Kissed by a Dark Prince (Volume 1) Read online

  Olivia’s heart pounded against his chest as he lay on top of her, struggling to catch his breath. Her hands trembled against his arms, her body still quivering from her release. His was too. He didn’t even have the strength to roll off her. His muscles were liquid, his bones like rubber.

  “That was...” Olivia whispered, her breath skating over his face. “I think someone needs to invent a new word for what that was because they all seem quite inadequate.”

  Loren smiled and relaxed, bracing his weight on his elbows so he didn’t crush her. His female had enjoyed it. He had given her pleasure and had satisfied her needs.

  He pressed a soft kiss to the tip of her nose and then drew back and looked down at her. Crimson touched her cheeks.

  “Is it always like that for you?” She looked beautifully awkward about asking that.

  Loren shook his head. “Never.”

  “A bond thing?” A trace of wariness entered her eyes now.

  He nodded.

  She frowned. “What am I missing here? You knew how good this would be... did you want to make me see what I’ll be missing when you break the bond?”

  “No.” Loren withdrew from her but kept her caged beneath him. Her frown hardened. He stroked her cheek and looked deep into her eyes, his expression resolute and serious. “I have no intention of breaking this bond, Olivia.”

  She stiffened beneath him. “You dare.”

  He shook his head. “I will not force it upon you... but I will not let you go so easily. I cannot, Olivia. I will fight to make you see that we were meant for each other. We were born to be together. I will fight until I hold your heart in my hands, and I can only hope you will be gentle with the heart you now hold in yours.”

  CHAPTER 13

  Sleeping with Loren had been a huge mistake. A monumental one. The sex had been fantastic, mind-blowing, but then he had changed the game. He had turned what should have been purely about scratching an itch into something that she couldn’t think about without wanting to scream.

  How dare he say those things to her with such an earnest look in his beautiful purple eyes?

  She held his heart? He wanted to win her? What the hell was she meant to say in response to that?

  Her guard had been down and he had taken full advantage of it, ruining her resolve to keep her distance from him. She had foolishly kissed his cheek and her fight against the attraction she felt towards him had crumbled, leaving her vulnerable and stupid enough to act on her desires.

  She had done her best to avoid him over the past two days. She had hidden out in a few meetings, some of which she had arranged to fill the gaps between the official ones on her schedule, but avoiding Loren had proved impossible. Whenever he came across her, he tried to speak to her, and she couldn’t take it. She remembered what had happened the last time she had let a demon into her heart.

  He had destroyed her world.

  She couldn’t let that happen again. Her bond with Loren had already done enough damage, destroying the lives of many of Archangel’s staff, and she had to break it. Unless she broke the bond, Vail would be coming after her and he would end up hurting the people she knew again. She couldn’t live with herself as it was.

  A demon had duped her and Archangel had paid for it in blood.

  Now a fae prince had forced a bond on her and Archangel had again paid in blood.

  She might hold Loren’s heart, but she could never give him hers. She hadn’t asked for this and she couldn’t deal with it either. She had to protect her heart from him. She couldn’t fall for him. She couldn’t give in to her desire.

  Olivia stared through the microscope at the slide, but it was out of focus, and she didn’t care. She kept staring at the fuzzy image of her blood, afraid to move because Loren had found her again. He had been standing just metres from her for the past five or possibly ten minutes, staring at her, waiting for her to come out of hiding.

  “Olivia,” he husked and a shiver tumbled down her spine, the lush baritone of his voice heating her bones. “I know you are not working. You have been avoiding me. You refuse to speak with me... why?”

  He damned well knew why. He had shaken her when he had told her that she already had his heart. Another demon had said such pretty things to her once and it had all been a lie. She couldn’t trust that Loren spoke the truth. She couldn’t go through that pain again.

  She pushed away from the white desk, turning on the stool at the same time, and hopped down. She hurried for the door.

  Loren blocked her path, forming a wall of black.

  Olivia tried to go around him but he was there wherever she went, getting in her way, sparking her anger and then stoking it. She kept trying to get around him, edging closer to the glass doors, convinced that if she just kept her head down, she could avoid the confrontation she could feel coming.

  “Olivia,” he whispered, an edge of pain in his voice now, cutting her deeply and making her want to lift her head and look at him.

  She didn’t want to hurt him, but she didn’t want to be hurt either.

  Couldn’t he see that?

  She couldn’t stand it anymore. She ducked past him and raced for the door. He was there before she could reach it, his eyes bright purple and his ears pointed. His fangs showed between his lips when he snarled a dark oath in his own language.

  He grabbed her arms, his bare hands cool against her overheating flesh, and refused to let her go when she wriggled.

  Olivia felt his frustration mounting, the bond between them relaying his emotions clearer than ever. It was growing stronger. It wasn’t fading at all.

  “Olivia, tell me why you are avoiding me.” He held her firm and she glanced up at him, her fight leaving her when she saw the hurt in his striking eyes.

  She wanted to hold him whenever he looked at her like that, a wounded male, still too damned beautiful for his own good. He wanted to fight for her. He wanted her heart. He was both warrior and prince as he stood before her, dressed in tight black trousers, leather boots, and a long jacket similar to the one he had been wearing the night they had met.

