Why can’t I be normal? Her soft voice floated into his mind like a warm breeze as he heard her telepathically for the first time. His eyes shifted instinctively the moment she touched her mind to his, and his heart thundered in his chest ferociously. Dante gripped the steering wheel, turning his knuckles white. He struggled to keep his breathing steady as tiny beads of sweat formed on his brow. He strained listening for more, praying she would stroke his mind with hers just one more time, but there was none.
The deafening silence shrouded them once again.
Dante blinked and returned his eyes to their human state. This was the most promising development yet. All Amoveo were telepathic, however, telepathy between mates was particularly important. It was their most intimate form of communication and a crucial part of their mating process. He let out the breath he didn’t even realize he’d been holding and trained his eyes on the road before them.
They made it to the airport just in time for their flight, which was fine with Dante. He wasn’t much for sitting around in the waiting area. He was perfectly happy to check in and get onboard. Kerry, of course, expressed her dismay at the close timing. They made their way through airport security at a reasonable pace.
He took note of the fluidity with which she moved as she gracefully and subtly avoided all human contact. The entire trip through the airport Kerry hadn’t allowed herself to so much as brush a stranger’s arm as they passed by. It was like watching a dancer whose every move had been choreographed.
Her movements were sleek and sexy as hell.
She reminded him of Amoveo in the Cat Clans. Her lush, curvy body moved with fluid grace and absolute control. Between the way she moved and her feisty attitude, it was crystal clear she was from one of the Cat Clans, which one, however, still remained to be seen.
Dante kept a close eye on the people around her, ensuring no one approached her. He scanned the minds of the surrounding travelers as a precaution. His keen Amoveo senses read the emotions in the air, confirming no danger lurked nearby. Several people recognized her but had the decency to leave her alone. He watched closely as she collected her things from the conveyor belt. She smiled and nodded at the security agents who clearly had recognized her. Their whispers to each other wafted past as he and Kerry walked away toward the gate.
“You have some admirers back there. I think it made their day just to have seen you up close and in person.” His voice remained low, and his eyes continued to scan their surroundings.
Kerry sighed, and her full lips curved. “It’s funny, you know. They don’t know me. Have never met me, but feel like they do know me.” She shook her head and adjusted her shoulder bag, laughing softly. “Does that make any sense?”
They got in line to board their flight, and Dante turned to her, capturing her gaze with his. “I know just how they feel.” His eyes remained locked with hers, and for several moments neither moved. It was a silent game of chicken. Who would look away first? Dante knew it wouldn’t be him.
His mouth curved slowly into a lopsided grin as he inched his massive frame even closer to her. Her large brown Amoveo eyes widened as he invaded her space further, bringing their bodies just a breath apart. His blood hummed, and his heart beat rapidly, falling in time with hers. Her desire for him spilled over him in warm energy waves, and the temperature increased by the second. His body responded quickly, and his energy matched hers.
Static crackled between them in the air.
She licked her bottom lip nervously, and he wanted nothing more than to taste her. His mind filled with wicked images of her long, lush naked body writhing beneath him. Almost instantly there was a shift in her energy. It came faster and harder. Dante froze. Fear. She was frightened? The last thing in the world he wanted was her to fear him.
“We’re holding up the line.” She lifted her chin and quickly stepped ahead of him, breaking the trance.
“Of course,” he murmured, following her onto the plane.
He expected her to be frightened when she learned of the Amoveo and of her unique heritage. However, he never thought she’d fear him, as a man. Her reaction reminded him of someone innocent, a young girl who had no experience with men. Then the realization hit him like a ton of bricks and stopped him dead in his tracks.
Of course she was innocent. How could she possibly have been intimate with anyone given her unique circumstances? The least bit of human contact had brought her nothing but pain. Dante scolded himself. How could he have been so stupid and so completely blind? He realized that all this time he had only been focused on how much he needed her. He’d only been fixated on how she would change his life. He was ashamed of himself for having given little thought to what their mating would mean for her.
