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“You are mated to strength—”
“If you don’t get your ass up out my hotel room—”
“I could have already grabbed you—”
“I was hoping you were having second thoughts and logic was kicking in—”
“Logic. You’re going into heat and I’m heading for rut. There will be no second thoughts.”
He stepped forward, took in my double circle, and shook his head. “This is more powerful than what you put at the door.”
“Perhaps, you should turn around.”
He lifted his hand and touched the air over the circle. Gold-orange fire erupted around his wrist and fought against the white brilliance of my ancestors. My grandmother’s rose water scent filled the room. My mother’s cocoa butter followed. Then came my great-grandmother’s tobacco.
Their presence pressed warmly against my back, pouring more power into the circle.
Thank you for protecting me.
The chalk lines blazed to red.
“So impressive.” Yoichi’s fingers continued forward.
Skin blackened.
Nails cracked.
Blood dripped onto the wooden floor.
Of course, his hand healed almost as quickly as my protection destroyed it.
“No one has kept me outside a boundary in three centuries, yet you cannot stop fate.” He pushed his wrist through my ancestors’ boundary.
The entire hotel room bucked like an earthquake had happened.
The mirror above the dresser shattered.
I brought the gun level with his forehead. “Stop.”
Yoichi’s eyes met mine, and his voice softened. “You are frightened because you do not understand what is happening. Lower the weapon, remove the circle, and let me explain.”
“You’re explaining fine from over there.”
“I want to touch you.” His brutal honesty struck harder than seduction would have. His glowing gaze lowered to the black heart on my chest. “My beast has been tearing at me since your hands left our body, and I have waited eight hundred years to find the beautiful woman tied to me and now you are close enough for me to hear your heartbeat.”
I shivered.
Eight hundred years. Alone. Looking.
All these complicated emotions cracked in my chest.
For one dangerous second, I thought about my own cursed heart, about all the nights I'd wondered if anyone was out there who would look at me and see something worth waiting for. . .and survive the darkness in my blood.
Yoichi’s voice entered my mind. “You want me to turn around when I’m close enough to smell your desire?”
My breath hitched.
His gaze lowered. “Close enough to know how wet you are.”