  A dangerous aura surrounded him, warning her not to test him because he was already at his limit. He needed her. She had wanted him to fight for her, hadn’t she? Now she was running scared because it felt as though he had gone to war on her defences and she was destined to lose her heart to him.

  “Your brother is not the reason,” he muttered, his eyes narrowing with the frown that married his black eyebrows. “Sable said I would understand your behaviour towards me if I understood your past... but how am I to understand it if you will not let me in and tell me what happened to you?”

  Sable? That matchmaking little... Olivia checked herself. Sable probably meant well, and she did know all about what had happened to Olivia, and had clearly recognised it was the reason she was afraid of Loren and their bond, and the feelings he awoke in her.

  Loren eased his grip on her arms and lowered his left hand to her right forearm. He stared down at it, a glimmer of concern and hurt in his eyes. She looked there too and noticed that he had removed the bandage from his left hand, and that his fingers looked healed now. She couldn’t feel any pain in them. It was strange how she had grown used to the bond and how it linked them, and had learned how to deepen the connection and use it to discern things about Loren.

  Like the fact his heart was racing, spreading hurt through him that began to feel a lot like hopelessness. Was he giving up on her?

  Wasn’t that what she wanted?

  The thought of him turning his back on her caused a physical ache in her chest and a desperate desire to catch hold of him and not let go.

  Loren stroked his fingers over the white sleeve of her coat. “Who sunk his claws into your heart and made you like this, Olivia? Tell me and I will hunt and will not stop until I slay your demons. I swear it.”

  Olivia covered his hand with hers, holding it against her forearm. Was she really going to do this?

  She lifted
her gaze back to his and took a deep breath. “You swear you’ll slay him?”

  He nodded. “I am an exceptional hunter, and I will not allow anyone who has hurt my ki’ara to live.”

  She believed him. He would probably hunt the demon to the ends of the earth, or whatever realm they lived in, to take him down.

  “He’s already dead,” she said, “But thank you for the offer.”

  He smiled. “Perhaps I can hunt his kin and kill them instead?”

  Olivia shook her head. “I’m not the sort to blame a whole species for the actions of one individual. I also don’t think it would be good for you. You have a kingdom to think about, you know?”

  His expression darkened a shade. “Do not remind me. I have rather enjoyed being away from there... but that is not what we are talking about. Tell me, Olivia. I want to know you... I want to know the woman behind this coat.”

  He stroked the lapels of her white lab coat, a distant look in his eyes. She could read him through the connection she had to him and knew his feelings. He was enjoying being away from his kingdom because he felt free with her. He felt like the man he had been four thousand years ago before Vail had turned on him and their kind, driving him to war with him. He didn’t need to say it for her to know it.

  They were the same in a way.

  She was enjoying being with him because he made her forget all the bad things that had happened to her, stopping her from dwelling on her past, and made her think about her future for once and her life. She had spent too many years thinking about only her work and it had become her life, who she was.

  She had lost sight of the woman behind the white lab coat, but Loren had brought her back to the fore, and she felt like the woman she had been before she had joined Archangel, when her life had been full of hope and she had lived in a world filled with possibilities.

  “Tell me, Olivia.” The low husk of Loren’s voice sent a hot shiver through her and she absently stroked his hand.

  “I’m not sure what species of demon he was... I thought he was human. Maybe I was just blind or naive.” She focused on his hand and how warm she felt where it rested, even though her coat formed a layer between their bodies. “I met him in a club when I was out with Sable and a few of the other hunters, and he was really... hot.”

  Loren growled low and she cast him an apologetic smile.

  “You did ask, remember?”

  He huffed. “It does not mean I have to like what I hear. I do not like the thought of you with another male, especially one you found hot.”

  Olivia held her smile inside when he looked himself over, blatantly wondering how she viewed him. She had thought he was sex on legs before he had given her the most incredible orgasm of her life. Beauty, brains, brawn and bloody incredible sex. The man had the whole package.

  She kept her face straight and didn’t say anything, but the sly smile that curled the corners of his sensual lips told her he had picked up on her feelings and knew her thoughts.

  “There was some heavy petting and then we started seeing each other. He was attentive, supportive, sweet and a demon in the sack.” That earned another dark growl from Loren and he muttered something about tracking and killing the male’s entire race anyway. She patted his hand and he glared at her. “Don’t shoot the messenger.”

  “Tell me I was better,” he said and the wild yet vulnerable edge to his purple eyes had her going against her better judgement.

  “You were better.”

  He looked as though he wanted to kiss her but stroked her arm instead, his gaze holding hers. She wanted to keep this conversation light so she didn’t begin to dredge up the details about what had happened and didn’t risk dropping her guard again, but it became impossible as she stared into his eyes, remembering everything he had said to her. He wanted her heart. He wanted to complete their bond.

  A bond that would unite them forever, making her immortal.

  What if she went along with that and it turned out he was just like the bastard demon and he had used her, playing her for a fool?

