Kissed by a Dark Prince (Volume 1) (6 page)

Olivia’s blood chilled to sub-zero temperatures and she stared at him, struggling to get past the part about this madman torturing her.

She managed to reach the end of what he said and realised that what he had told her earlier hadn’t been something romantic or noble at all. He had meant it literally. If someone hurt her, then he would feel it. He would share her pain.

Olivia couldn’t comprehend that. It was too much. She couldn’t breathe as the weight of it pressed down on her and the thought of being tortured closed her throat. Her head spun, the room viciously turning with it.

“Calm yourself!” he bellowed, a dark commanding snarl.

No. She was damned well going to have herself a major panic attack and he could damned well deal with it. She was sure that a panicking woman wasn’t on his list of things he enjoyed dealing with, but he had just announced that someone was out to torture her and considering this man had beaten the crap out of the prince, she felt her demise at his hands was somewhat inevitable.

“Female,” the prince gritted out and Olivia tried to focus on him.

He wobbled into focus and she frowned when she saw he was clutching his chest and was paler than ever, on the verge of collapse too.

Oh my God. He didn’t only share her pain.

His knees gave out, sending him crashing to the floor, and he whipped out a vicious curse in English this time, his handsome face contorting, revealing how much he despised what was happening to him. Olivia rushed to him and crouched before him. He inhaled hard, his shoulders heaving with each breath, struggling for air just as she had been a moment ago. She laid her hand on his shoulder. He was shaking like a leaf.

Olivia ran her hand along his jaw and lifted his chin, and studied his eyes. She tilted his head towards the light and away, monitoring the responsiveness of his pupils.

“What’s wrong?” She checked his pulse, pressing her fingers against his neck. It was fast, far quicker than it had been when she’d had him hooked up to the machines in the lab.

She dropped her hand away.

It matched hers.

“Not used to the pace,” he ground out. He was talking about his heartbeat. Her heartbeat. She swallowed, stunned by the reality before her.

The bond between them was so deep that it affected him physically. It linked them right down to their hearts.

Incredible.

He sat back in front of her and drew in slow breaths and her eyes widened when her pulse began to slow. He was the one making it happen.

Olivia tried to help him, seeking calm amongst the raging storm of her feelings, but it was hard. She was in a strange environment, felt threatened and overwhelmed, and someone was out to torture her. Just thinking about that had her pulse picking up again.

“Calm yourself.” He was back to commanding her again.

“I’m trying... it’s... I can’t... it’s too much.” Olivia’s panic spiked, her hand shaking against his face.

He looked deep into her eyes and then she was in his arms, held close to him, and they were kneeling together on the floor.

Familiar scents swirled around her and she instantly felt more relaxed. “What did you do?”

He drew back from her and she found that he had taken her home and they were kneeling in the middle of her small living room on the cream carpet, between the beige sofa and the TV.

The prince brushed cool fingers across her brow. “You feel better now.”

She nodded, her heart levelling out again, the soft feel of the carpet beneath her knees and the familiar surroundings making her feel comforted and safe.

He sighed.

“I cannot remain here... and that means you cannot either... but I will not rush you,” he said in a low voice, one laced with a solemn note.

She appreciated that because she could see how difficult this was for him. He was a man used to issuing orders and having someone instantly obey. He was a man unused to having a weakness and she knew that was what she was. She didn’t want this bond between them either. She wanted it undone or broken or just gone somehow. She didn’t care how.

“Is there a way to undo it?” she whispered, afraid to hope that there was.

“It is possible it may fade if we do not complete it. I will have my men look into it and we will know soon enough if it is possible to break the bond. If it is possible, you will be free to go.”

She didn’t like the sound of that. “And if it isn’t?”

“If it is not possible, then my only choice will be to complete the bond. Completing the bond will restore my strength, because it will make you immortal, stronger.” He held her gaze, unflinching as she glared at him, thinking about giving him another piece of her mind. “You must understand... I must defeat my enemy and to do that, I need to regain my strength, whether that is through breaking or completing our bond.”

