Free Dearly Beloved by Jackie Ivie Page A

cannot allow the Hunters to gain you. Please cease arguing and climb up.”
    “I’m beginning to think it’s a gender thing.”
    “You still argue?”
    “Men. They just can’t see the obvious. I’m not moving without you. Period.”
    “I will be right behind you,
Agapimeni
—.”
    His voice quavered again. Courtney’s heart dropped. Her eyes misted. All of it worse than wrong.
Stupid. Supremely, totally, overwhelmingly stupid
.
    She didn’t dare feel anything for him. She had her reasons. Not only was he way too pretty, but he’d be completely unmanageable. Prone to violent episodes. Able to bust through stone walls. Chuck heavy tables right into the ocean. Swoop and fly without expending an ounce of effort. He was being hunted. He had some very odd friends…and she might as well admit it.
    He really was a vampire.
    They might not exist, but that didn’t change it. The guy was a true creature of the night. She didn’t need a relationship therapist to see they’d never suit. Courtney forced every emotion away, aimed for the most sarcastic and cold tone she could, and actually thought she managed it.
    “Whoa. Down, Boy. It’s not what you think.”
    He blinked and looked like she’d hit him. That was just at her tone. Courtney kept it up.
    “I’m not going anywhere without you because we are wrapped in the same sheet. I’m not about to prance about stark naked. Are you?”
    “My name is not Boy. It is Dominick.”
    If she’d thought him dangerous before, she’d been mistaken. The look he gave her literally stopped her heart. He looked chiseled from marble and just as hard. His eyes weren’t warm, nor were they glowing. They were black and obsidian cold. Death-cold.
    Courtney couldn’t control the shiver. She didn’t need to be a vampire aficionado to read that look. If he didn’t believe them mated, she’d be dead. History. Yet even now, with murderous intent covering him, he was still jaw-dropping gorgeous. Her mouth was bone dry and everything on her shook. He didn’t say a word, only reached over his shoulder to pull the end of the sheet loose before stepping back from her. Then he wrapped the rest of it about her, rippling bared chest muscle the entire time.
    And he had on thigh-length skin-tight black swim trunks.
    “Go below. Rashid will escort you.”
    He jerked his head and another explosion rocked the chamber. The resultant chunk of stalactite barely missed spearing where Dom stood, ignoring everything as he kept his eyes on hers. She’d been right the first time. Domination wasn’t the name of any stupid boat.
     

CHAPTER ELEVEN
     
    He’d been mistaken. This mate of his was a remarkable woman. The more he was around her, the more amazing she grew. She’d be the perfect assassin: nothing to look at twice, and a complete mistake to overlook. It wasn’t any individual feature; it was the combination of them. She was well-formed. He got a very good example of that since she’d slid her way into his embrace hours earlier and stayed there. She had those greenish eyes, blemish-free skin, perfect lips, and this ash-blond hair that easily curled. She hadn’t dried it from her shower, taken after demolishing two burgers and a half pound of deep-fried potatoes, washed down with a couple of lagers. According to Rashid, she’d been humming to herself through most of it, too.
    It wasn’t just her physical features. Nor was it the wondrous smell wafting from every portion of her. Dominick lifted the lock of hair curled around his finger to his nose and sniffed, and that got him jolted by electricity only she seemed to have. The sparks she sent were more than considerable. They were addictive. She wielded it without any effort right at him. He blinked on a sudden wash, blurring her image, and then forced the rampant emotion down.
    This mating thing was overwhelming at times.
    “We really have to stop this, you know.”
    Her words lifted him from contemplation of his finger to meet her eyes.