not having him so close. She didn’t understand how he could look so clean and fresh and smell so great when they were in a cave and he’d been horribly injured. His clothes were no longer bloody or tattered.
She was the one who looked disheveled, and she was quite certain she needed a bath after hiking for so long. She’d been hiking up the mountain with Armend for a few days before he’d gone psycho rapist/serial killer on her. Now, she had to sit with the sexiest, most gorgeous, probably hottest man she’d ever meet in her life, and she looked like something the cat might drag in.
Worse, she was totally crushing on him. His black hair was long. Wavy. Pulled back with a leather cord. He looked like he’d just stepped out of the shower, and he smelled yummy, too. He was sweet, too, making her tea, or trying to without getting burned. If she had any imagination at all, she would pretend he’d nearly stuck his hand in the fire because he was so absolutely enamored with her. Unfortunately, she didn’t have that much pretend in her.
“It was thoughtful of you to want to make tea for me. I appreciate it, thank you.” She dragged a cup from her pack, poured the water from the kettle into the cup and added the herb teabag he’d given her from his stash of supplies. It gave her something to do besides stare at him.
Strangely, her stomach rebelled a little at the thought of food. Even the herbal tea looked like it might not go down well. She hoped she wasn’t getting sick, not when she was just deciding a vacation fling might be the right way to go.
She allowed herself a quick glance at him from under her lashes, just sneaking another peek. He was watching her. When Andre looked at her, he focused wholly on her. That gave her the sensation of being the only woman in his world.
She cleared her throat. “Would you like some tea as well? I don’t have another cup in my pack, but you must have one somewhere.”
He shook his head and held out his hands to the fire, warming them. “Tell me about your life, Teagan. Where you live. Your family.”
She let her breath out. She was good at chattering. She’d learned if she could make small talk, she could feel a part of the activities around her. Most of the time, she pursued solitary things, such as her beloved bouldering, but she could appear social with the best of them. Staring into Andre’s eyes had already proved dangerous to her so she decided she wasn’t doing that again soon.
She liked looking at him. She was drawn to looking at him. Worse, it was becoming a compulsion. Up close he was even better, and with the firelight casting shadows across his face, he was spectacular.
“Teagan.”
There it was. The way he said her name. Just her name. That low, sexy voice, with his super sexy accent. Totally impossible to ignore. She forced the cup of tea to her lips in order to keep from staring at him.
“Teagan.”
He said her name again. Low. Gentle. Mesmerizing. She had no choice. She lifted her gaze to his. Found herself drowning again. Who had blue eyes like his? Blue eyes and black, glossy, glorious hair. She blinked several times and found the tea in the cup gone, her stomach warm but a little upset. She was so hypnotized by him she didn’t even remember gulping the tea. She had to get ahold of herself.
She swallowed. Licked at her lower lip with the tip of her tongue. His eyes followed the movement. He was just plain sexy, and she didn’t know how to handle sexy.
“Sivamet, you are not breathing again.” He placed his palm over his heart. “Your heart beats too fast. Listen. Hear the rhythm of mine. Allow your heart to follow mine.”
Andre was right. She wasn’t breathing. She had forgotten how. Even his words, whispered to her in a velvet tone, sinful as midnight in a cave with a stranger, tangled in her brain until she thought he was asking something else of her. She didn’t know what, but whatever it was, she knew if she did as he said, she was committing to more than just slowing her heart rate.
Still, she took a breath, observing his hand over his heart. It was a big hand, strong, with long fingers. She couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to have his hands stroking her skin. She fought down that particular vision—want, need, whatever—and placed her own hand over her heart.
“Listen.”
She noticed that just about anything he had to say, he said as briefly as possible—with the least amount of words he could use. He spoke English, but then maybe he was unsure of the language, like when he was trying to interpret his own language.