Page 51 of Eternally Bound
“I did not mean for that to happen. If I hurt you—”
“You didn’t.”
“Frightened you then.”
“You didn’t,” she said. “I can handle myself, Ronan.”
“You think you could stop me from hurting you?”
“I wouldn’t have to.”
“You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
“Yes, I do. It’syouwho doesn’t know.”
Ronan couldn’t stop his mouth from dropping at her words. In all his many years, no one had shocked him as much as she just had. “I am well aware of what I am capable of doing. I have witnessed the blood staining my hands for over a thousand years.”
“Yes, you are aware of your capability for violence, but are you also aware that you are capable of kindness and being gentle?”
“You have no idea what I want to do to you right now, and there is nothing gentle about it!”
“You could have done it, but you didn’t.”
“I would ruin you, do you understand that, Kadence? What I would do to you would ruin you for any other man.”
“I don’t want any other man. I only want you.”
Nope, he’d been wrong, she’d just managed to shock him even more. Before he could respond to her, footsteps sounded behind him. He turned to find Declan standing in the doorway ten feet behind him.
“What is it?” he demanded.
“It is time to hunt,” Declan replied. “Marta also asked me to inform you that everything is ready for them to leave tomorrow.”
Those final words hit Ronan like a punch between his eyes. “Good,” he somehow managed to say. He glanced at Kadence over his shoulder. “Pack what you will take with you. Marta and Baldric will make sure to buy you whatever else you require on your travels. If you have decided where you would like to go first, let Marta know. It will mean less time for you at the airport.”
“I have decided, and I will let her know,” she murmured.
He followed Declan into the stairwell. “Ronan, be careful.”
He smashed his fist into the wall before storming up the stairs behind Declan. Tomorrow, he would have no one to tell him to be careful again. Tomorrow she would be gone. He should be relieved; instead, he knew he would make the death of any Savage they came across tonight exceptionally brutal.
***
Kadence stirred when she felt arms slipping beneath her. Warmth enveloped her as she was braced against a solid chest and something was removed from her hands. Her eyes blinked open as Ronan set the book she’d been holding on the chair he’d lifted her from.
She hadn’t meant to fall asleep while waiting for him, but after he’d left she’d worked out for another two hours in the hopes of burying the sadness that leaving him brought to her. Then she’d packed her things and spent the rest of the night pacing the library before trying to read. Her emotional and physical exhaustion had caught up with her.
“What time is it?”
“Almost three,” he replied.
She took in the wet hair falling across his forehead and curling at the corners of his eyes. “You showered.”
“Long night,” he replied.
He refused to tell her that he’d been covered in blood when he’d returned twenty minutes ago. He’d been unwilling to see her like that, been determined not to see her at all before she left, but when he realized she wasn’t in her room, he couldn’t resist following the lure of her scent here.
“Is everyone okay?” she asked as she came more awake.