She settled into her seat, and he watched her through a different lens. She was not the woman she pretended to be. Samantha was right. She was far more fragile and innocent than anyone would expect, including him. She had become an expert at living in a mental minefield. Even the seating she’d chosen on the airplane had been taken into consideration. She had the window seat in the first row of first class, which was about as isolated as you can get on a commercial flight. He admired her. She had learned to navigate her entire life from a very lonely place.
He knew that he needed to show her she was not alone.
“This is not going to work if you’re going to ogle me like that.” She straightened her back and stuck her nose in the air. “Stop staring. It’s bad manners,” she said briskly, while she flipped through the in-flight magazine.
“I’m sorry if I’ve made you uncomfortable,” he said softly.
She made a short scoffing sound. “Listen.” She shifted her body so they were now face-to-face. Her dark chocolate eyes narrowed with gritty determination. “I get stared at all day long by total strangers. The last thing I need is my bodyguard, or whatever you are, to be undressing me with your eyes. So why don’t you do us both a favor and keep your big eyes to yourself. Okay?” She smiled tightly and crossed her arms under her breasts, which only served to accentuate her spectacular cleavage.
“I wasn’t undressing you with my eyes or anything else for that matter.” He leaned in closer with only the armrest between them. Her eyes widened, and her warm breath puffed across his cheek. Dante lowered his voice so only she would hear him. “Believe me, princess,” he said with a smile. “When I undress you, I’ll do it the old-fashioned way, with my hands.” He winked.
Kerry’s visibly shocked face reddened at his suggestion. “Just who the hell do you think you are?”
A long lock of ebony hair fell across her forehead, and Dante knew it was now or never. Before she could stop him he reached up, gently swept the hair from her face, and tucked it behind her ear. The pads of his fingers softly grazed the alabaster skin at her temple and skimmed along the top of her perfectly formed ears. The skin-to-skin contact may have been brief, but Dante knew the impact would have much longer lasting ramifications.
He sat back in his seat slowly and kept his gaze locked on her startled face. Kerry’s body had gone completely still, but he sensed her heart beating wildly beneath the surface.
Her confused eyes searched his for answers, and all he wanted to do was touch her again, gather her in his arms, and tell her it was all going to be okay. His heart ached as ripples of confusion flowed from her body, and one large tear rolled down her face.
“You tell me, princess,” he whispered. “Who am I?”
The pilot’s voice boomed over the intercom, announcing the preparations for takeoff. Kerry sniffled, brushed the tear away quickly, and immediately turned her attention back to the magazine in her lap. “You’re a Neanderthal.”
Dante chuckled softly and settled back in his seat. “Whatever you say, princess.”
***
Kerry pretended to ignore Dante for the rest of the flight. She needed to try and figure out what the hell was going on. The game had changed. Suddenly, her future, her path, nothing was clear.
Fear.
Shock.
Excitement.
Horror.
Lust.
Relief.
Joy.
Confusion.
Every single one of those emotions simultaneously flooded her body the moment Dante touched her, but what stunned her most was the glorious absence of pain. He’d touched her, and it had actually felt good. Good? Nope. That didn’t cover it. Not even close. It wasn’t just good… it was luscious, seductive, and breathtaking. His touch, however brief, sent unfamiliar luminous warmth radiating through her body.
And one image filled her mind.
A fox. A huge red fox.
What the hell was going on? There were so many new sensations coming at her at once, she wasn’t quite sure which to analyze first. Dante had her so far off balance that she’d actually let him touch her. He’d been too quick and the space in the plane too confined for her to avoid him, and she’d never been more grateful for anything in her entire life.
