Undying Hope (18 page)

Haven braced her hands on the walls on either side of her. “Whoa,
Treòir
, stop. You’ll shake the entire building down.”

* * * *

Donovan used the moment to punch back up to the surface. The shaking stopped, and he flattened himself up against the opposite wall. “Haven,” he rasped.

She pitched forward, giving him no choice but to catch her. He held on a little tighter than he should have.
Oberon’s blood!
This was pure insanity. No wonder lifebonds needed someone hanging around to keep them safe while they bonded. He knew Wolf wouldn’t understand. He connected with the one man he knew would. “
Riordan, get your ass here now. Call Memphis if you need, too.”
Then he closed off the connection.

“Haven?” he rasped out her name again.

“I’m fine…really, I am…I just…” She wiggled out of his hold. “Let’s get your arm cleaned up.”

“Riordan will be here in a minute. He can take care of it.” His jaw worked for a moment. “Are you all right?”

“Besides my mate freaking out on me and wanting to die, I’m just peachy,” she snapped.

“Quinn!” Riordan bellowed when a rattle of wind subsided. “What the hell is going on?”

Haven made a face at him. “You tattled on yourself?”

Donovan worked to keep from yelling so he wouldn’t scare her again or make his
treòir
go nuts. “I was twelve years old the last time my power was able to take over like that. Do you have any idea how terrifying it is to be trapped inside your own body? Unable to stop what’s going on around you while the part of you that only kills is touching your woman?”

“Quinn!” Riordan bellowed again.

Donovan pushed open the powder room door. “We’re in here. Is Memphis with you?”

“Yes. Do you want me to send him away?”

“Not yet. I have something I need checked out. Memphis can take it to Brogan for me.” He hooked his arm around Haven as they exited.

Haven shied away from Memphis when they got into the living room. “Sorry,” she mumbled and tucked herself up hard against Donovan’s side.

“No worries,” Memphis said and winked at her. “I understand.” Memphis assessed Donovan. The immediate air around Memphis went as icy as his tone. “You have something for me?”

Donovan reached into his pocket and handed him the necklace. “I recently acquired it. Have both Brogan and Maverick take a look before I give it to Haven. I don’t want her touching anything possessed with magic until I know she won’t be harmed.”

Memphis stared down at the item in his hand, and then his gaze snapped to Haven. His sienna eyes streaked with purple lightning. A deep reverent expression softened the hard lines of his face and he bowed deeply. “Reannon. It will be an honor.” In the next moment, a spiral of wind twisted around him, and he was gone.

Haven made a squeaking sound even as she relaxed. “See, that kind of thing is just not supposed to happen to me.”

“You are my Haven,” Donovan said. “He will treat you with more respect and deference than he treats me.”

A smile wobbled on her lips. “That’s very sweet, but I was talking about how he vanished.”

Donovan chuckled. “Memphis doesn’t need to open a large portal when he travels alone, unless he’s signaling his arrival.”

Riordan cleared his throat.

Donovan tensed. “Thanks for coming without the others.”

One of Riordan’s dark brows winged up. “You sounded upset and confused, not psychotic. I figured one or all three of you were freaking out about something.”

“We broached the topic of conversions,” Donovan said through clenched teeth.

Riordan winced. “I see. So what happened?”

“He yelled, I wigged,
Treòir
reacted,” Haven said.

“That doesn’t explain why his arm is bleeding,” Riordan said with a true note of concern. “The
treòir
didn’t do this to you, did it?”

“No,” Haven said quickly. “Some little purple fairy thing showed up to give me the necklace, and I dropped a couple of plates. When
Treòir
reacted, Quinn fell on the floor right in the middle of the mess and cut his arm.”

“Don’t scare me like that again.” Riordan’s words came out in a snarl. “I can’t save you if your
treòir
is willing to shred you.”

“Stop,” Haven said. “The goal here is to keep everyone alive and happy.” She used an overly cheerful tone. She rubbed at her side. “So why don’t we keep the conversation along those lines, shall we?”

“Haven, this could be serious,” Riordan said. “A
treòir
would rather kill the man than allow him to harm his lifebond.”

