Page 61 of Bond of Passion

It was a dermoire.

There was a dermoire on her arm.

“Tavin?” Staring at the markings, she shot up with a start. “Tavin, look!”

Very slowly, as if his skeleton couldn’t support his weight, Tavin sat up and touched his fingers to a band around his throat, a pattern of Sheoulic glyphs that hadn’t been there before.

“Yeah. I know.” He swung his legs off the other side of the bed and looked back at her with shame. “I—fuck, Deja, I’m sorry. I don’t know how it happened. Things were out of control, and I…shit.” His head dropped, hanging from his shoulders as he propped his forearms on his thighs. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

What was he talking about? Instinct had her reaching to comfort him, but dammit, she wasn’t supposed to feel bad for him. She was supposed to be happy that he was miserable. So, at the last second, she pulled back and let him stew.

It was getting harder and harder to do that, but she didn’t want to think about the reasons why. So, instead of comforting him, she studied her arm, running her finger over the various patterns.

“Sorry about what? What…exactly, does this mean?”

Silence stretched. Not even the sea birds outside made noise. Finally, Tavin heaved a deep breath.

“Your arm…my throat…they’re mate marks. They mean we’re mate-bonded,” he said to the floor. “It means we’ll be able to feel each other’s needs and strong emotions no matter where we are.”

Mate-bonded? How? What did he mean when he said they’d be able to feel each other’s needs? It seemed outlandish, but then… “I felt you earlier,” she blurted. “When we woke up. I knew you needed sex.”

“And I know you are freaked out right now.”

She paused, searching her thoughts and her senses. Oh, wow. She could…feel him. “And you are too.”

“Little bit.”

Yes, she was definitely picking up a trickle of…was that fear? Seemed to come through the bond he was talking about. “Why are you afraid?”

He cursed. “Because this bond puts my life in your hands.”

Oh, this sounded very promising. She perked up. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that you are the only female I can be with now. For the rest of my life. If you are somehow unavailable or leave me, I will die.”

Yikes. “Will I die too?” That would be bad.

“No.”

Whew. “What happens if I die?”

“I’ll die too.”

“Interesting,” she murmured, and he snorted.

“Not the word I would have used.”

No doubt. “But how did this happen? It didn’t happen before when—” She damned near swallowed her tongue. She’d almost said: It didn’t happen before when I was Gristlen. “Uh, it didn’t happen when you were with other females. So why now?”

There was a moment of silence, and then he turned to her. “When we came together, that first time after Sleeva left, did you feel…I don’t know, sparkly?”

She laughed even though that was exactly how she’d have described it. Through the intense pleasure, she’d felt an incredible effervescence in every cell, as if she were…sparkling.

“Sorry,” she said. “It’s just funny to think of a big, tough sex demon being…sparkly.”

One corner of his mouth tipped up in a lazy grin, and her heart fluttered. That mouth had given her at least an hour of pleasure and countless smiles last night.

“But you felt it?” he asked. “The sparkle?” At her nod, he appeared thoughtful. “I think it might have been an effect of the healing magic Sleeva passed to you.”