Forged: The World of Nightwalkers (25 page)

“No, lass, doona be afraid of me. I’ll no’ hurt you.”

“Don’t tell me to not be afraid! I’m afraid, okay? You come in here all intense and hostile and maybe it makes me weak or pathetic or whatever, but unlike you I’m human and unlike you I’m mortal and unlike you when
two big men who are part wild animal start growling at each other I’m really freakin’ afraid!”

“I dinna say you’ve no cause for fear, thrown into this situation you find yourself a part of, but you dinna need tae be fearing
me
. For I’ll no’ hurt you. In fact, I’ll protect you. I’ll protect you from all of this you’ve been thrust into.” He made sure she saw the shame in his features. “Thrust into by me.”

She hesitated, but he could still see her white-knuckled grasp on the door handle. She glanced over at Ihron, who wisely raised his hands and backed away from the situation. Good thing, too, because Ahnvil wasn’t sure he wasn’t still of a mind to kill him for touching her.

He didn’t examine the ferocity of the feeling. He was there to protect her, at all costs, and he would not fail her. Not her. Not this time.

“I swear tae you,” he vowed deeply, making sure she felt the depth of it. “I will no’ let anything happen tae you.”

“B-but … 
you’re
happening to me,” she said shakily. “You’re
always
happening to me! Every time I turn around you’re there doing something that pushes me and pushes me! I haven’t had a single second to catch my breath before you’re there
again!
Ihron wasn’t doing anything!”

“He was!”

“He wasn’t!” she yelled at him, suddenly forgetting about the door, forgetting all about her fear and lunging up into his face. “We were
talking!
I was upset. He touched me to reassure me, which is a hell of a lot more than I can say for you!”

To his shock she reached out and stabbed him in his chest with her finger to punctuate the accusation … right before she shook it out and muttered, “Ow,” under her breath. Apparently poking him hard had hurt her,
whereas he’d hardly felt a thing. It just made him all the more aware of how fragile she was.

“I brought you here tae protect you!”

“I don’t need protection! I don’t want your protection!”

“You’re a damn fool if you really think that!” he shouted back at her. “Do you think I’d go through all this trouble for my own amusement?”

“Oh, so now I’m a fool, right? I’m trouble. And how am I supposed to know what goes on inside that thick skull of yours?” She scoffed at him. “Fool. You know what, I
am
a fool,” she agreed suddenly. “I’m a fool for ever trying to help you in the first place! I knew
you
were trouble the minute I laid eyes on you, but nooooo … I had to get all Good Samaritan. And now look at me!”

“You’re safe behind protected walls with nigh over a half-dozen immortals to protect you.”

“I—” She cut herself off and looked at him funny for a minute, clearly taking stock of the picture from his perspective for that minute.

“Aye, that’s it, lass. Go on and think on it for a moment. I canna help that you were the one tae find me in those woods, and I canna help that by helping me you’ve thrust yourself in the middle of a war. But I wouldna have left you behind for trackers tae find so they could torture answers out of you in order tae find me. Think what you like, but I couldna have that on my conscience. I’ve a damn site too much on it as it is. Enough blood has been spilt for my benefit already, and I’m sick tae death of it.” He turned from her and glared at Ihron. “Doona put your hands on her again if you know what’s good for you. We’re friends, you and I, and I’d like it to stay such. But doona touch her again unless ’tis to save her life. Am I making myself clear?”

“Crystal,” Ihron said. Then he turned his back on them both and left the room through the other door. He
shut the door behind himself, leaving them closed into the room together.

She had her arms crossed under and over her breasts, in a kind of self-induced hug. Her eyes seemed so large in her delicate face and he was angry with himself for putting that fear in her life.

“I’ll be going, too,” he said quietly, turning to do just that.

There was something defeated in the sketch of his body and in the vitality of his normally bold presence in a room. It was as though something key to what he was had just abandoned him. She didn’t have to be especially intuitive to feel it.

