“Growing up, didn’t you know the names of other children? Even if they were female?”
“Yes, of course, but names changed often. We did not use surnames. We stuck to the old ways of protecting ourselves because if a male chose, at any time, to give up his soul and become vampire, a female lifemate would draw him. Actually, any female. It would be worse if he knew her name.”
“Like Sergey did Elisabeta’s.”
Andor could see she was trying hard to understand. “Ferro and some of the others believe Sergey plotted to kidnap and keep Elisabeta prior to his turning. Xavier had kidnapped and kept a Carpathian woman. Sergey knew that and did not tell his prince or any of the other Carpathians; he was a traitor beyond any other.”
“I don’t think I like Sergey.”
A slow smile tugged at his mouth. He felt a little rusty, but it was becoming easy to smile around her. Her brightness fed a need and hunger in him he hadn’t known existed. He was a warrior. He had been for centuries. He didn’t need others—in fact, they had always been a detriment. Now, this one woman had a light in her that shone so brightly, it spilled over him, and all the darkness that had taken him over, one shadow at a time, threatening to consume him, was pushed back with one of her statements, delivered in a snippy tone.
“Are you laughing at me?”
Her hands dropped from his neck to fit on her hips, instantly calling his attention to those curves. He caught her wrists and brought her hands back up to him so her arms were forced to slide around his neck. He fit her hands to the nape of his neck, and then pressed hard for a moment as if he could force them to stay there. Technically, he could do that, but he preferred to allow his woman to get used to him before he did anything that might scare her off.
The moment Lorraine threaded her fingers together and leaned her body against his, he dropped his hands to her hips. He curled each palm around an enticing curve. Feeling her. Wishing neither of them had cloth between them. He just wanted to actually feel the way her skin felt all over.
She laughed softly. “You’re still wounded, you know. The others told me you wouldn’t be fully healed until you were in the ground for a few days, maybe even longer. They repaired enough of the damage to get you to fly home, but that’s all. You still have three gaping wounds in your body, yet the first thing you’re thinking about is getting me naked. You’re such a man.”
He inclined his head. “Thank you for the compliment.”
She laughed again, and the sound teased his groin into a hard ache. The notes danced up and down his cock like the touch of fingers, robbing him of breath. Need exploded out of his lungs. Happiness stabbed at his heart, embedded deep and left him—hers. Only hers. Just like the tattoo on his back, painfully jabbed deep into his skin so his body couldn’t remove the vow.
“That was no compliment, you goof.”
His eyebrow arched instantly. “Goof? What is goof? And of course it was a compliment. I may be Carpathian, but I am a man.”
She shook her head, her green eyes dancing. In that moment, all trace of fear and sorrow was gone. Her features were lit with amusement. He shared that with her. He’d done that for her. Lorraine was a strong woman. She needed his comfort, and he was grateful for that. He liked caring for her, just as she’d taken care of him, and she stood back up every time she got knocked down.
She’d done so at a young age when her parents had entered her in tournaments. Sometimes she’d been the victor. Sometimes she’d been defeated. Always, she’d gotten back to her feet when an opponent had knocked her down, swept her legs out from under her or pinned her to the ground. She’d been born with that trait and she’d developed it almost daily in the way her parents had raised her. They lived a life of discipline and expected her to do the same.
“The others are returning. Those that did not feed from Adam and Herman had to go hunting,” Andor said reluctantly.
He wanted more time with her. He needed more time with her alone. He was forced to block pain from his woman. Even so, if she looked too close in his mind, he knew she would find it there. He silently cursed the fact that he’d taken on all seven vampires. He had known going into it that he would be torn to shreds and possibly killed, but it hadn’t mattered. Only destroying the undead mattered. He had no idea he was fated to meet his lifemate and would come close to taking her with him.
Once she had bound her soul to his, and the others had joined, in order to save him, all their lives had been at risk. He knew Sandu and Ferro had done so because he was their brother—not of blood but as close or closer. Two centuries could produce that kind of loyalty. Gary had joined them. A healer so skilled, so rare, it would be a huge loss to the Carpathian people, and yet, like Gregori, his older brother, he was a warrior and hunted the undead. To save another Carpathian, Gregori would have gone to the lengths Gary had, risking his own life.
