King's Throne Read Online Free PDF Page B

kind of response. Of course, I’ve never given anyone as much as I’ve given Mitch. I’ve shot him up three times, each time with a higher dose.”
    “Well, it could be a side effect of your treatment, but then again…” Gina’s father stood abruptly. “I have to think about this. I also have to check the perimeter and talk with the Guard. No one will trespass to interfere with your recovery, Mitch.” The exiled king nodded at him and Mitch felt the impact of that decisive gesture. “Heal him as best you can, kitten,” the elder said to his daughter. “He might be more important than you know.”
    And with those disturbing words and a final hug for his daughter, the powerful man left the cabin in a whirl of snow as he opened the heavy door. Apparently, sometime during their talk, a storm had rolled in, blanketing what Mitch could see of the sky in a dark, uniform gray.
    “Looks like we’ll be snowed in here for a bit,” Gina said, barring the door behind her father. “How are you feeling?” She leaned back against the wooden door, her gaze roving over him with a critical eye.
    It was the look of a doctor evaluating her patient, but there was an added component…a component of attraction of female to male—and vice versa. Mitch had been attracted to the beautiful doctor from almost the first moment he’d laid eyes on her. Certainly from the first moment he’d laid coherent eyes on her. Gina was a beauty with Goddess-given regal lines and a reticence that seemed at odds with her competent manner.
    “I’ve felt better,” Mitch admitted, running a hand through his hair.
    He was certain he looked a fright, but until now, such things hadn’t bothered him. Only with Gina—and especially in front of her father—he wanted to make the best possible impression. Instead, he’d nearly fainted at the king’s feet and he probably stank too. He’d been through hell since the last time he’d taken a shower. Was it only a day before? Or had it been two days since the attack on the dojo? He’d lost track of time somewhere along the way.
    “Are you going to keel over on me again?” She smiled as she pushed off the door and walked a few steps toward him.
    “I certainly hope not.” He tried to laugh it off, but he really did feel lousy. “But I won’t be running any races for a while.”
    She walked right up to him and touched his shoulder. It wasn’t exactly an impersonal touch, but it wasn’t the full -body contact he longed for. How he could think of the tiger princess that way was beyond him—especially after the audience he’d just been granted with the most elusive of tigers, the Goddess-blessed king of them all. But Mitch couldn’t control the attraction he felt for Gina.
    And what was worse—he didn’t want to control it. Maybe it was the poison affecting his judgment or the knowledge that he could easily die of it, but he wanted her touch. He wanted to feel her kiss again. He wanted it almost more than he wanted his next breath. But she was back to business as she felt his forehead with the back of her hand and then checked his pulse.
    “Any more dizziness?” she asked, all business.
    “Not now, but you saw what happened when I tried to kneel,” he admitted grudgingly.
    “Dad doesn’t go in for all that rigmarole anyway,” she said as she examined his eyes, shining her small penlight at his pupils one at a time. “He’s a fairly simple man.”
    “Honey, I hate to break it to you, but he’s the Tig’Ra. There’s nothing simple about him and there never will be. Nothing simple about you either, princess.” His voice dipped to intimate tones on that last part and she met his gaze with a tinge of fear and determination in her own.
    “Maybe not, but it’s what he’s chosen. What he was destined to do.”
    “Destined?” That was news to Mitch.
    He’d never really thought about why the king had gone into exile. Nobody knew the reason, other than the violence that had hounded him and