Finally she eased past him anyway. “Enjoy your shower.”
* * *
Lucian moved into the bathroom, acutely aware of what Claire was feeling. This was perhaps the hardest part of the chain-bond, that he always knew what was going on with her. He’d felt her distress as she moved by him, and he thought he understood. She feared getting close, getting attached—and maybe for the first time in his life he felt the same way.
He turned the water on and stepped inside the enclosure. The warm water flowing over his short hair and down his shoulders, chest, and back was a soothing balm. Most of the cramping was gone, at least for now, though he knew he’d need Claire’s blood again within the next few hours.
He just wished another woman would do for the blood service part of their arrangement, as well as the sex. But the blood-chains seemed to invoke some kind of instinctive possessive response that he couldn’t override.
He didn’t want anyone else but Claire.
So what the hell were they supposed to do?
Neither of them wanted this level of connection. She wanted to go back to New Mexico and her family and he needed to be free to continue working on behalf of his society.
He’d always kept his liaisons with women on a strictly superficial level. At the very least, a man ought to know his limitations, especially where women were concerned. He had no interest in hurting Claire or any female, but if he got much closer, yeah, he’d hurt her, emotionally if not physically.
By the time he left the shower, he’d shored up his resolve to do all that he could not to make a mess of things. He wrapped a towel around his waist, feeling more confident. But when he left the bathroom, the mere sight of Claire overturned his resolve. Even with her hair damp, she looked so beautiful that his lungs seized.
She wore snug black jeans and a double set of tank tops, one cut low and hanging off her left shoulder. She looked damn sexy as she moved in the direction of the dresser. Even in profile she was beautiful. Despite looking away, desire rushed through him so fast that he coughed and sputtered.
“You okay?”
“Sure. Fine.”
She settled her brush on the dresser and turned to meet his gaze. “I called Rumy and ordered breakfast for us. I probably should have asked for your preferences.”
He waved a dismissive hand. “I’m sure whatever you chose will be fine.”
“Good.” She smiled. “And as for me, I think I’d eat anything right now. I’m so hungry, probably because I’ve been feeding you.”
He wished she hadn’t said that. He looked anywhere but at her because the thought of sinking his fangs in her neck or her wrist, or a dozen other places he could think of, sharpened his needs all over again.
In an effort to distance himself, he searched for his battle leathers and slipped them on. He added a long-sleeved black T-shirt and steel-toed boots. He was now ready for whatever came at them next.
Chapter 5
When breakfast arrived, Claire sat opposite a very quiet vampire. She worked her way through a wonderful spinach-and-mushroom omelet while Lucian ate waffles that he speared into bites stacked three high.
And he’d stopped talking to her.
He didn’t look at her, either.
Just keeping things simple.
She sipped her coffee and sighed, but the silence didn’t seem like a solution. “I like the clothes Rumy provided for me. He really takes care of the details.”
“Yes, he does.” His gaze shot to the shirt hanging low off her shoulder. He kept chewing, then speared another section of three-high waffles, sliced it off from behind with a knife, and in they went.
Earlier, Lucian had called Rumy and arranged for them all to meet in Rumy’s office to plan their next move. “Did Rumy say anything else when you talked to him? Anything about Daniel’s tip line, for instance?”
Lucian shook his head but remained focused on his meal. He looked so damn serious.
He also looked sexy as hell, which she decided was not hard for him at all. She liked his short hair; parts were almost spiked but not quite. His face had a faint stubble, and the dark blue, long-sleeved T-shirt he wore really set off his smoky eyes.
This close, and with him looking away from her, she was free to just take him in. There were permanent tension lines around his eyes. She was pretty sure Lucian held himself together by sheer force of will.
She wondered what would happen if he ever really let loose. What would that even look like? Who would he be?
She blinked and recalled what it had been like riding him. These were errant, dangerous thoughts, of course, because suddenly her mind was full of the sight of him beneath her, before he’d put his fangs on her neck, before he’d almost drained her dry.
You were exquisite.
His gaze flashed to hers. “What?”
Had she spoken? She hadn’t meant to, but the word had slipped from her mind, aimed at his. “Nothing.”
He scowled. “What’s with the rich scent you’re throwing at me? I thought you wanted to keep things simple.”
She blinked at him, then glanced down at her omelet. Using the side of her fork, she cut off another section. “I want you to know that though parts of what happened over the past twenty-four hours have horrified me, other parts were incredibly beautiful. Sex, for one thing.” She chuckled and felt her cheeks grow warm. “I mean before you almost killed me.”
Glancing at him, she saw a shard of guilt pierce his eyes and she regretted her words. She shot a hand forward and grabbed his wrist. “I am totally teasing you about that. And you didn’t kill me.”
“I could’ve. Hell, I almost did.” He looked panicky, and the chain vibrated on her neck heavily. “I was out of control.”
She held back a smile. “Well, think of it this way. If you’d succeeded, because of the chains, you would have died as well, so justice would have been served.”
At that, his lips quirked. “You have the strangest way of looking at things.”
She laughed. “I guess I do. Maybe it’s from having taken care of a kid for two years. We played video games a lot, and the movies he thought were the funniest drove me crazy and might have affected my ability to reason. Imagine.”
He seemed to relax. He even separated the three-part stack so that he only ate two segments at a time. “I want you to know that I will do everything in my power to make sure you get home. I know we have a mountain to climb between finding the extinction weapon and rescuing Zoey, but we’ll get this done.”
She nodded. Suddenly tears touched her eyes. “I’ve missed my family so much, my mom and dad, my brothers, even their horrible teasing.” A vivid memory came to her about how she’d go into the bathroom and when she came out, both her brothers would be waiting there as though standing in line. Her mother would just laugh when she complained.