“I said Iwouldbe good, not that I’dalwaysbe good.”
He snorted. “I don’t think you could be good even if you really tried. You’ve got trouble in your soul.”
It was said playfully, in that dry tone she had begun to recognize as histeasing voice,but it still sent a tiny ripple of old pain down her spine. Her mother used to say something similar whenever she failed her lessons or had to stop a session with a pilgrim early.
Shaking her head, she would murmur,“You’ve got selfishness in your bones. The only way to cure it is to break them.”
She didn’t mean physically, of course. No empath could stomach hurting another being unless it was in self defense. But there were other ways to break a person, particularly when they were young — ways Atria had desperately agreed to again and again, so she could finally be rid of the stain that made her such a disappointment.
It didn’t work.
Dropping her eyes, Atria forced the painful memories back into the box they belonged in. They didn’t matter now, and it wasn’t like she particularly cared what Kaz thought of her. She was grateful for his help now that he was, in fact, helping her, but that didn’t make them best buddies. If he thought she was troublesome, then so be it.
She cleared her throat before saying, in a much more neutral tone, “Where are we going, exactly?”
“Right this second we’re not going anywhere in particular. We’re just putting distance between ourselves and the Patrol squad illegally searching Orclind territory for us.”
Her heart constricted with more than a touch of guilt when she imagined Theodore getting the news that they had disappeared. “I don’t suppose you can call your brother and tell him you decided to help me? I don’t like the idea of him worrying about what happened to us.”
“I’ll call him once we’re clear,” Kaz answered, tone softening. “He’s still going to try and hunt us down, but you’re right, he shouldn’t worry.”
She was relieved to hear it. “And what happens after we’re clear? Are we going to drive to the New Zone and then lay low, or…”
“First, we’re finding a place to stop and eat some breakfast. Then we’re going to drive some more.” He tilted his head in her direction. A lock of dark hair escaped his messy bun to fall over the tip of his pointed ear. She was absurdly tempted to reach over and tuck it away. “I should say,Iwill drive andyouwill talk.”
Her stomach sank. “About what?”
Those dark eyes cut to her again. A burst of something hot and bright rippled through the steady calm of his aura, but Atria scrambled to block it out before she could fully identify what it was. Oddly attuned to his emotions as she was, she had not been given permission to sift through them, and even if she had, she was smart enough to know that delving deeper would make this mad journey of theirs more complicated.
He was a mated man, after all. It wouldn’t do for her to go digging through his feelings to find things she didn’t want to see.
Kaz’s upper lip lifted just a bit, exposing his upper pair of fangs, when he answered, “You’re going to tell me everything about Norman Chambers.”
Despite her best efforts, the steadily lapping waves of his emotions managed to reach her. They were so…warm.Turbulent, yes, but not unpleasantly so. Kaz’s aura swirled around her in a current, tugging her in his direction.
He’s taken,she sternly reminded herself even as those treacherous butterflies took wing in her stomach once more.
It wasn’t his fault he was almost certainly the most beautiful man she’d ever seen, nor that he had a voice both melodic and delightfully rough. It was husky, but the kind of husky that could croon something sweet enough to make your heart race.
She could imagine that voice singing her to sleep — or whispering in her ear as he spread her thighs and thrust home.
Or both.
Familiar heat trickled into her veins, made all the hotter by the lust she could always feel radiating from him. It brought back vivid memories of their time in the bathroom, of his hot tongue between her thighs and the salty tang of his release on her lips.
Her kind were drawn to connection. Their magic needed an outlet, to know the comfort of meshing with another, and there was nothing quite as comforting for an empath as sex. Even when there was no love in it, there was connection and beautiful release.
Atria had let that part of herself wither. Science was not welcoming to those who needed coddling, and for a long time she’d survived off of Norman’s passion, discordant though it often felt. Since their separation, she’d been adrift and unwilling to seek out temporary partners.
And then there was Kaz, whose lust burned like liquid fire in her veins. Five minutes alone with him was all it took for her to throw a year of celibacy out of the window. If he hadn’t shown her his hands, she probably would have climbed into his lap, spread her legs, and used him until she couldn’t take it anymore.
She was a starving woman given crumbs. That little taste only made herhungrier.
Trying to wrangle impulses under control, Atria briefly closed her eyes. A part of her was desperate to know the story behind his kohl — that sad, needy part that maybe wouldn’t have such a problem with knowing he would always belong to someone else if she could claim him for even a moment.
The much larger, louder part of her absolutely, unequivocally did not want to know. It wouldn't allow her to speculate. It wasnother business.
Isn’t it strange, though,that needy part of her whispered,that this fierce, protective man wouldn’t be with his mate now? Isn’t it weird that he’d be attracted to you at all? Don’t you think it’s strange that he’d drop everything to help you?
