She was furious. More than furious. She was terrified. She despised being weak. She detested that she’d practically had a breakdown in front of these men. Mostly, she hated that she wanted to burst into tears and cry for hours. She was so close, struggling to hold on to her anger so she wouldn’t fall apart in front of them.
She didn’t know what being a lifemate entailed, but she was fairly certain Tomas was going to take her somewhere away from her cousin. Luiz might say he believed one couldn’t interfere between lifemates,but he was a family man, and if he thought for one moment Tomas was hurting her, she was certain he would come to her aid.
“Sarika.” Dominic drew her attention with his gentle voice. “It is impossible for a Carpathian lifemate to, in any way, harm his woman. She is his world. He protects her at all costs and sees to her happiness. She is his first priority.”
She pounced on that. “So if Tomas is seeing to my happiness, then he will escort me to the river and see to it that I get safely on a boat so I can leave this place. That’s what would make me happy.” There was pure challenge and triumph in the look she shot Tomas.
His answer was to wrap his arm around her and pull her close to the heat of his body. He felt rock solid. Immovable. He also felt like a tower of strength. It was strange how her body reacted to him when her brain was nearly paralyzed with fear. She felt the burn of tears behind her eyes, and she stiffened, one hand going to his rib cage to push him away. She could not break down in front of these men.
Tomas didn’t so much as rock back. She could feel them all staring at her. She decided her only out was to test him. “I have to go into the other room for some alone time. I really, really need you to let me do that.”
His palm cupped the side of her face gently. Too gently. The first tear spilled over before she could stop it. Instantly, he swung his body completely in front of hers, blocking the sight of her from the others as if he knew she would despise them seeing her cry. One thumb slid over her cheekbone, erasing the wet mark.
“If you need to lie down for a little while, you should do that. I can feel how tired you are.”Don’t be distressed. We’ll work this out the way we’ve been doing for years.His lips brushed the top of her head, and he walked with her, using his body as a shield to keep the others from seeing her face.
“Did you know when we wrote letters that you were connected to me?” She whispered the question because suddenly his answer was veryimportant. Had she been lured to the rainforest? Had Luiz conspired against her?
You insist on thinking the worst of me, little cousin. If Tomas makes you miserable or ever raises his hand to you, I will kill him. It wouldn’t be easy, and his brothers would retaliate, but I would never allow my family—and that’s who you are to me—to be abused in any way.
She’d gotten to Luiz. Gotten under his skin. At least she meant something to him. She didn’t understand why he hadn’t come to her defense and stopped whatever Tomas had done before she was bound to him, but at least now, she knew she mattered to Luiz.
“I didn’t know we had a connection,” Tomas answered her question. “Having said that, the longer we wrote to each other, the more I felt a connection. I was a hunter incapable of emotion, yet I looked forward to every single letter.”
He took her elbow and gently steered her through Luiz’s open floor plan to the bedroom behind the screen. The hammock looked inviting. She suddenly needed to lie down more than anything. She was exhausted.
Sarika sank down onto the hammock, and Tomas crouched in front of her, lifting her right foot to remove her shoe. Once he’d pulled off the right shoe and sock, he massaged her foot, his strong fingers bringing instant relief to her sore muscles.
“I have never been a man to be jealous. It is a very unseemly emotion and quite an ugly trait in a man.”
Her gaze flew to his face. He raised his eyes to hers as he placed her foot on the floor and lifted her left foot to remove the shoe and sock. There was no levity on his face. None. What he was saying meant something. Was important. She got the impression it was difficult for him to say this to her, and that both intrigued her and made her like him more. Admitting a character trait in himself he didn’t like made him appear vulnerable to her.
“I am struggling with new emotions. They come in waves and are difficult to process when it comes to my feelings for you. I did notexpect them to be so strong. And they are, Sarika. Stronger than anything I’ve ever felt. I’m going to make mistakes with you because this is all new to me. I have never felt these emotions for a woman, not in all the centuries of my existence.”
Her heart skipped a beat. He was crouched at her feet, his strong fingers massaging aching, tired muscles while he made his confession. It had to be said; she thought him devastatingly beautiful.
“Part of the problem is that we aren’t settled yet. I’m intelligent enough to know that and to know the fault lies with me. Unfortunately, I am a very dangerous man.”
He didn’t have to spell that out for her; she knew. Anyone looking at him knew. She had a difficult time equating this man with the letters he’d written to her. She understood why there were no photographs of him. Aside from the years he’d lived, if anyone saw his picture, they would question what they knew of T. Smolnycki Jr.
“I know I have no right to ask favors of you, not after claiming you without your consent, but perhaps our past interactions might earn me one.” His hand slipped into her hair, fingers caressing her scalp.
“Tell me what you need from me.” She had no idea why she’d blurted that out. She was exhausted. Scared. Angry. Holding back the need to dissolve into a little puddle of self-pity. Still, her heart reacted to his confession.
He gave her that brief smile. This time it lit up his eyes. Only a small flash, but it was there. “You have a tremendous amount of compassion in you. You’re soft inside,sivamet. That will be something I’ll bend over backward to protect.”
She knew he was right. She felt emotions intensely. She had from the time she was a child. His fingers in her hair wreaked havoc with her senses. She was too tired to fight her body’s reaction to him. She was going to crash hard. She knew she was, and she just didn’t care. She did care about what he needed from her.
“Say it,” she encouraged. “I’m not making promises, but I’ll try to help you.”
“I will warn you it is an unreasonable request, and I’m well aware of that fact.”
He was stalling. This confident, bordering-on-arrogant man was stalling, reluctant to tell her what his unreasonable request was. She could tell it meant something to him.
He straightened in one graceful move, a fluid, easy movement. Muscles rippled beneath his shirt, fascinating her. He very carefully removed the pack she still had around her neck and tossed it to the little table close to the hammock before shimmering nearly transparent and then materializing completely in the middle of the woven threads. Easily, he caught her around the waist and eased her body beside his.
She should have fought that far-too-intimate position, but she was just too tired. Instead, she cuddled up to his warmth, and when he took her wrist to draw her arm across his waist, she let him.
“I would very much like you to help me out by not speaking mind to mind to Luiz, or any other man, without inviting me into the conversation.”
