Read Online Blood Ties by Amelia Elias - Free Book Online Page B

thought revived hot memories of the
first time he’d awakened with her in his bed. “I’d have screwed
your brains out,” he assured her. “Repeatedly, if you’d done any of
those things.”
    She laughed softly and shifted so she could
look up at him. “I suppose you’d probably like me to tell you if I
love you now?”
    “It’d be nice, yes.”
    She smiled. “What if I decide to make you
wait as long as you made me wait?”
    Orion lunged, tumbling her onto her back and
pinning her before she could so much as gasp. “Then I’m afraid I’d
have to screw your brains out,” he growled. “Repeatedly.”
    “Oh, there’s a wicked threat,” she laughed,
wiggling beneath him. “I’d hate that.”
    He glowered at her. “Kira…” he growled
warningly.
    She reached up and cupped his face in her
hands. “I love you,” she said, letting him see it in her eyes. “And
I don’t ever want to have to feed from another man, do you hear me?
I don’t care what happens. I’m not biting anyone but you and if you
don’t like it --”
    He silenced her with a kiss. It started soft
and sweet but when she sighed and tightened her thighs around his
hips, it became progressively wilder until he finally had to break
away for air. “I like that idea just fine,” he panted, already
wanting her again. “There’s only one problem.”
    Her warm smile faded a little. “What’s
that?”
    “You’re still a fledgling, sweetheart. You
need more than I can provide on my own.” He kissed her forehead.
“We’ll work around it. You can always bite women. If I have to,
I’ll feed for both of us.”
    She relaxed. “I thought you were going to say
something about the Nighthawks.”
    The word was like a splash of cold water,
robbing him of his peace. What was he thinking, making plans for a
life with her while Gregori and Barrett and the rest of the Clan
were still hunting him? He took a deep breath and blew it out as he
rolled to the side, no longer pinning her down. “We do need to talk
about them, actually,” he said reluctantly.
    Kira sat up and made a face. “I knew I
shouldn’t have said that,” she sighed. “You always go all serious
and cranky when they come up.”
    “It’s because it’s a serious subject, and I’m
not cranky.” She stuck her tongue out at him in a gesture that
reminded him strongly of how she used to tease him until she got a
reaction before Barrett’s attack. He pinched her, smiling when she
jumped, before reaching down to pull up his jeans. “Kira, we need
to decide what to do. You need to decide what you want to do.”
    Her light mood, already fading, died
altogether. “I already don’t like where this conversation is
heading.”
    He sat beside her and took both her hands.
“Gregori won’t stop hunting me while I’m within his territory,” he
said. “I can’t best him in battle -- he’s over a thousand years old
and his power is legendary -- and I won’t rejoin him, which means
the only solution is to leave his territory. I don’t have a choice
in that, but you do.”
    “Are you trying to tell me you want me to go
play house with the Clan and watch you ride off into the sunset?”
she demanded, incredulous.
    “No, that’s not what I want,” he said,
squeezing her hands. “But it’s a choice you have. I don’t offer you
an easy life, Kira. Before this, I was merely an outsider, but if I
ignore this summons -- and that’s what Barrett’s attack was, a
summons -- I’ll be an outcast. The Nighthawks will swear a blood
feud on me and try to kill me on sight. No other Clan will want me
in their territory. Should you be with me, they would attack you
first, knowing that you are my weakness, the best way to destroy
me. Even alone I might only escape notice for a year, or I might
stay hidden for a century, but eventually I will be forced to
relocate or fight, over and over.”
    He hated saying this, but he had to tell her
the truth. “You will be safer here than you’d be with