Athan’s jaw hardened. “Show me her week anyway.”
Her entire week? She wanted to shake her head, but shedidn’t want to face the ensuing pain. Even so, her heart started beating sofast her ribs hurt. How could he? How could he lie to her all these years? Howcould he make her think she was an independent woman, growing her life andbusinesses? Was any of it true? Had he interfered with all of it? She stood andwobbled slightly before planting her feet.
He slowly turned his head toward her, his eyes still thosedevastating and deadly colors. “Ivy, how’s your head?”
She clenched her fingers into fists. For a moment, herthroat was too hot to speak. She swallowed several times and lowered her chin,her voice shaking. “You fucking bastard.”
Chapter Four
Athan didn’t allow himself to outwardly react and insteadstudied his mate. She stood with her legs braced in her four-inch black heelswith their red soles, looking both furious and sexy in her formfitting funeraldress. Her strawberry-blond hair cascaded down her back, and the lump on herforehead, while still visible, seemed to be decreasing in size even more. Hereyes spit green fire, and a lovely Irish rose color had flushed her cheeks.
While she was truly the most gorgeous thing he’d ever seen,he probably couldn’t let her get away with calling him a bastard.
It was the first time in nearly a century and a half thathe’d heard her swear. For some reason, it intrigued him more than it angeredhim. Even so, the words didn’t sound natural coming from her sweet mouth.
He rubbed his jaw and mulled over the situation, noting hehadn’t shaved in a few days. “How is your temple?”
If anything, his question seemed to infuriate her further.Her body vibrated, and her little hands clenched into tight fists. He had nodoubt she’d punch him if he were within striking range. For some inexplicablereason, that did nothing but arouse him. The anger he’d been feeling about theattack earlier was quickly morphing into something else, something neither ofthem needed right now, especially since he was hunting a psychopathic Kurjandoctor who’d most likely just tried to kill him. Oh, it was the long game, andhe had a lot of time left in this hunt, but apparently, he and his brotherswere getting closer.
The entire room had gone quiet around them, but he caredlittle what anybody else thought. His focus was centered on the woman whoseemed to be battling a temper he hadn’t realized she had. Fascinating.
He didn’t look away from her as he issued orders to hissoldiers. “Bring up video from the entire week and then bring up my timeline.Let’s find out where these guys caught wind of us. Ivy, we’ll go talk.” Hestarted to move toward her.
If anything, she settled her stance firmer. “I’m not goinganywhere with you, dick—”
He cut her off before she could finish the sentence, duckinghis head and tossing her over one shoulder. With smooth strides, he continuedout of the control room with her struggling and fighting him, to little avail.While he’d given her immortality, there was no way to give her additionalstrength or speed. He planted an arm over her legs to keep her from kicking himin the stomach again and continued through the door and down the hallway to theliving quarters. It had been a while since he’d stayed here, and even then, ithad been to recuperate from a fight. He’d felt her near several times buthadn’t called on her. Through the years, he’d tried not to demand her bloodoutside of their schedule, which was now four times a year unless he was indire need.
It was becoming too difficult to stay away from her. Everytime they touched, he wanted to make her fully his, which wasn’t fair since hestill faced death daily. But having her squirming body over his shoulder sethis blood pounding with demand throughout his entire being. This wasn’t safefor either of them.
The words she spat at him were quite an intriguingcombination of curses and threats. A few were combined in a way he hadn’t heardin his long lifetime. Even as she punched him squarely in the kidneys, he foughthis grin. She couldn’t do any damage, but she was trying her hardest.
Kicking the door shut behind him, he flipped her over and plantedher in a chair in a nicely appointed living room. The bedroom was to the left,and he purposefully didn’t look that way. Right now, he had to keep both ofthem in check, and she was doing her best to make sure that didn’t happen.
She bunched her legs to bound out of the chair, and heplanted one hand on her shoulder, easily forcing her to remain in place. “Yousit and knock it off. I’ve had about enough of this.”
She growled then. It wasn’t quite a vampire-demon growl, butit sure as shit was rather impressive. “You ass—”
“Stop,” he snapped, putting command in his voice this time.“That’s the third time you’ve called me a name in less than a minute, and I’mdone with it. If you want to talk about this, we can do so. If you wish tocontinue acting the brat, you’ll be treated as such.” Her defiance was doingnothing but turning him on, and he needed to get control of the situation—andthem—before he lost all his good intentions.
She instantly turned and sank her teeth into his hand.
Pain flashed through his skin, and he jerked, startled.Blood welled from the flesh between his thumb and index finger, and he lookedat it, bemused. “You just bit me.”
She moved to stand, and this time he let her. “Get out of myway, Athan.” She shoved him in the abs, digging her fingers between them.
Oh, that was it. He let his fangs drop. “You want to bite,sweetheart? I bite back.” The marking on his palm heated and flared as ifdemanding that he finally plant it on her completely. She’d admitted that themarking had faded through the years, but he hadn’t seen it for himself.However, the marking on his hand had slowly darkened, so it made sense.
She tried to take a step away, but the chair hampered hermovements. She held out both hands to push him again, but her palms didn’t makecontact. He smoothly manacled both her wrists together and jerked her towardhim, leaning down until his nose almost touched hers. “You about done with thisdefiance?”
She tossed her head, and her nostrils flared. “Not evenclose.” She kicked him square in the ankle then, the sharp point of her fancyshoe nicking him right between bone and flesh.
At her show of temper, his calmed. One of them had to be incontrol, and it was most definitely him right now. “Oh, sweetheart,” he said,“that’s it.” He fell back onto the matching chair, pulling her with him. Whileanger had nearly ruled him earlier, logic and determination took hold now. Inone smooth movement, he pulled her to the side and down, flattening her overhis thighs.
Her startled yelp pleased him much more than it should have.
The woman had a delightful ass that had haunted his dreamsmore than once over the years. In the formfitting dress, the twin globes allbut tempted him to bite her and leave his mark on her butt. Instead, he liftedone hand and let it descend with a loud smack that echoed around the peacefulsuite.
She gasped, stiffened, and then began to struggle inearnest. “You son of a—”
