Page 64 of Bond of Passion

He turned, pegging her with icy eyes. “You seem to be taking this a little personally.”

Crap. Time to take her outrage down a notch. She would have to work on controlling her emotions. His ability to sense strong feelings from her through the bond was already proving to be a pain in the ass.

“I guess I’m still a little rattled by the whole vengeance thing I walked in on,” she said, and it wasn’t totally a lie. That entire situation had been horrific, and she couldn’t get it out of her head. Her father had once told her to shove traumatic stuff into a mental bag and seal it, but her bag always seemed full of holes. “I don’t like seeing anyone or anything get tortured. Not even you.”

“Not even me? What’s that supposed to mean?”

Shit. Taking control of her emotions—and mouth—was going to be more difficult than she’d thought. She affected a smile.

“I’m joking, Tavin.”

“Oh. Sorry. Guess I’m still rattled too.” He swung away from the window. “Did you mean what you said about not liking torture? Or was that a joke too?”

She probably shouldn’t have said that. She was trying to be a different person than the female he’d killed. As good as her disguise was, it wasn’t foolproof, especially if she kept dropping personal details that might sound familiar to him.

“So, what if it wasn’t? Does not wanting to see people in pain make me a bad demon?”

He covered the distance between them in half a dozen strides. His big body dominated the space, forcing her to look up to meet his possessive gaze. Gods, he took her breath away. Her pulse pounded as she stood there, immobilized by the pull of his admiration and the waves of affection that flowed through the bond.

“Your empathy makes you an anomaly in our society. It means you have to be stronger than everyone else in order to survive in a world that calls you weak.” His eyes glinted with a fierce light, making his rugged features even harsher, like the distant cliffs. “Life has taught me that it takes more strength to live with intense feelings than it does to hide behind a wall of indifference.” Slowly, almost tentatively, he cupped her cheek, his touch a mere whisper on her skin. Her body shouldn’t have sparked to life again, but it did. “You remind me so much of someone.”

Warmth surrounded her, flooding in from the bond. The power of it, which she could only call love, left her mesmerized, completely overwhelmed as she whispered, “Who?”

Abruptly, the sensual light in his eyes snuffed out, and the warmth of his affection turned icy.

“Want some food?” He spun away and started out of the room. “I make a mean can of chili.”

“Tavin—”

“Yeah, yeah, I owe you. But we moved off the original topic. And I’m hungry.”

He disappeared into the kitchen, and she let him go. He was overwhelmed, and he wasn’t alone. He’d just knocked her completely off balance and unable to fathom that this male was the one who had killed her.

She needed a minute to catch her breath. A shower, a call to one of her friends… something, anything to help her unscramble her thoughts.

Because it was starting to occur to her that she might not be able to kill Tavin.

Worse, she was mated to him. And that was very much not part of The Plan.