would
resort to violence, and then he’d be sorry. A serious dunking just might do his inflated male ego some good. She glared at him again, hoping to wither him on the spot. “I don’t believe in love. It’s a myth. People use it to get their way. There isn’t any such thing. It’s mere physical attraction.”
Darius practically tossed her out of the pool. “You actually believe the nonsense you spout? I am the darkness. You are the light. I am a predator. You hold compassion and goodness within you. Yet I must teach
you
about love?”
“Your ego is showing again,” she declared, a faint haughtiness in her voice. “You know, Darius, it isn’t necessary that we think or believe alike all the time. I don’t have to see everything your way.”
Something deep and dark and terrifying flickered in the depths of his eyes, and she held her breath. He blinked, and the illusion was gone, leaving her wondering if she had seen only the flames of the candles reflected in his eyes.
“You have clothes on the sheet. Get dressed, Tempest. I must feed.”
The moment he uttered the words, she became aware of her heart beating strongly. It sounded overly loud to her, like the beat of a drum. Worse, she could hear his heartbeat. The water pouring from the walls, too, was nearly deafening, whereas the night before she had hardly noticed it. And she heard something else—a high-pitched, far-off sound ominously like what she imagined a great number of bats might make.
Tempest took a deep breath, her teeth biting nervously at her lower lip. She didn’t like Darius’s using the word
feed.
She didn’t like the fact that her hearing had suddenly become so strangely acute. What did it all mean? He had bitten her several times. Could he infect her with whatever made him the creature that he was? Slowly she pulled on the clothes he had supplied— something else she didn’t want to examine too closely. They weren’t her clothes. Just where had they come from? “You’re in way too deep this time, Rusti,” she murmured aloud.
Darius was beside her, immaculate, elegant, powerful.
He ruffled her hair affectionately. “Stop talking to yourself.”
“I always talk to myself.”
“You are not alone anymore. You have me, so there is no further need to continue this habit. Are you ready?” His black eyes flicked over her pale face, settling for a moment on her trembling mouth. It amused him somewhat that periodically she scared herself with her own rousings and anxieties. It amazed him that she wasn’t always terrified of him, that she accepted his difference: the same way she accepted differences of skin color or religion. The same way she accepted animals.
Tempest unexpectedly reached out and took his hand “Even if you are the most arrogant being I’ve ever encountered, thank you for last night. It was beautiful, Darius.”
It was the last thing he’d anticipated, and it moved him as nothing else could. He turned his head away from her so that she would not catch the shimmer of tear; that suddenly touched his eyes. That in itself was a small miracle. He had not believed himself capable of tears yet he wanted to weep because she had thanked him Despite her anger at him, her fears of his powers am this place, their night had meant enough to her that she had thought to thank him.
As he took her toward the surface of the mountain he realized it was the first time anyone had thanked him for anything. His role as his family’s provider and protector had been established long ago and was thus now taken for granted. This small woman, so delicate yet so courageous, made him remember the reason he had chosen the role of provider and protector.
Chapter Eleven
The night was the most incredibly beautiful thing Tempest had ever seen. It was clear and slightly cold, and overhead thousands of tiny stars were trying to outsparkle each other. She inhaled the scent of pine. A slight breeze carried the hint of wildflowers to her. Mist off the falls cleaned the air around them. She wanted to run barefoot through the forest and revel in the beauty of nature. For a moment she even forgot Darius as she raised her arms toward the moon, a silent offering of joy. Darius watched her face, felt the happiness consuming her. Tempest focused on whatever she was doing at the moment, taking it into her mind and body and enjoying it to the fullest. She seemed to know how to really live. Was it because she had had so little joy in her lifetime? Was. it because she had fought so hard simply to survive? He touched her mind, a silent, watchful shadow hovering in the background, that he might share the intensity of the moment with her.
And he did. He saw it all. Each separate, vivid detail of wonder. The exquisite beauty of the leaves bathed in silver light. The individual drops of mist sparkling like diamonds in the air around the waterfall. The prisms of color flowing from the frothy cascade. Bats wheeling and dipping at myriad insects. Darius could even see himself tall and powerful, intimidating, masculine. His long hair flowed to his broad shoulders, and his mouth was... He brought himself up short, a smile hovering close. She definitely liked his mouth.
Tempest thumped him hard in the chest. “Get that smug smirk off your face. I know exactly what you’re thinking.”
His hand came up beneath hers and trapped her small clenched fist against his chest. “I notice you do not attempt to deny it.”
Her green eyes sparkled a teasing challenge. “Why should I? I have good taste. Most of the time,” she added pointedly.
He growled low in his throat, a sound meant to intimidate her, but instead she laughed. “Down, boy. Anyone with your arrogance can take a little bit of ribbing.” As he brought her hand to his mouth and nipped her knuckles menacingly, her laughter changed to an abrupt squeal of alarm.
“Do not count on it,” he cautioned, his white teeth gleaming like a predator’s. “I am like any man. I expect the woman I love to adore me and think me perfect.”
She gave an inelegant snort. “You’ll have a long way for that one.”
His black eyes, so compelling, burned over her face. “I do not think it will be so long, honey.”
“Go find yourself food. We have to meet the others,” Tempest said a little desperately. He could not look at her that way. He just couldn’t.
“And if I go, what will you do for me?” he prompted, rubbing her knuckles along his shadowed jaw. The sensation sent dark fire racing through her blood.
“I’ll be a good little girl and wait right here for you.” She made a face at him. “Don’t worry so much, Darius. I’m not really the adventurous type.”
He groaned at the blatant lie. “My heart could not take it if you were any more adventurous.” His black eyes pinned her. “Obey me in this, Tempest. I do not want to come back and find you hang-gliding off another cliff.”
She rolled her eyes. “What trouble can I possibly get into up here? No one’s around for miles. Really, Darius, you’re becoming totally paranoid.” She strode to a boulder with a flat top. “I’ll just sit here and contemplate nature until you return.”
“The other alternative is for me to tie you to a tree,” he mused, straight-faced. “Try it,” she dared him, green eyes flashing fire.
“Do not tempt me,” he shot back, meaning it. He examined the boulder for himself. With Tempest, anything was bound to happen. A snake under the rock, a stick of dynamite blowing it up.
Tempest laughed at him. “Go away. Do you have any idea how pale you are? I’m afraid in a minute you’ll decide that I’m your midnight snack.” Swinging one crossed leg back and forth, feigning indifference, she blinked up at him, wishing she could take back the words. She didn’t want to give him any ideas. “Do have any idea how truly bizarre all this is?”
He loomed over her, tall and enormously strong. “I only know you’d better be sitting right here when I get back.” He made it an order. No velvet over iron this time. Just pure iron. He said it between his teeth to show her he meant business.