Her mind raced with the possibilities. Samantha was the only other person she’d been able to touch without the mind-splitting pain. She also saw a big furry animal when she touched Sam, but there was a very big difference between the two. Her face burned at the memory of what one light graze of his fingertips did to her. Sheesh. She almost had an orgasm from a little touch. What would happen if he held her hand? Or kissed her? Or…
Kerry stole a sidelong glance at Dante and was relieved to see he was asleep or at least polite enough to pretend to be asleep. She let her eyes wander down the length of his strong powerful body. The dark suit fit him perfectly, although she suspected he was more of a jeans and T-shirt guy. His large arms were crossed over his massive chest, which rose and fell in the deep breathing of sleep. His thick auburn hair curled enticingly at his collar, and she had to resist the sudden urge to run her fingers through it.
She had gone her entire life with almost no human contact—at least no normal human contact. If she did touch someone or they touched her, Kerry had become a master at disguising the pain. No one could put on a polite smile better than she could. Sometimes the physical pain was outdone by the emotional carnage. Seeing people’s deepest secrets or the evil they harbored in their souls was even worse.
Once they stopped touching her, the mind-splitting pain would subside, but the brutal images lingered. There was no way to erase those horrors from her mind’s eye. The male model at a shoot that had a secret fetish for young girls or her neighbor in the city who had fantasies about killing her husband, those scenarios loitered viciously and haunted her. It was difficult to make friends once you saw those kinds of things. Her physical limitations kept her isolated in more ways than one.
Now fate stepped in and delivered a smart-ass Adonis who seemed to hold the promise of everything she had secretly dreamed of. Was this for real? she wondered. Or was the universe dangling this big handsome carrot in front of her just so it could be ripped away? Fear gripped her heart. She nibbled on her lip. What if it was just a fluke?
She had to know.
Kerry drew in a slow deep breath and tentatively raised her hand. Her fingers hovered just above his and were immediately bathed in heat emanating from his golden skin. Her heart skipped a beat. She licked her lips and struggled to keep her breathing steady, praying for the nerve to touch him. She needed to see inside of him.
Dante shifted in his seat and mumbled something in his sleep. Kerry snatched her hand back and immediately pretended to be sleeping. The last thing she needed was to get caught trying to touch him. She cringed at the thought of it. That would be mortification of the highest order, especially after she’d been such a bitch to him. She had done her best to be horrible because she wanted him to believe she was the stuck-up diva the press wrote about.
She had definitely cultivated quite a reputation for herself in the industry. They called her The Ice Queen, and she really couldn’t blame them. In Hollywood and the world of fashion, hugs and kisses were thrown around like candy. Her obvious avoidance of such things did not go unnoticed. The mere idea of kisses and her mind went right back to Dante. A hint of a smile played at her lips as she drifted to the cradling arms of sleep.
Then she began to dream.
The dream started the same as it had since the night she’d been attacked. Terror filled her mind. She hid behind the bed attempting to make herself as small as possible, which was no easy task considering her stature. Her lips trembled. She hugged her knees tightly and rocked back and forth, telling herself it was just a nightmare and repeatedly attempted to wake up, but no relief came. Fear gripped her heart as relentlessly as the wind that howled through the window. The storm raged outside. Wind and rain whipped through the room, spraying her shivering body.
He would find her. He always found her.
She heard footsteps in the hallway and knew he was coming for her. Kerry willed her shaking body to settle and peered over the top of the bed. The doorknob rattled as he tried to open it. She’d locked it to keep him at bay. Kerry hunkered back down behind the bed, squeezed her eyes shut, and squished herself into the corner behind the nightstand, hoping the long silk drapes would provide her some cover. She prayed he would leave or that she would wake up and be safely on the plane beside Dante. Her pounding heart threatened to burst out of her chest. Her breath came in short ragged gasps.
Then she heard it.
Silence.
Kerry stilled and strained to hear noises around her, but there was nothing. No AJ bursting through the door. No more storm outside. Hope glimmered cruelly in her mind. Was it over? She latched on to that wispy bit of optimism and struggled to squelch the all too familiar fear that nagged at her. She opened one eye and found the room empty with a beam of sunlight streaming through the window. The blue silk drapes fluttered lightly by her feet. Kerry unfolded her stiff body and stood slowly on unsteady legs.