“Wait,” she said, rolling her eyes, wondering why she was such a glutton for punishment. She should just let him go. She should just push him away and keep him away until she could figure a way out of the mess her life had become. “I’ll go. This is your house …”

“
Our
house,” he corrected clearly more harshly than he intended. “Damn it!” He ran a hand back through the thick, black waves of his hair, growling in frustration. “You doona understand! I canna … I just canna …” He floundered, looking so helpless that she felt another twang of sympathy for him. Then he looked at her hard, his fierce golden topaz eyes pinning her to the spot. “It’s no’ all about protecting you,” he said intensely. “I … you ken I’m … I’m wanting you fiercely bad, lass. In ways I have no right tae feel. If I had an ounce of sense or honor I’d leave off you and that would be the end of it, but I just canna seem tae make myself! I take one look at your bonny face or that delicious body you’re constantly trying to hide away from me and … you just doona get it. They’ve yet tae make an article of clothing effective enough tae keep your beauty under wraps. There’s nothing that’ll hide the lush scent of you from my senses. There’s no way for you tae erase the way you’ve felt in
my arms, knowing that just a kiss can light you tae fire like kindling. How can I know all of that,
feel
all of that, and then just be expected tae walk away? I’m no’ that noble and I’ve never claimed tae be. I’m selfish, Kat. Selfish enough tae want you for myself. Myself and no other.”

He reached out, lifting a hand as if to push back that lock of hair that always seemed to catch his attention, but he stopped himself and drew back. When he turned she leapt for him, grabbing for the hand he’d just tried to touch her with.

“No, wait! Please!” She pulled on him, but he kept moving away from her.

“Just let me go now.”

“Ahnvil, stop!”

“Jesus, woman! I’m giving you your freedom! Do you bloody want it or no’?”

“No!”
What?

“What?” he echoed, sounding equally shocked aloud as she had in her own head.

“I mean …” What did she mean? “I mean … I’ve never … I mean …” When he went to move again she said hastily, “I mean I’ve never had anyone think about me like that before!”

Well, that was true. All of her life she’d been “Little Kat.” Tiny, dwarfish, weird little Kat. Freakish. Sometimes sassy. Sometimes brilliant, given a good moment. But … desirable? Never. Irresistible? Absolutely not. But to listen to him say it, he thought she was the most desirable, irresistible woman on the entire earth. And as scared as he made her feel sometimes, it was nothing compared to how those words made her feel. That she made him feel strongly, that it moved him to make rash choices and behave irrationally. He scared her mostly because she didn’t know what in hell to do with that! What to do with
him
.

As he turned to look at her, his face and expression
were entirely incredulous. Her heart thumped upward in her chest, leaping into a dance of delight just to see it. He truly believed his words! He wasn’t just saying things for the sake of getting on her good side, but he truly believed them. It was written all over his handsome visage, his bright eyes burning with it as he closed the distance between them once more, reaching for her, ringing the back of her neck with a strong hand and pulling her forward slightly … yet not enough to come into contact with him. Just enough to make certain she was looking into his eyes.

“I canna believe this is true,” he said, his sentiment so low, making the
r
on the word “true” spin hard on his tongue. “That the world can be so blind. Anyone can just look at you and see how fine you are. Any man wi’ blood in his veins can see the lush weight of your breasts and the wicked curve of your arse and start to feel his blood boil hot wi’ need of you. Aye, you’re a tiny thing by and by, but you pack a lot in this fine li’le package.”

For the first time in her life she felt the honest truth of those words blossom inside of her, making her entire body curve toward him in newfound sensuality, wanting to tempt him as he said he was tempted, needing to wield that power over him.

“What else do you like about me?” she asked, hearing the breathy nature of her voice and pleased with the sound of it. It too sounded suddenly sexy to her ears and she hoped it sounded the same to his.

“Good God woman, doona speak tae me so. I’ll be fixating on every last part of you then craving you as I go. ’Tis all I can do from this moment tae next tae keep my hands from you. You made me promise no’ tae … tae touch you like that. I may be many bad things by and by, but I’m a creature of my word and I will no’ go back on it wi’out your permission, as I’ve said before.”

“Yes, as you’ve said before,” she breathed softly. “And before I wanted you to be that man. But right now … right now I don’t want you t-to keep your word anymore.”

It was by far the most provocative, most dangerous thing she’d ever said. She knew what he was, knew the world he was from, and yet she was inviting him into her. Inviting him to do his worst and his best. She began to breathe hard as she recalled the heat of his body and the bold passion of his touch before she had set limitations. It was awesome and shocking to realize she wanted that more than anything. She wanted him to overwhelm her with his hunger.

