Her blue eyes blinked, awareness suddenly in their depths. She pulled away abruptly, rolling away from him to scramble for her clothes. “You really are scum, Gregori. You have no right to force me when I’ve said no.”

He watched her look around for her tattered clothes. She sank back down on the bed with a tired sigh. “I seem to have no clothes again.”

“Easily fixed, Savannah,” he said softly. Fashioning clothes from air and the elements was as old as time, as easy as anything he had ever done. She looked so upset, he wanted to gather her into his arms and hold her, comfort her. She was still disturbed that he had willingly ingested poison. That he had broken their laws by killing while feeding. But mostly she was upset that he had forced her to wait for him while he ventured into danger instead of allowing her to help him. And she was distressed that he had forced her to feed under compulsion.

Gregori handed her soft jeans and a cotton shirt, his silver eyes watching her closely. “I am what I have been shaped to be over these endless centuries, Savannah,” he said carefully.

She pushed wearily at her hair. Everything was happening so fast. Her world changing, turning upside down, unfamiliar and out of her control. Peter. The vampire. The human hunter. The poison. Being imprisoned by her own lifemate. She bit her lower lip in agitation, holding up the shirt to cover her breasts. “You can choose to be different, Gregori. Anyone can.”

He touched her mind, a slight brush, and knew she was close to tears. He cupped the side of her face, his thumb brushing her cheekbone. “I do not choose to allow you to place your life in danger, mon amour.That is not something that will ever change.”

“But I’m to live with you placing yourself in danger,” she countered, her blue eyes flashing at him.

His white teeth gleamed, a predatory smirk. “I was never in danger. Wade Carter thought he was protected, but Carpathian children have stronger barriers against predators.”

“The point is, you couldn’t know that, Gregori. You went out there and let him shoot you with that dart gun without even knowing what it was. And you made sure I couldn’t help you.”

He took the shirt out of her hands and slipped it over her head. “I was never in danger, Savannah.” He said it quietly, patiently, his voice black velvet.

She bent her head, long hair tumbling down to hide her expression. It didn’t matter. Gregori was in her mind, easily reading her thoughts. She was confused, afraid, sad. It pressed on her like a terrible weight on her chest.

Gregori lifted her as if she were a baby and tugged on her jeans, encasing her bare, slender legs. He sat on the bed and cradled her in his lap. Very gently he rocked her back and forth. “I am sorry I frightened you, ma petite.I would not do so for the world. But you have to realize that you are tied to a man of power. Many things that might endanger our kind do not work on me. I am capable of many things that have never been done by others of our race. I know my own capabilities.” He stroked her hair, a gentle, soothing caress.

She turned her face into his throat, hot tears spilling over. “I don’t know your capabilities.” Her voice was muffled, the tears clogging her throat. She tightened her fingers in his thick mane of hair, hanging on to him almost desperately.

He dropped his head protectively over hers. “You need to have more faith in my strength, Savannah. Have faith in me. I am not about to throw away my life now that I have found you. Believe in me, in my power and abilities.”

She burrowed closer, as if trying to get inside him.

Gregori tightened his arms, sheltering her close. “I know what I can and cannot do, mon petit amour.I did not take any unnecessary chances.” He held her to him, inhaling her scent, their combined scents, counting himself lucky that she felt so strongly for his safety. “I am very sorry I frightened you,” he repeated into the silken strands of her hair.

“Don’t do it again,” she ordered, nuzzling his throat. Her mouth moved over his skin and left behind a living flame.

Gregori’s body reacted, stirring to life. He could feel her discomfort, the sore spots on her hips and back because of his own carelessness. He laid a palm over her hip and sent himself seeking outside his own body. At once, Savannah could feel soothing heat easing sore muscles, speeding to heal bruises. She could hear the ancient healing chant in her mind, Gregori’s beautiful voice flowing into her.

She lay passively in his arms, staring up at sensual features etched and carved by time, at masculine Carpathian beauty. He was power and strength. He was her lifemate. She studied him, examining every inch of his face.

Gregori suddenly smiled at her, a genuine smile that warmed the cold steel of his eyes to molten mercury. “What is it you are seeing?”

She touched his chin with a fingertip. It was a nice chin. Stubborn. Determined. Nice all the same. “I’m seeing my lifemate, Gregori. I don’t want anything to happen to you.” Her hands framed his face. Very slowly she lifted her mouth to his. She kissed him slowly, thoroughly. Completely. Her tongue swept into his mouth, explored, teased, tempted. When she lifted her head, she rested her forehead against his. “Don’t ever do that again. Don’t leave me alone and helpless without you.”

He actually felt the wrenching deep in his heart. She was turning him inside out. She wasn’t condemning him as she should have, she was making herself sick with worry. He found her neck and trailed kisses along the slim column. His teeth scraped her shoulder. “So you like jazz.”

Savannah raised her head, her blue eyes searching his. “I love jazz,” she said softly. He could see the anxiety in her, the sudden hope.

“Then I guess we cannot miss the famous festival in New Orleans,” he found himself saying, just to take the shadows from her eyes.

She was silent a moment, her fingers twisting in the blanket. “Do you mean it, Gregori? We can go?”

“You know how much I love crowds of humans,” he said, straight-faced.

She laughed at him. “They don’t bite.”

“I do,” he said, the words low and soft, his silver gaze at once possessive. Just the heat from her smile wreaked havoc with his body. He had had her only a few minutes before, yet he was hungry all over again. Fiercely hungry. His body reacted urgently, savagely, and he allowed it, making no effort to conceal his great need.

Savannah’s breath caught in her throat at the sight of his arousal. This power, at least, she had, and the depth of it amazed her. Her fingers brushed his skin deliberately. He trembled beneath that light touch. She trailed her hand along his flat belly, and she felt him suck in his breath. Her fingers wrapped around the hard length of him, and she felt him shudder with pleasure.

He caught her head in his hands, dragging her closer. He was full with need, hurting with it. “I am going to hate New Orleans,” he whispered against her silken hair before she began lowering her head.

Her breath warmed the velvet tip of him, sending fire racing through his blood. “Maybe we can think of something interesting to make it more enjoyable for you,” she ventured. Her mouth was satin soft, moist and hot.

Gregori pressed his hips forward, forcing her back on the bed, his knees on the thick blanket above her. She was so beautiful, her flawless skin like cream, her thick hair spilling around her slender shoulders.

Sitting up, she slowly peeled off the cotton shirt, baring her full breasts to his silver gaze. She looked lush and sexy in the dark of the night, a mysterious, erotic gift to him.

“You think you might make New Orleans more bearable for me then?” His eyes were saying more than his mouth, touching her here and there, dwelling on every curve of her body.

Her hand spanned his flat stomach and lingered there. “I’m sure I can be inventive enough to make you forget your dread of crowds. Take off my jeans.”