She leaned back into the corner, allowing herself time to register the sudden change to her surroundings. The room was once again serene. No evidence of the nightmare remained. Her breathing slowed, and she closed her eyes, listening to lull of the ocean. The cry of seagulls, familiar and soothing, calmed her soul and chased away the last shards of fear. The remaining bit of tension flowed from her tired body, while the warm sea air brushed long strands of hair across her face, and the beginnings of a smile played on her lips.
A dream, she breathed. Finally I’m having a dream. Not a nightmare. Thank you. The words rushed from her lips in one huge sigh of relief.
You’re welcome. The familiar voice, deep and male, floated around her in the ocean breeze.
Her eyes flew open. Dante. She looked wildly around the room, but he wasn’t there. She even went so far as to look under the bed and in the closet. He was nowhere in sight, but she knew he was there. She could feel his energy around her, enveloping her like a warm blanket. She wandered back to the open window and looked out at the beach below, and that’s when she saw it. Sitting there on the sand was a giant red fox. The same fox she had seen when Dante touched her.
It sat perfectly still, staring back at her with enormous amber eyes, which burned brightly in the sunlight. Its thick red fur fluttered in the breeze, and its long bushy tail swished slowly. They stared at one another for what seemed like an eternity. She found herself inexplicably drawn to it, mesmerized by its gleaming eyes. She couldn’t have looked away even if she wanted to—and she didn’t want to. The warm ocean breeze brushed her long hair off of her face. The sky outside her window swirled with unnatural shades of lavenders and blues, and Kerry found herself blanketed by a serenity she’d never experienced. Peace. This must be what peace feels like.
The storm is over, Kerry. Dante’s seductive voice surrounded her as the unusual animal trotted away down the beach. Sleep. Kerry closed her eyes, lifted her face to the sun, and surrendered to the tranquility.
Chapter 4
Dante woke up from his nap on the plane feeling hopeful for the first time in years. Finall
y, after so much time and so many failed efforts, she had recognized and acknowledged him in the dream realm. Not only had she seen him, but she’d heard him as well. It had been their first true connection. He’d hoped that when she woke up there would be some residual effects of their shared experience.
He awoke before she did, and his heart ached at the look of serenity on her lovely face. Her mouth curved in a delicate smile, and one lock of long dark hair rested along her high cheekbone. In that moment she reminded him of Snow White. He hated to wake her and disturb what was certainly her first peaceful sleep in weeks, but they were last people left on the plane. The flight crew hovered impatiently by the cockpit, obviously eager to clean and ready it for the next group of travelers.
He whispered her name softly, but she didn’t stir. After several low whispers he decided to speak with her as he would any other Amoveo—telepathically. Would she hear him? She had a very strong mental barrier that he’d been barely able to crack. However, their connection in the dream realm proved she was beginning to let down her defenses. He took a deep breath and tentatively reached out to her mind with his.
Kerry. Her brow knitted together, and she moaned softly. A smile crept over his face as he realized she could hear him. He let out the breath he’d been holding. Kerry. It’s time to wake up, princess.
Kerry’s eyes flew open wide, and her gaze immediately locked with his. She sat up quickly and pushed the hair from her face—a look of confusion swiftly replaced with obvious disdain for her traveling companion. She made a sound of disgust. “Don’t call me princess.”
Dante chuckled and stood up, gathering his belongings. She hadn’t even realized she’d heard him in her mind. He glanced at the flight attendant with the plastered-on smile that couldn’t hide her annoyance no matter how much she tried. Her energy waves filled the plane and were giving him a headache. Usually he was very good at filtering human emotions, but Kerry had him distracted in more ways than one. He stole a look at her, wondering if human emotion impacted her the way it did all Amoveo. The pained look he saw on her face was answer enough.
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