silken black bra.
Shaken, he redoubled his efforts to concentrate. He wanted to convince her of this. And to be honest, he wanted to impress her. 'And what about the Grandfather Paradox? What happens when a time traveler has a quantum-mechanical intrusion with his past self or his ancestors?'
'What if he kills his own grandfather? Well, if one believes tachyons—'
'You know what a tachyon is?' he nearly shouted.
She hooked her shirt at her thumbs, readying it to pull on. While she was under the tight fabric, he heard her say, 'Subatomic particle. Travels faster than the speed of light.' He had closed his jaw by the time she'd drawn it on all the way.
'How do you understand these things?' And how could this blooding be so precise?
'My dad was a god, and they tend to be quick like that. I inherited.'
'Of course.' He didn't like to be reminded of this. Riora had asked him, 'Do you have any idea how high you reach for one such as her?' Yes, Riora. Yes, I do. Every day, he had a better idea, and it was killing him. He shook himself. 'Tachyons are hypothetical. Their existence would threaten laws of science—'
'Like radioactivity did?' she asked in a mild tone, glancing up from lacing her boots to cast him a too-pleasant smile.
He exhaled a long breath. She was referring to a time in the early nineteen hundreds when physicists couldn't account for the phenomenon of radioactivity. They had to remain confused, embattled, until the theory of quantum mechanics was proposed.
'Clever analogy,' he said, beyond impressed. Had she convinced him? No, there were dozens of other arguments to prove one couldn't go back into the past to change the future. But never had he been so glad to agree to disagree; he'd die if he didn't kiss her.
27
Sebastian lunged for her, grabbing her upper arms and tumbling with her back onto the bed.
'What are you doing?' Kaderin demanded, but couldn't manage to sound angry enough—not when she'd been willing him to do this ever since she'd touched his gorgeous, still dampened chest.
After last night, she knew all of him was gorgeous.
She hadn't missed his heated looks while she dressed, but apparently talk about science had pushed him to the boiling point—she could feel his thick erection pressing into her. Science. She should have suspected—she'd seen all those texts in his castle, and they weren't exactly beach reads.
He sat up over her, pinning her arms above her head. In the cave, and even last night, he'd demonstrated his strength. Now, with her arms pinned, she again imagined him taking her—hard, with that rugged, flexing body...
She frowned. This morning, he'd told her, 'My size has not put me in good stead with women.' She believed this was one of his understatements, and suspected a woman—or women—had hurt him. So why did she now feel an overwhelming urge to claw the silly bitch's eyes out?
'Kiss me, Katja.' His face was so handsome, rested. He seemed on the verge of grinning. Irresistible.
'Why would I want to do that?' she asked in a breathy voice.
'You like kissing me, Valkyrie.' He sounded proud.
Oh, Freya, she did.
And then he did grin. 'Christ, I enjoy being with you.' A heart-stopping curving of his lips, showing his even white teeth and scarcely visible fangs against his forever tanned skin. Don't look at him. She was being charmed, warming so much to him, and she cast about for things to hate. He drinks blood. He drinks blood. He bites!
'You have to like being with me,' she reminded him. 'I'm your Bride.'
He released her wrists and sat up. 'Of course, it's mystical compulsion that's making me so attracted to you. Not the fact that you just gave me a good look at how your mind works and I admired what I saw. And it couldn't be because last night you gave me the most sexual pleasure I've ever had.'
She studied his earnest expression. 'Was it really?'
'Before last night and that first morning with you? By miles,' he admitted quietly. She believed him, though she couldn't understand it. They hadn't even had sex. Surely he'd had women fawning over him, wanting to please him in any way. Yes, he seemed shy at times, but he'd also been a sexy, intelligent aristocrat and then a master soldier.
If she'd met him when he was still a shy mortal, she'd have cornered him in a hay barn and had her wicked way with him.
'What about you, Katja?' His voice went deeper. 'Tell me I pleasured you well last night.'
So much for shy. Now she was the one blushing and averting her face.
'Kiss me, or tell me. One of the two to get me to let you go.'
She made a sound of frustration. 'You know you did—you were there. We almost crashed the plane with lightning!'
He leaned down and rumbled against her neck, 'What a way to go.'
'Why would you ask me that?'
He drew back. 'Because my plan is to make you need me for this. If you feel lust'—he pressed a kiss against her collarbone—'I want you automatically to seek me to ease it.'
He was so arrogant and yet unsure, forthright but furtive. And gods help her, the contradictions fascinated her. 'And what about you?' she asked.
He grazed the backs of his fingers along her cheek. 'You know I'll never want another.'
'Why... why did you want to die?' She didn't know where the question came from, but suddenly she burned to know the answer. Why had he been alone?
'I... didn't necessarily want to die. I just didn't see the point in living.' At her frown, he added, 'I will explain this to you. One day. But I still don't know how I feel about that situation.'
She looked away. 'It's fine. You don't have to.'
He pressed his hand against her cheek, tenderly, coaxing her to face him again. 'I will tell you. In time. Anything you wish. I want there to be no secrets between us, because I'm going to... marry you.'
'What? Whoa!' She scrambled away from him, real fear coursing through her. This was exactly why the night before shouldn't have happened. Or even this morning when they'd been getting ready together. They'd been behaving just like a married couple readying for the office, one of those couples who pass a mug of coffee and a bagel between them. Well, except that she and Sebastian didn't eat or have an office.
But she hadn't seen the topic of marriage coming up—not so soon. Panic. No more playing with the vampire. 'You can't marry me! I'm... I'm a pagan!' she babbled.
This was all insanity, anyway.
I'm going to die. And if I don't die, then I'll succeed in retrieving my sisters—
A sudden realization robbed her of breath.
If she saved them, she would change history. And Kaderin would never even know Sebastian.
'And I was Catholic,' he said slowly, brows drawn in confusion. 'I still want to marry you.'
Stumbling from the bed, she swooped up her things, stuffing items into a bag. Was she shaking? 'Look, Sebastian, am I attracted to you? Yep, you got me. I'm not going to lie. Last night was... enjoyable. I'm glad it happened. But that doesn't mean that it will happen again. Much less that I will wed you.'
'What could make it so that you would?'
'My absolute belief that I would want to spend eternity with you. Immortals really have to be careful with this, you understand, and you and I have never even had a civil conversation before today. And honestly, I don't trust you, and I can't turn off a lifetime of beliefs in the course of two weeks.'
'Why not just try life with me?'
'Because unturned vampires are like nuclear bombs. The bomb itself is not a bad thing. The damage it's capable of is the bad thing. In any event, you still don't want one in your backyard.'
'Give me a chance to prove you wrong.'
