She smiled at him, but he turned his attention to his meal. “Is something the matter, Zachary?” she whispered. They both caught Adonis watching them. She clenched her napkin in her lap. What was her brother’s problem? Just because she showed interest in a hunter finally… She touched Zachary’s leg. “Zachary?”
“What did you want to ask me?” His fingers wrapped around hers.
She wanted to know what was bothering him now. She didn’t want to divulge her plans at the dinner table. “Not here.”
“You seem perturbed about something.” He pointed to her meal. “You’ve barely eaten more than a bite.”
She stared at her food, poking an asparagus spear with her fork.
“Pasha?”
“I…” She tilted her chin up. “I want to avenge my family’s deaths.” She spoke the words softly so as not to alert the others, but with resolution.
Zachary’s clear blue eyes widened. “No.”
Pasha opened her mouth to speak, then clamped it shut. She turned her attention to her food and stabbed her fish twice. She had every right to go after rogue vampires, especially when they had killed the rest of her family, her uncles, aunts, cousins…the whole lot of them slaughtered. Every right. How dare he tell her no!
Her cheeks grew as hot as a fire poker resting in fiery blue flames.
Zachary clenched his fork in his fist. He understood Pasha’s desire to terminate her family’s murderers, but there wasn’t any way he’d let her go on such a suicide mission. Her cheeks were three shades redder than he’d ever seen them. He knew she was furious for his saying no. Was that why she’d selected him solely to pursue? Because she thought he’d go along with whatever she had schemed to do? Like a hunter puppet on a string? He gritted his teeth in irritation.
Adonis had warned him she was a hot-headed firecracker. Now he could see what he was in for. He took a sip of his wine, glad the change hadn’t affected his taste or appetite for human food. He reconsidered Pasha’s statement. What if he did help her, and she agreed to kill him? Or maybe he’d even manage to get himself killed on the mission? He rubbed his smooth chin. That could work.
He turned to watch her beat on her salmon, then he leaned over and kissed her cheek.
She looked up at him, her eyes misting with tears.
Her distress sliced into him. “Not without me.”
Her lips turned up in the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen. How could he not do as she bid when she seemed so overjoyed? He was a pushover, where she was concerned. But he had his very own needy agenda.
She slipped her hand onto his leg and stroked him. Zachary grabbed her hand. Vixen. She smiled at him. Now what was she up to? She didn’t think she’d get him to make love to her early, did she? No way could they do so until they were truly committed to one another.
Hell, what was he thinking? He couldn’t commit to her ever. No way could he even consider making…
She pulled loose from him, then returned her hand to his lap.
“Pasha,” he whispered, his voice decidedly huskier. He glanced at Adonis who was whispering something in Rachael’s ear.
She seemed genuinely happy with the hunter-turned vampire. Did Adonis’s new special abilities include improved lovemaking skills?
Zachary’s erection was already as hard as a steel rod, and his boxer briefs felt two sizes too small. He grasped Pasha’s roving hand again. “Behave.”
“Don’t tell me you’re unwilling.”
Nobody could accuse him of that. He’d had his share of relationships with human females. And certainly the chance to be committed to a huntress as beautiful as Pasha was, the way he admired her fighting skills against the vampires, even her need to avenge her family, and as rare as huntresses were, he would have given her his heart in an instant. But that was before he had been turned.
After the dishes were cleared, several stayed to drink coffee and talk further. Pasha dragged Zachary from his seat. “Let’s take a walk in the gardens.”
He knew her enthusiasm was spurred on by her desire to make plans to go on a hunt. But was her only interest in him for the same reason? To get him committed to her hair-brained scheme? That put a damper on what he thought she felt for him.
They wandered alone through a garden where red climbing roses hung over wrought iron arbors scenting the air with a subtle, sweet fragrance. Butterflies flitted about the flowers as he and Pasha disturbed their business. “What did you have in mind, Pasha?”
She pulled her hand free from his and wrapped her arm around his waist. “You do want me, don’t you?”
Now that was a loaded question. Did he ever. And no, he couldn’t. “You know so little about me. What if we’re not…compatible.”
“That’s why I believe that we should skip some of the normal courting procedure and get down to…business.”
He raised his brows to hear her words. Huntresses never gave themselves to a hunter unless he was the one she chose for her mate for good. What happened to the month he thought he would at least have before he had to tell her what he’d become?
Before he could respond, she said, “If you’re going to help me with this hunt, I wouldn’t expect you to do so on a wink and a kiss, Zachary. I already told my father you were the only hunter for me, and he’s delighted with the prospect of your being his son-in-law.”
There was no going back. He couldn’t live the lie with Pasha. He just couldn’t. “I can’t tell you how much your saying so means to me. But…well, circumstances have changed and…I’m not the hunter you think I am.”
Chapter 5
In the gardens with the roses and wisteria in bloom, Pasha lifted her chin, and kissed Zachary’s lips, her warm mouth searing his with passion. She was forbidden fruit and his blood coursed with desire. The unfamiliar feeling warned him her warm, sweet blood was calling to him…the bloodlust already rising in his system. Zachary had to tell her the truth about what he had become.
He pulled away from her affectionate embrace. “I’ll help you kill those who murdered your family in Florida, but only on one condition.”
She stared at him, her lips slightly parted, her rich brown eyes showing confusion. “Anything.”
“If I don’t die by the hands of the vampires, you promise you’ll terminate my life.”
A small cry escaped her lips as tears filled her eyes. She shook her head. “I don’t understand. Why…” She shook her head again and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “I don’t understand.”
“Pasha, you loathe what Adonis and Danai have become.”
“What has that to do with us?”
“I can’t have you committed to me, then hating me for what I am. And frankly, I have enough self-loathing for the both of us.”
Her eyes grew big. She looked at his neck, then pulled his shirt collar aside. She gasped when she saw the vampire’s bite marks on his neck, and her reaction sent a twinge of hurt into his gut.
“You…you. Ohmigod, Zachary…” She covered her mouth to stop any more words. Her eyes were laden with tears.
He stood impotent, not wanting to touch her for fear she’d scream or…he wasn’t sure what. Maybe she’d use the dagger at her waist to terminate him.