She swallowed and put a hand to her stomach. “Yeah, and the man would rather kill the
treòir
than let his lifebond be hurt. I’m not going to say I get it, because I don’t, but I can feel Quinn in me. He was yelling and upset. He wasn’t going to hurt me, honest. I need to be changed into what he is, but that terrifies him.”

“The survival rate isn’t high,” Riordan said in a somber tone.

“Maybe if I knew exactly what happens during a conversion,” Donovan offered.

Riordan blanched. “That would only make it worse.”

“How?” Donovan demanded.

“You don’t need the details,” Riordan said. “If the conversion works, it does, and that’s all—”

“The hell that’s all I need to know!” he bellowed at his brother. “If you want me to poison the woman with my blood, then you damn well better believe I want to know exactly what happens after that. Why don’t our women survive?”

Haven put her hand on his forearm. “We’re just talking. There is no need to yell.”

He clenched his jaw, but he was no longer shouting. “Riordan, you will tell me.”

Riordan paced a few times before he came to stop in front of Donovan. “Haven, why don’t you go finish up in the kitchen? Nikon said you’d do the conversion as long as you didn’t have to know the details.”

She looked between the two brothers before she slowly nodded and hurried off into the kitchen, Nikon right at her heels while Medea stayed with Donovan.

Donovan started picking up the blankets and pillows scattered in front of the fireplace. “It’s that bad?”

Riordan helped him with his task. “Her body will have to completely shut down before restarting as Undying.”

“No,” Donovan said. Riordan made it sound like a simple computer reboot. “You’re asking me to kill her.”

“Quinn—”

“Don’t try to make what I’ll be doing sound better than what it actually is. If her body shuts down, she’s dead. Now I understand why only twenty-five percent fucking survive. Not even Kenneth could heal death!”

Riordan got right up in Donovan’s face. “I did. Nadia lives and she is Undying. Our father did. It’s not impossible. You can do this, and Haven will survive.”

Donovan ground his teeth together. “Can you guarantee she’ll come back?”

“I can’t, but—”

“I’m not doing it,” he roared. “I am not going to willingly poison her so she can writhe in pain while I watch her die in my arms. I’ve had to put down too many of our warriors because they killed their own lifebonds. It’s not going to happen.”

“Helena wasn’t Kyros’s lifebond, and you know it,” Riordan countered.

“Kyros—” He started and then stopped. The apartment shook with the raw anger swirling around him. The man who had once been a brother in arms was now their worst nightmare. “I will be worse than Kyros.”

“No,” Riordan said. “Kyros’s
treòir
would have never left Helena to die like that alone if she’d have been his. Your
treòir
will not let Haven die.”

“I can’t do this,” Donovan said. “I won’t do that to Haven. After what she gave me last night…after what we shared. I’m sorry, Riordan. She gave me life. I am not going to take hers away.”

“Quinn?”

Donovan closed his eyes and let her voice wrap around him. The peace that the sound of her voice offered still amazed him. “Yes?”

She padded up behind him and rested her forehead against his back. “It’s difficult to do the bonding thing if you’re going to avoid me.”

He grumbled at the hurt tone. After breakfast, he’d kicked his brother out, then he’d taken refuge in his office. He could lie to himself and say he’d done it to give Haven the space she needed to do whatever women did to get themselves ready for the day, but she was right. He was avoiding her—no, not her—he wanted to be as close to her as possible. He was avoiding having to deal with the fact he wasn’t able to give his lifebond what she wanted—what she needed.

Forever.

He turned around from staring out the window as another snow squall fell onto the streets below.

The woman was stunning.

Every time he laid eyes on her, she captivated him. She wore a dress that hugged each delicious curve with soft fabric. The neckline shouldn’t have been considered enticing, but his mouth watered anyway. His gaze traveled over her body and down to her waist, then farther down. The skirt of the dress came modestly to just above her knee. Delicate kneecaps were the only skin exposed to him from above knee-high boots. All her glorious hair fell around her, accentuating her beautiful frame. He cupped the side of her face, and lightly brushed the pad of his thumb along her bottom lip. “You should be angry with me.”

She moved in closer to him and slipped her arms around his waist. “Would it help if I screamed and cried and acted like a shrew?”

