His eyes had turned a liquid onyx rimmed with silver. How did anybody coming across him think for a second that he could be human? There was nothing human about Adare. He was something more. Much more.
She moved to scoot off his lap.
“Oh, no.” He wrapped an arm around her waist, holding her in place with almost no effort. “We’re doing this. Put your wrist on your thigh.”
The torture of pain turned to another, entirely different, torture. Desire rippled through her, stopping at every place she didn’t want associated with the arrogant Highlander. “Fine.” She set her damaged wrist on her thigh.
“Good. Now imagine my blood, full of healing cells, going right to that broken bone.”
She closed her eyes to concentrate. As soon as she healed herself, she could get off his lap. So she followed his directions, imagining bossy marching little cells going toward her wrist. The bone snapped back into place, and she jumped, crying out.
“It’s okay.” His rough voice became soothing. “That was the difficult part. Now send more cells, and they’ll take care of the swelling and bruising. Those won’t hurt at all.”
If she didn’t get off him, she was going to turn and attack him full on, her mouth on his, and damn the consequences. He really had no clue how sexy he was, even though he was an ass usually. Why did bad boys do it for her? Because of the coma, her memories of her prior life were hazy and still came in spurts, but she did remember more than a couple of tough guys in her past.
“Grace? You still with me?”
“Yes.” Eek. Her mind had totally wandered. Heat from his body and the fire surrounded her, and the urge to snuggle into the safety of his iron hard chest was almost too much to resist. But he didn’t want anything to do with her, and she had to keep that humiliating fact front and center in her brain. No self-respecting woman wanted a male only because his brother had mated her sister and he’d agreed to do his duty and protect her. Taking a deep breath, she utilized whatever the heck healing cells were and fixed her wrist.
“Nicely done.” The approval in his tone washed over her skin, prickling awareness.
She opened her eyes. “For a weak and fragile mere human.”
He blinked, his eyes back to the full dark of night. “Weak? No. Fragile, yes.”
They really needed to get a couple of things straight. “Listen, Adare. I don’t like being treated as an unwanted responsibility, and you have to stop thinking of me as such.” She really should get off his thighs.
He studied her face, the impact of his gaze nearly physical. “You are my responsibility.”
“I am not,” she burst out.
He rubbed her shoulder, near her nape, probably unconsciously. “Of course, you are. I mated you, bite and brand, when you were in a coma. You didn’t have a choice, and your current circumstances are a result of my actions.”
What? She tilted her head. “You saved my life.”
“Aye, but you might’ve wanted to move on to the next one, and I took that choice away from you. Probably for a long time. So you’re here, in this life, and you can’t be mated to another being, and you can’t ever be physical with another male because of the mating allergy. It’s not an easy life I subjected you to, without your knowledge or agreement.” An emotion, a real one, glittered in his eyes for the briefest of moments before being snuffed out.
There was so much in that one statement, she didn’t know where to start. He feltguiltyabout saving her life? “You believe in the afterlife?” Might as well start there.
“Of course,” he said, moving to massage her nape and relieve the tension in her neck. “It’s impossible to think that this is all there is, right?”
Wow. Okay. Hadn’t expected that one. “As for the mating allergy, your facts are outdated.” When one immortal mated another, they both ended up with some weird allergy that meant they couldn’t be touched, for more than a few seconds, by a member of the opposite sex, or a devastating reaction occurred.
He sighed. “I’m well aware of the virus that negates the mating bond, but it has only been utilized in situations where a mate has been deceased for at least a century.”
“So what?”
“The prevailing theory is that with the mate gone, the strength of the mating bond slowly dissipates, making it easier for the virus to finish it.” He stopped the massage, and she wanted to protest.
“You’ve looked into it?” That shouldn’t have hurt, it really shouldn’t have. So why did her chest feel as if she’d taken a punch?
“Just in case you found somebody else you wanted to spend eternity with.” The charm of his rueful smile was too much to take.
Rumor had it that Adare had had his heart broken a century ago or so by a female shifter who’d chosen somebody else, which just seemed impossible. “Oh. What about your finding somebody else? Some badass immortal who isn’t so fragile?” She might have sounded a little bitter on the last part.
“No. The final battle, the one we’re gearing up for, will result in too many deaths to be looking for mates.”
She shook her head. “Your brother warriors, the Seven, are all getting mated, so they must have some hope of surviving.”
