The guy wasn't just handsome—he was dangerously handsome.
"You could say good afternoon," he said with studied emphasis. "I believe it is now closer to the time period after the midpoint of your sun’s rise on Earth in your time zone."
Moreau reached out and cupped her chin in his slender hand, turning her gaze up to meet his. He smiled at her and then broadcast a sharp look to the two young men without translators. They both frowned their disapproval, but turned to her and nodded their leave.
"Alone at last." Moreau's words were heavy with meaning. Olivia felt a tingle from where his hand touched her skin zinging along every nerve in her body, a sensation of delicious anticipation. "I must ask you a question," he continued. "Would you be willing to become my partner?"
"Partner?" Olivia tried to sound calm, but the word had squeaked out. "You mean as a dinner companion at the pairing dinner?"
"Yes. Also for life. I want you for my own, Lauren. I must have you. No one else will do."
Chapter Thirteen
Olivia blinked and then blinked again. Did he say what she thought he just said? Did Moreau actually propose to her?
Did she have control over her own thoughts?
She tried not to gaze too deeply into his big, midnight-blue eyes, but she couldn't help it. He had removed his hand from her chin, and yet she did not move...could not move. She had lost control of her voluntary muscles. Was he still touching her? They were somehow connected. She couldn't be sure where Moreau ended and where she began.
Are you reading my thoughts? If so, give me a signal please. If not, I guess you won't say or do anything, right?
"Will you be my partner?" he asked again. His tone sounded pleading, wistful. Olivia didn't know whether to feel complimented or terrified. Would they send her back to Earth without hesitation if she said no?
Did this mean he could access her thoughts?
"It's all so sudden. I mean, I know I came here to be somebody's bride, it's just I...I ..." She was babbling, she knew, but she couldn't help herself. It was perhaps her only psychic defense. "I-I thought we'd have a little more time than ten minutes to decide. It's a big decision, you know?"
Did she glimpse a tiny glimmer in his eye? Was it a tear? A tear of sadness for being rejected and not accepted right away? As quick as she'd seen the glimmer it disappeared. A coldness settled in where she thought she'd detected warmth. Can he turn his feelings off and on like a machine? Can he manipulate mine as well?
"I understand. There is a much longer courting period in your culture before such an important question is asked." He bowed his head. "I apologize. I did not wish to offend."
Olivia felt guilty now. She didn't want Moreau to feel like he was totally worthless, but she also didn't need to be tied down to one Pure Blood while she was searching their clan house for the secondary Portal. Still, perhaps having Moreau as an escort wouldn't be such a bad thing after all? Could she bat her eyelashes at him and make him reveal their clan's secrets? As his fiancée she might even have access to off-limits public areas.
"Yes, we court for days and weeks and even years in my culture, but when we find someone special..."
Her attention drifted and once again she could discern no demarcation of where her personal space began and his ended. Their thoughts and hopes were blending together? She was being drawn into his web, his control...
Fight it. Keep your distance, Ollie girl. Your sanity could very well depend on it.
"When we find someone special, sometimes we don't wait too long," she blurted. She bit her tongue. Did I just say that out loud?
The glimmer in his eyes returned. "So, you are agreeable?"
"Let's say I'm agreeable to saying we're engaged to be engaged. Deal?"
His fangs glinted as his thin lips pulled into a smile. "Deal. You have made me a very happy man, Lauren. We shall celebrate at the pairing meal as one—couple. All of BloodDark will rejoice at such an advantageous pairing."
Whatever had she gotten herself into—and would she live to tell the tale afterward?
They strolled through the hall and into the long hallway toward the dormitory. Now they had been paired, and she would have her own room Moreau informed her. BloodDark brides weren't to be denied any special treatment. Anything she wanted, all she had to do was ask.
"Can I have a cheeseburger and some chili fries and a chocolate shake?" she asked as they waited for the maids to air out her new residence around the corner and up a flight of stairs from where she first slept.
Moreau looked thoughtful. "Perhaps I should rephrase what I said before. Anything within reason you may have."
"Well... if you put it that way, then I'll just have a nice long soak in the tub. Is that okay?"
Moreau barked several orders to the maids and then bowed. "I will come for you soon." He departed without a sound, the same way he had arrived.
Olivia was relieved to be reunited with her luggage, glad of being given a small private room and bath in which to prepare herself for tonight's big dinner, but not so glad to find her signaling device worked about as well as her first iPhone did after she knocked it into the kitchen sink full of washing up water by accident. Why couldn't BloodDark have cell phone towers?
The small two-way radio was something her dad would have called a Walkie-Talkie. He went on and on about how fun they were when he was a kid. Of course, CB radio was all the rage back in the mid-twentieth century,