In other words, she wasn’t getting a choice. He was just going to make that decision for her.

“I don’t want this bond. I’m stating that for the record. I didn’t ask you to bite me and drag me into this mess. I don’t want it completed. I want it gone.”

“I will do all I can. I will have my best researchers on it as soon as we return.”

Olivia shook her head. “I’m not returning. That’s another thing. I want to stay here until we know for certain.”

His black eyebrows pinched together. “I cannot allow that. You will be vulnerable here.”

Olivia held her ground, refusing to give an inch. “Can’t one of your men stay with me, like a bodyguard?”

His expression darkened and his ears went pointier again. His voice was a thick growl as he spoke, his fangs brushing his lower lip. “You wish for another male to keep you company?”

Not what she had said at all but clearly that was what he had heard, and he didn’t like the idea one bit. Was the dark possessive snarl in his deep voice a result of the bond too or was it because he felt attracted to her? She hadn’t failed to notice the desire that shone in his eyes at times either. Was that the bond at work? A fragment of her heart hoped it wasn’t. Olivia squashed it.

“Listen, Buddy, you don’t seem to want to stay with me and you won’t let me stay alone, so what other option do we have?” She prodded his chest, driving her point home so he wouldn’t be able to miss that she wasn’t going to roll over and do whatever he commanded.

“You will come with me.” Clearly, he hadn’t got the message at all.

“I damned well will not,” she snapped and he leaned back, frowning at her. She could tell he wasn’t used to people speaking to him like that but he was going to have to get used to it if he was going to be hanging around her. Maybe if she were caustic enough, he would let her have her way. “I have work to do and I don’t need another boss in my life. One is enough, thank you very much. You caused this mess and that means you have to do some major sucking up... starting with allowing me to continue my work.”

He snarled and Olivia bravely stood her ground. Or sat it. She realised that they were still sitting together with his arms around her. He hadn’t made a move to release her and she didn’t think he would. For all his growling, he clearly felt possessive of her. Because of her blood and the bond?

Olivia didn’t like it. Not one bit. She didn’t like how her feelings towards him were mercurial either, swinging from anger one moment to desire the next. The last time she had felt attracted to a man, she had ended up duped and then disgraced, and she wouldn’t let it happen again.

“I cannot allow you to continue your work, because... because...” The demanding prince lost for words? This was a new one.

“Because what?” she barked, trying to force him to spit it out. She really wanted to know his insane reasoning so she could rip it apart.

“Because that would mean you desire to take one of my men into your laboratory.” His expression hardened, his purple eyes verging on black. “Men there would desire to harm them.”

She couldn’t rip that one apart. If he had spouted the answer she had anticipated, stating she desired one of his men, she probably wouldn’t have had the heart to rip that apart either. At this point, if he looked at another woman, she would probably go all growly too.

What the hell was wrong with her?

It was the bond. She was blaming the bond. She had been wrong the night they had met. It hadn’t been blood loss that had made her feel attracted to him, hazy and hot whenever he touched her or looked at her. It was this stupid bond.

“We would want to study them, not hurt them.” Although she could see why he had reservations about it. He wanted to protect his men. “If a demon or fae isn’t a threat to mankind, then Archangel doesn’t hurt them. Besides, I would like to run some blood work and see if there is something I can do about this bond. If I have a sample of your blood and my blood, and perhaps some blood from an elf who isn’t bonded, then I might be able to see how we’re connected.”

He arched an eyebrow. “I highly doubt that.”

Olivia sighed at the incredulity in his tone and then reminded herself that he was five thousand years old and hadn’t been in the human world in four of those. He might not have a clue about the progression science had made in those four thousand years.

“Listen... I’m a scientist. Studying demon genetics and physiology is what I do for a living, and I’m very good at it. I know a lot about demon and fae, as well as human, genomes. If this bond is somehow physical... a change at a base level in our bodies... I might be able to find it and find a way to reverse it. At least let me try.”