Andor was certain there was another reason altogether as well. Gary had the fighting skills of a long line of ancient warriors. Few would be able to defeat him in a battle. He also had an enormous IQ and was a battle strategist. By tying himself to Andor, Ferro and Sandu, he was assured that there were ancient warriors who could track him should he ever succumb to whispers of temptation. He had now exchanged blood with all of them. They would be able to find him wherever he was in the world.
“Why are you frowning?” She slid off his lap and stood up slowly. Almost reluctantly.
Andor appreciated that she didn’t want to end their time alone together. He felt the same way. “I was not frowning.” He wore a mask on his expressionless face. He kept his features looking like stone so none could read him, yet she had so easily.
“I’m in your mind. There was a frown.”
“Technically, sívamet, that is cheating. You have to learn to read my expressions.”
“You don’t have expressions. Nor do you have ‘tells,’ little movements you make before you say or do something. I’m very good at reading my opponents. I trained myself to stay out of their minds and just read body language. You don’t give anything away.”
He stood as well and saw her eyes widen in shock. She hadn’t noticed how tall or muscular he was until that moment. He liked the look on her face. She was easy to read right then—she liked what she saw. He held out his hand. She took it without hesitation, and he threaded his fingers through hers. She waited, not moving. He didn’t move, either. Once they took that step that brought them out of the brush and trees, it was no longer just them.
He pulled her farther into the shelter of the trees. “I need to kiss you.”
“I know. I feel it, too,” she said, but he didn’t hear agreement in her voice. There was trepidation, not agreement.
“Csecsemõ, what is it?”
The tip of her tongue touched her lower lip. “If you kiss me, there isn’t any going back.”
Now he did frown. Openly. “Back from what, Lorraine? I have claimed you as my lifemate. There is no going back from that. I will always need to be with you. You will always need to be with me. One cannot take that back. Our souls are woven together.”
She nodded, that adorable frown on her face matching his much more scowling one.
“I’m aware of the ramifications of what you did. I felt the difference when you said your vows. How you could manage to weave our souls together just by your one-sided vow, I don’t know. If things were equal, a woman should have to recite them with you.”
He tugged her a step closer. “A woman in our world did not need to say the vows for the binding ritual to work. It is the male who would turn vampire and lose all honor after centuries of hunting and keeping his people safe. Of course, his woman would want to bind herself to him in order to save him.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “If he’s an arrogant man who wants to boss her all the time, maybe not, and don’t tell me some of your brethren aren’t a bit— or a lot— like that because I know two who are.”
He threw his head back and laughed, because he knew more than two. He might even be counted among that lot, although he wasn’t going to enlighten her. She’d learn that soon enough. “I will concede your point, Lorraine, but you haven’t told me what will happen when I kiss you.”
Her tongue once more moistened her lower lip, stirring his body beyond belief that just that small action could affect him so deeply. He had to suppress a groan of need. His skin felt too tight, his cock ached and every nerve ending seemed alive. She gave a shake of the head. Her hair went flying, swinging in all directions and then settling down her back and around her shoulders like a living cape.
He dared to tug her a step closer. He had managed to gain a step toward her as well so now only inches separated them. He felt the heat of her body and inhaled the fragrance that was all Lorraine. On waking, he had waved his hand to give her the same freshness that he had when rising. He remembered the first scent of her, the first touch of her hair against his fingers. Every detail of her. He paid attention to those things because she mattered to him more than anything or anyone else on the earth.
“Tell me, sívamet.”
“I want to kiss you, Andor. I think about it a lot. But, I know when I do, I will want you to bring me into your world because I would want more than one lifetime with you.”
His heart jumped in his chest, began to beat faster. He wanted that, too. A thousand lifetimes wouldn’t be enough for him. “Is this a bad thing?”
“I thought if I talked to the other women, the lifemates who had chosen to become Carpathian, they could tell me if they felt they’d made the right choice. It isn’t like I can go back to being human, right?”
“No, once you make that decision, it is done. Your human body dies and you become fully Carpathian. I know the other women will say they made the right choice. They love their lifemates. You know they will say it as well.”
“It isn’t about that, Andor. I know I’ve fallen quite hard for you. It’s difficult to see into your mind and not fall for you. I also see the repercussions of the sun on you. I love the sun. I lie out in the sun without my clothes and sunbathe. I swim without clothes, letting the sun kiss me through the water. I love the way it looks on the plants during the day. Some flowers don’t even open at night. I spent time in my garden, planting and weeding and waiting for spring so the flowers would come up and open. The blossoms are spectacular in the daylight. All those colors.”