Blood Ties Read Online Free PDF

kiss his ear. “Thank
you,” she whispered, and gladly slipped into oblivion.
     
     
*~*~*
     
     
    Thank you.
    Orion rolled away as Kira fell asleep, every
muscle of his body trembling with the aftermath of his orgasm. Her
words echoed in his ears, haunting him. He couldn’t bear to look at
her.
    It did no good. Her image was seared in his
mind whether he looked or not. Her black curls were spread in
magnificent disarray over his pillow, her incredible mouth puffy
from his kisses. The bites at her wrist and on her breasts marked
her as his as surely as a brand. Every inch of her body bore his
scent. The pink scrapes on her soft skin, abraded from his rough
jaw, both thrilled and shamed him. No one could look at her without
knowing he’d taken her, but even those slight injuries made him
wish he’d been more careful with her.
    Damn it all, why had he thought his dominant
game would help him keep his emotions at a distance?
    He sighed
and propped his elbows on his knees before dropping his head in his
hands. The goddamned problem was that he had no emotional distance where she was concerned. He
hadn’t since the day she’d walked into his study and knocked him so
utterly off-balance that he still hadn’t recovered.
    The daughter of his former Associate, Kira
had taken her father’s place when the man had been forced to retire
by wounds sustained during the last attempt on Orion’s life. Orion
had known of her from Ulric, a man inordinately proud of his only
child, but had never bothered to meet her or so much as look at her
picture. One human was much like another. One Associate was hardly
distinguishable from the next. Orion hadn’t cared who served him so
long as someone did.
    Then Ulric had brought Kira to him, an
ebony-haired goddess in jeans and Tivas. She’d smiled with a
complete lack of awe through the introductions and offered him her
hand before Ulric could stop her or remind her that vampires only
touched humans when absolutely necessary.
    Orion had shaken her hand without hesitation,
as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and he
remembered with crystal clarity the thought that went through his
mind in the instant before their fingers touched.
    I am in very deep trouble.
    He’d wanted her since that instant. It hadn’t
taken much longer than that for him to love her. Everything about
her seduced him. Her easy laugh, the way she teased him until he
joined her. The utter absence of fear in her eyes when she
challenged him--which she did often. The unconsciously sexy sway of
her hips as she walked. The way she nagged him when she thought he
wasn’t taking proper care of himself, as if he hadn’t already
survived four hundred years without her care.
    And the explosive, mind-consuming jealousy
he’d fought since the first night she’d arrived at his home wearing
the intimate scent of another man.
    Orion closed his eyes and inhaled deeply,
savoring the blended aroma of their sex. Now she smelled of him and
him only, and if he’d felt territorial before, it was nothing
compared to the blinding possessiveness that overrode his logic and
reason now.
    Kira was
his. She was his . As a human
she’d been safely out of reach, but as a vampire, he could have her
as his mate. He could lead her through the binding ritual and brand
her with something even more lasting than the bites. He could have
her forever and make her love it. It was everything he’d refused to
even dream of.
    And this woman he wanted above all others had
led the hunters to his lair and had planned to leave him for a
Nighthawk.
    He wanted to roar with fury at the injustice
of it, to demand the silent gods explain themselves. Vampires were
cursed and every vampire knew it. He just hadn’t thought the curse
would be so cruel.
    He loved her and he couldn’t have her.
Wouldn’t use her need to keep her. She hadn’t wanted him until her
life depended on it, and may the gods be damned, that wasn’t enough
for him.
    He groaned and