Amusement filled Kyren’s eyes instead of contrition, making me even more annoyed.
“Look, I know you want to help but…” I shook my head and stepped back putting distance between us, “…all this bloodshedhas to stop. I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself. I don’t need you to go killing everyone who insults me or gets too handsy.”
Before I could get any further from him, a shadow wrapped around my waist and before I knew it I was the one pinned against the mirror with Kyren’s face barely an inch from mine.
Hands braced on either side of my head, he pressed the length of his body against mine, needlessly keeping me in place, since his shadows still held me captive.
“Let’s get one thing straight,la mia.” His words were a low growl against my face that sent a shiver of pleasure down my spine. “I will never stop protecting you. Even if it’s only from drunken idiots.”
To calm my racing pulse, I took a deep breath which only caused me to inhale the smokey scent of him and I had to close my eyes to give myself a second to focus.
On one hand it was sweet, so very fucking disturbing, but sweet that Kyren wanted to take out anyone who would harm me physically or emotionally. On the other hand it was kind of getting out of hand.
I opened my eyes to focus on his face, and reminded him, “Professor Campbell wasn’t a threat to me.”
His palm cupped the side of my face, fingers sliding into my hair until he found the hair tie holding it up. I lifted my head from the mirror so he could pull it out, my curls falling around my face. “I love your hair. The way it bounces. The way it smells.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I’m all sweaty and gross. I doubt it smells very nice right now.”
Without warning, Kyren dipped his head and licked a long line of sweat off the side of my neck, moaning and sending jolts of heat between my thighs. “Every part of you is delicious.”
“Yeah, well,” I stumbled over my words, my mind becoming a jumbled mess of hormones. I shook my head, forcing myself tosnap out of it. “Hey, don’t think you can just change the subject. We have to talk about this.”
Kyren played with my hair, shifting it around my face, not meeting my gaze. “I didn’t kill her.”
I blinked. “You didn’t.”
“No,” Kyren’s gaze dropped to mine. “That doesn’t mean I didn’t give her plenty of incentive to talk though.”
I didn’t like the sound of that but hurt was definitely better than dead.
“But she’s still alive?”
Kyren leaned forward, putting his weight on his forearm, his forehead pressed against mine, a knee sliding between my thighs. “Yes.”
I’d have blown out a sigh of relief but nothing about this vampire was relaxing. Every moment, every word, every touch was overwhelming to where I didn’t know anything else but him. To have that all taken away one moment and now forced back onto me suddenly, it took some getting used to.
“Kyren,” I murmured, my eyes dropping to his lips and then back to his eyes. “What are you doing?”
His lips curled, his shadows caressing the bare skin showing between my leggings and crop top. “Seducing you, of course.”
Hypnotized by his lips, I found myself leaning toward him on my own even as I spoke against it. “But you hate me.”
He nipped at my top lip. “You know I don’t.”
“You have issues with my family,” I murmured, my hands curling the front of his sweater into my grip. He had far too many clothes on in comparison to me and it took everything in me not to remedy that right then and there.
Kyren rocked his knee against my center, making me gasp. “Do you really want to talk about this right now?”
No. Not really. But I didn’t want him to regret it later and then end up heart broken.
Instead of saying what I really felt, I told him, “We should probably clear the air before your dick is inside of me.”
Kyren chuckled darkly then scooped me up by the back of my thighs, pressing himself between them. My arms came up to wrap around his neck, fingers diving into his hair.
Instead of giving us both what we wanted, he kept some distance between our faces. “Kleon made me. He was everything to me for over a century.”
I frowned. My libido slowly cooled at the mention of my kidnapper’s name.