“Och, lass! You canna say such things tae me! You doona ken what you’re saying!” He dragged her into the press of his huge body, towering over and around her until she felt very small and very fragile indeed. He was breathing hard, and she knew this because he had burrowed his face against her neck once again and the hot spill of his breath was swift and fierce. “Jesus, you smell so good,” he rumbled. “Can no’ you see? Just the smell of you has me running away from myself and has me mad wi’ need of you.” To prove his point he ran a hand down her arm, gripped her hand in his and brought it to the front of his jeans, to the raging hard erection lying just beneath the denim. He used her hand to rub himself hard, used her to put pressure against himself. There was nothing about him that could be considered even remotely small, this least of all, and she had to admit that frightened her, but not half as much as it excited her. She uncurled her fingers, cupping them around him and pressing her palm into him of her own accord. She could feel the heat of him burning against her palm and now she was the one breathing hard and he was the one catching his breath in a gasp.

“Ah fuck,” he groaned, that guttural tone returning
with a vengeance. “If this be a game, lass, you’ll be sore regretting it in another minute or two.” He drew back far enough to catch up her gaze with his own. The sight of the fire that was burning in his eyes took her breath away.

“I … I’m not saying I want to … to … Not yet I mean. But I want to … I want you to …”

“You want me tae want you,” he ground out. “You want tae cocktease me, no? ’Tis a dangerous pastime, Katrina Haynes. And I can make no promises of controlling myself. I’m a beast, Kat. Was once a man, but now … I’m a beast and I’m starting tae look on you as a mate … Hell, I have been for a while now. Why else would I work so hard tae respect whatever you wish of me that was in my power tae give tae you?”

“I’m not …” Kat flushed so hotly she was afraid her face would burst into flame. “I’m not trying t-to … t-to tease you. I didn’t mean …”

“I speak plainly, and that is what it is. Maybe no’ with the conniving connotations the term sometimes implies, I ken you’re no’ like that. But you’re afraid of me yet. Afraid, but curious. Afraid but hungry for what I can give you.” He leaned into the press of her hand again, his eyes shuttering closed a moment as a low groan filtered up from deep in his chest. “Verra well then. I’ll take whatever you can give me and give whatever you can take of me. But I’ll warn you now. I’ll press you. I’ll press for what I want every single moment I can. If that scares you then best you back out now, though I’m no’ sure I can let you go even so.”

She swallowed noisily. “I don’t want to back out. And I think I can hold my own. I have so far.”

“Ah, do you now?” A darkly devious smile spread over his lips a moment before he yanked her off her feet and strode into the next room, then up the stairs … all the way until they were back in his bedroom. Her heart
was thundering louder and louder every step of the way, but never as loud as when he threw her down onto the bed so hard her body would have caught air if not for the fact that his weight came down on her immediately after. He propped himself up over her with his weight leaning on one arm. He straddled one of her legs and with a powerful hand he pulled her thigh up into the seat of his jeans, rubbing himself against her. “I’ll make you a deal, Kat lass. You keep doing this tae me, tae keep me busy let’s say, and I’ll be doing other things tae keep
you
busy.”

“O-otherwise?” she hitched out nervously.

“Nothing for you tae fear, Kat lass. Nothing at all.” His free hand came up and he touched her, two fingers, in the hollow of her throat. Such a sensitive, vulnerable part of her, and he touched it with a soft sort of reverence. Then he drifted those two fingers down to her breastbone, slowly riding the length of it until he reached the edge of her shirt. She watched breathlessly, anticipating, waiting. His big fingers slipped the button free with a whisper of sound and an incredible lightness of touch. One might expect a man as big as he was to be ham-handed and brutish, but whenever she expected it to be that way he proved her wrong with this grace and gentility.

“I’m going tae touch you, Kat lass. Slow-like and as long as you’ll let me. Tell me that’s what you want.”

“I do,” she breathed in a rush, sounding overly eager to her own ears. It was probably why he chuckled. But she couldn’t make herself feel embarrassed about that. She was too far beyond embarrassment. She probably had been since she’d first seen him naked in her house. Naked and male and erect and dominant and … “Oh my,” she whispered.