  Eternity of living with herself and that betrayal? She didn’t think she could take it. It was hard enough living with the hurt that burned inside her now and she only had to bear it for a finite number of years.

  “Olivia?” Loren smoothed his palm across her cheek and she closed her eyes, unable to look at him while she was trying to get her emotions in check and back under her control, and kick her heart back into line.

  “I fell in love with him, Loren... I fell for him and I thought what we had was real, and then he used everything he had learned from me and my clearance... and he infiltrated this building.” She opened her eyes and stared at the purple embroidery on the breast of Loren’s black jacket, replaying that terrible night. “He went on a killing spree... there was so much blood. My pager went off and I rushed to answer the call, and ran into him. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing... but I knew it was my fault. I had been foolish enough to fall for a demon, and he had played me like the weak human female I was. All to infiltrate and destroy Archangel.”

  “And then he attacked you?” Loren closed his fingers around her forearm and she nodded.

  “I tried to stop him.” Her voice squeaked and she coughed to clear the tightness from her throat. “I fought him, trying to distract him so hunters would have a chance to kill him.”

  Loren’s grip on her tightened, his voice a dark thick growl. “You tried to sacrifice yourself.”

  She jerked out of his grip. “What else was I supposed to do? People were dying because of my stupidity. They were all going to die because I had been stupid enough to trust a demon with my heart.”

  Loren reached for her but she evaded him, stumbling back a few steps, needing the space or she was going to end up giving in to her fierce need to feel Loren’s arms around her and hear him say the words that would somehow fix her broken heart and make it new.

  She shook her head and clenched her fists. “I can’t do this, Loren. Can’t you see that?”

  “I can see that you were hurt, and you feel betrayed still... and you think all men are out to hurt you and use you like that.”

  “Not all men... just demons.”

  “I am not a demon, Olivia.” He tried to reach for her again but she kept shaking her head and backing off, keeping the distance between them even.

  “Demon... fae... the similarities are there... and I can’t pretend they don’t exist. You were dumped on our doorstep and I felt so attracted to you, even when I knew I shouldn’t, even when I kept thinking about him and what he had done. Then this whole crazy bond thing happened because you bit me and then you demanded to come to Archangel... and then the building that had become my home is bombed.” Olivia struggled to breathe as the weight of it all pressed down on her, the force of it crushing her. “And I can’t stop thinking you’re out to do the same to me.”

  Loren snarled, flashing his fangs at her. “I am not using you, Olivia. Look into my eyes and tell me you honestly believe that this is a farce and I have no feelings for you.”

  She couldn’t, because part of her already knew that this wasn’t fake. This was real for both of them, but that didn’t mean it would have a happy ending.

  “I did not come here to infiltrate Archangel or hurt you... or anyone you care about, Olivia, and you know that in your heart, because you know my feelings. I should not have left you alone that day, allowing Vail to attack you and your people. It was a mistake, and I wish I had the power to turn back time and undo it... but I do not.” Loren stepped towards her, his black eyebrows furrowing as he raked his fingers through his hair, clawing the black-blue strands back. “I swore to keep you safe and I will do just that, and I will not let Vail hurt anyone else here at Archangel. I will do all in my power to prove myself worthy of your trust... but I will not give up now that I have decided to fight for you. You are my ki’ara... and I would do anything you commanded of me.”

  “Break this bond,” she whispered and r
egretted it when she felt the pain it caused him.

  He lowered his head. “Anything but that. I cannot do that. I will not do it. I cannot force you to complete the bond with me, and cannot stop you from searching for a way to break it... but I will not give up on finding a way to pierce your armour and claim your heart.”

  “Stop it.” She turned away from him and wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing her right forearm. “I can’t...”

  He came up behind her and gently settled his hands on her shoulders. The weight of them comforted her and she could feel him close to her, aware of every inch of his body that hovered near to hers, feeling it so clearly that it was as if he were already against her.

  He lowered his head and his cheek brushed her left ear, and his breath skated down her collar. The marks he had placed on her throat tingled and she closed her eyes.

  “Olivia,” he husked and she told herself to fight, to break free of his hold and keep pushing him away. She couldn’t let him shatter her armour and claim her heart as his victory. She couldn’t. “I am not that male. I would never hurt you like that. To hurt you would be to hurt myself.”

  “Because we’re linked,” she stated flatly.

  “No.” He leaned closer, bringing his body into contact with hers, and she relaxed into him, losing awareness of the world around them. “If I hurt you, it would hurt me because I have fallen under your spell. You have brought light to my dark world, Olivia. You have captured the dead heart of this prince and given it new life. I live for you... and I would gladly die for you. I—”

  “Stop... please, Loren... just stop.” She couldn’t take it anymore. Whenever he talked like this, she melted inside, warmed by his words and the feelings that flowed through her in response. She ached to hear him speak to her of his feelings, wanted to believe they were real and not a lie, but there was always that shadow of doubt at the back of her mind and the dark memories that haunted her heart. They told her not to trust him. They told her this was too good to be real, that a gorgeous powerful man like Loren could never truly desire a workaholic weak human female like her.