He stared blankly at her for long seconds, as though trying to decipher what she had just said, or maybe he was impressed that the little human female knew things he and, probably, his people didn’t have a clue about. Finally, he released her and rose to his feet in one effortless fluid movement.

Olivia used the couch and scrambled to hers. Her feet tingled, numb from the awkward kneeling position. She scrunched her toes, trying to clear the pins and needles so she could walk without making a fool of herself.

The prince paced a short distance away from her, his handsome face locked in a troubled expression. He still looked too damn gorgeous for his own good whenever he turned pensive. Olivia looked anywhere but at him, thinking about how she could convince him to let her do her thing while his men did theirs. She was sure that the answer to the bond lay in their blood. It had to be something like that. A change on a molecular level.

“What is your name?” He turned to look at her and she lifted her chin. His eyes captured hers again, their incredible colour still fascinating her.

“Olivia.” It was on the identity badge pinned on her left breast pocket but she didn’t mention it. Making a prince look like a fool when he was already on the edge would probably tip him over it and she preferred him calm. And pensive.

He padded towards her, his steps silent on the carpet, but she knew he wouldn’t have made a sound had he been walking on solid stone. He held his hand out to her. “Loren.”

Loren. A very noble sounding name. One that suited him. Prince Loren.

Olivia slipped her hand into his. A shiver of current shot up her arm as they came into contact. The way his pupils dilated, swallowing his purple irises, told her that he had felt it too.

“Olivia,” he said, his foreign accent and deep voice combining to make her name sound exotic and sensual, leaving her wondering how it would sound if he husked it close to her ear. She shook herself out of her dirty thoughts. She wasn’t going there. Never. His fingers closed around hers and he drew her closer, and she lost awareness of the world again, falling back into his eyes. “I will escort you to your laboratory.”

She blinked. He was going to let her continue her work and was going to be the one to stay here with her? That surprised her until it dawned on her that he would sooner risk himself than one of his men.

She could see he was a prince as he stood before her, tall and beautiful, noble and willing to step into the lion’s den to protect his men from those he believed would seek to harm them, offering her a diplomatic solution to their problem and patiently awaiting her answer.

Olivia felt as though he had just offered her a second shot at regaining her status within Archangel too and she wasn’t going to waste it.

She nodded and shook his hand.

“Agreed.”

L
oren appeared in his rooms in the castle and desire to return to Olivia flickered briefly in his heart. She would be safe without him for now and had to speak with her superiors about allowing him access to the building. It had been hard to agree to the time apart, but Olivia needed some space to take in everything he had told her and he had already pushed her too firmly on the subject. If he had tried to force her to agree to allowing him to remain in her small home while she went to speak with her superiors, she would have demanded he leave and refused to cooperate with him again.

He didn’t want her demanding that another male take care of her.

Loren growled at that. No male would go near her.

He stilled, freezing right down to his marrow. What if she already had a male?

He hadn’t smelled the scent of anyone male in her apartment. He had smelled only his female.

Olivia.

She smelled sweet like blossom.

He rubbed his thumb across the pads of his fingers, remembering how they had interacted, both verbally and physically. He had touched her soft skin too and felt each meeting of their flesh like a hot current going through him. She had reacted similarly, her pupils instantly dilating and her breath hitching whenever they touched. The increase in her heartbeat had spoken to him of desire, forcing his to obey the rapid beat and follow suit. Perhaps it had been desire on his part too and both of them were responsible for the increase in the speed of their combined hearts.

Loren crossed the dark stone floor to his line of wardrobes and opened one near the door of his apartment. He took out a long black jacket and paused.

His pain was gone.

He looked down at his bare arms. The wounds on them seemed more healed now than they had been before he had taken Olivia, the red marks faded to pale scars. He felt stronger too. Being around her, close to her, had restored his healing ability and had given him back a fraction of his strength. Fascinating.