He lowered his head to brush his cheek along the top of her head. He loved the feel of her hair against his skin. “No, not really. I just—Oberon’s blood! I don’t know what to do with this. I am failing everyone by not converting you.”

She stretched up on her toes to tuck her head up under his chin. “I want you to take me out,” she murmured against his skin. “Some place where we can have fun.”

His body shivered with the warm caress. “Haven…”

Her arms looped around his neck and held on tighter. “Don’t do this to yourself,” she whispered. “I asked you to love me, not to live forever.”

“If I don’t change you, our people lose—”

“Quinn,” she said firmly. “Don’t focus on what everyone else needs right now. Focus on you.” She kissed his stubble. “Focus on me.” She pressed her body fully against his. “Focus on us.” She ran a finger down the side of his face. “Just because you can’t bring yourself to do a planned conversion doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with you.” She pulled his face closer. “I personally can’t find anything wrong with you having issues with doing something to me that will in fact render me dead for a few minutes.” She lightly touched her lips to his.

He let his mouth linger on hers, needing the sweet taste of her lips. “When you say it like that, it doesn’t sound like a failing.”

Her head dropped on his chest, and she made the most adorable growling sound. “Because it’s not.” She lifted her head and arched one of those delicate brows at him. “Unless you’re supposed to find it easy to kill me.”

He snarled at her and then jerked back before
treòir
could react. He had enough drama from that part of himself today. “That’s not funny.”

She let him go and walked to the door with an extra sway of her hips. “It wasn’t meant to be. Come on. You’re getting dressed and finding some place wonderful to take me today. I’m not going to be trapped inside with Mister Sullen for my entire bonding.” Then she vanished through the door.

He was powerless to keep from following her. “I am being an ass. My apologies.”

She looked over her shoulder at him. “So make it up to me. I am sure billionaire Quinn Donovan knows many ways to seduce a girl.”

“All the best ways are free.” He dropped his voice to a suggestive husk.

She turned around to walk backward away from him. A mischievous smile played in her eyes. “Is that so?”

“It is.” He stalked forward.

She bit her lower lip and gazed at him from beneath her lashes. It was pure coy feminine seduction. “You promised to love me, Mr. Donovan.”

He couldn’t remember the last time the need to be inside of a woman outweighed every rational thought he possessed. He reached out and hooked her with his arm, jerked her against the hard length of his body. His head lowered, and he dragged in her scent like it was life-giving oxygen. His hands slipped down to the hem of her dress. His lips brushed against hers once, before he took her mouth the way he wanted it.

Her body arched back. A moan of soft pleasure vibrated in her throat. “Right here.”

“Aye.” He added an erotic growl to the word. His fingers traced up her thighs, and he stopped before he grinned. “No panties.”

“A girl can hope,” Haven said. Her leg hooked around his to pull him closer. “You make me want to be a naughty girl, Mr. Donovan.”

“I can show you how.” His hand slid down her thighs as he went down on his knees on the floor in front of her. “Take the dress off.”

She slowly slinked it up over her body, then over her head and tossed it on the floor.

Sweet fire of Oberon! The woman was going to kill him. If there was a reason to be leery of the taking and giving of pleasure, he couldn’t remember. His cock was rock hard. She’d planned this, again. He was truly a lucky man.

Then everything became touch, sensation, and pleasure. He hooked one of her divine legs up over his shoulder. He held her balance while he explored her most sensitive parts with his tongue. Damn, did she taste good.

He stopped to fumble with his clothes. She ran her hands over his torso, his arms, his back. Wherever her hands touched branded him with her heat.

He kicked his boots off, and then shoved his pants down. “Haven.” He growled her name.

She grinned at him when he pinned her up against the wall. She leaned up and nipped at the hollow of his throat. “Quinn,” she moaned. “Need you.”

His hands ran over her flesh to grip her hips. He lifted her up and slammed into her.

She locked her legs around his waist and clutched his shoulders as his body moved inside of hers. Her back arched.

Donovan felt her on every level he was able to feel another being. The world melted away. The only two things in existence were the only two that mattered. Haven and himself. His thrusts started out raw, desperate for the release, but his body slowed. He needed to savor the feeling of Haven’s body wrapped tightly around his.