Hot Blooded Read Online Free PDF

encountered. There was his voice, his eyes, the way he
looked at her, the way he turned his head, his hard, masculine body, but most of
all, the danger emanating from him. He was a powerful predator and it showed,
yet his touch with her was amazingly gentle, almost tender.
    She swallowed hard. "It isn't right that you're trying to heal me when your
body is so torn up. I can wait."
    "I feel your pain beating at me."
    She made an attempt at finding humor when her body was stirring to life and
her thoughts were turning to things better left alone. "See why we shouldn't
share minds? It would be so much easier if you didn't have to feel my pain on
top of yours." She frowned. "I'm in your mind, why can't I feel your pain?" She
could feel how tired he was, but he had to feel pain with all the lacerations
and burns.
    His tongue swirled a second time. Then a third. "I am shielding you."
    He could rob a woman of sanity. Juliette couldn't look at his gorgeous face
without wanting to wipe away those terrible lines. His touch was beyond gentle,
was causing her stomach to do flips and somersaults. Beads of sweat trickled
down the valley between her breasts, and she was certain it had nothing to do
with the humidity. The small burns miraculously stopped stinging under his
ministrations. When he finally lifted his head and looked at her with his dark
eyes, she saw the stark hunger smoldering there.
    Riordan allowed her arm to slip from his fingers before moving a short
distance away from her to the stream.
    Juliette half sat with her back against the tree trunk watching Riordan
carefully. "Thank you. It really does feel much better." She studied the lines
in his face. "Is there really poison in your system?"
    He glanced at her, his black, black eyes blazing a trail right to her heart…
or her body. He began to carefully ease out of the bloodstained and tattered
shirt. All the while his gaze remained on her, making it difficult to breathe.
"Unfortunately, yes."
    "Why? Why would they do that to you?"
    "Because I am different. I am a creature to be loathed and hated. And
because, I fear, they wish to kill our prince."
    The burns on his skin were horrible to see. "Did they heat the chains? Is
that how those burns got there?" Juliette wanted to rush to him, press her lips
to those terrible marks. He had to be in such pain, yet he had attended to her
first.
    "They had vampire blood and they painted the chains regularly with it. They
knew the blood was toxic and would burn as acid does. And they hoped the scent
of blood, when I was drained and starving, would drive me out of my mind." He
gave her a faint smile. "Perhaps they succeeded."
    Juliette shook her head. "You're saner than they will ever be. We're both a
bit shaky, but we made it out of there."
    "Thanks to you. I am sorry you have to see me this way. As soon as I remove
the poison, I'll restore your strength to you."
    "I'm not as dizzy. I think my body's already recovering. You just worry about
you." She wanted to look away as his face grew paler, as he made a tremendous
effort, using every ounce of reserve strength in an attempt to analyze the
poisonous compound used to paralyze him. A part of her mind was merged with his,
or perhaps it was the other way around, but she could see the data flowing
through his mind and was amazed that he understood each separate composite. "Who
are you? How do you know all this?"
    He leaned back against a moss-covered boulder. "I have lived a long life and
learned much over the years. There is little else to do when you have nothing to
live for. Knowledge is power and it keeps one alive, even when one no longer
wishes to remain in a barren world." His dark eyes slid over her. He reached out
his hand.
    Juliette had no idea why she put her hand in his. The moment his fingers
closed around hers her body came alive, and it felt right. Juliette wanted to
pull her hand away from the heat of his, but he looked bone