Pursued Read online

  Merrick remembered the fear in her eyes when he’d tried to undress her and suddenly understood. “All right,” he said at last, blowing out a breath. “Okay. I believe you.”

  “Thank you.” When she looked up, her eyes were shiny with unshed tears. “That means a lot to me. And thank you for coming to save me, even if you were mad.”

  “I was more than mad—I was fucking enraged,” Merrick admitted in a low voice. “I didn’t like the idea of you with another man. The idea of him touching you…taking you…”

  “He doesn’t,” she said quickly. “I mean we don’t…we’ve never…” She trailed off, blushing but Merrick understood what she was saying.

  “What, never?” he demanded. “In the whole time you’ve been together?”

  “No.” Elise shook her head firmly. “I know it sounds old-fashioned but, well, we’re waiting. Waiting until we’re married to…to consummate our relationship.”

  She didn’t sound very excited about the idea—more like it was a distasteful duty she was going to have to perform sometime in the future. Merrick frowned. Now everything made sense—the reason he hadn’t smelled another male on her was because she hadn’t been with another male. At least, not in the past year. Even his sensitive nose couldn’t pick up anything earlier than that.

  Then the implications really began to sink in and his heart leapt in his chest. Unclaimed! She’s unclaimed—not bonded to him at all. Without some kind of physical contact, her engagement was an empty promise, at least in Merrick’s mind. Suddenly he understood her fiancé’s possessive posturing. He didn’t have a hold on Elise—not really. His claim to her was unfounded, ungrounded and most importantly unconsummated.

  “So you’re not really his at all,” he said, putting his thoughts into words. “You don’t really belong to him.”

  Elise bristled. “I don’t belong to any man. I’m my own person, thank you very much.”

  “Sorry,” Merrick growled. “It’s just in the Kindred world, we’re very possessive of our mates. When you find the female you want to spend the rest of your life with, you do everything you can to bind her to you.”

  She frowned. “What do you mean everything?”

  “Touching, tasting, scent marking…we’re pretty fucking tactile,” he said candidly. “I don’t understand how that idiot fiancé of yours could have such a beautiful woman and not mark you in some way.”

  “Mark me? How?” Her cheeks were getting pink and her breathing had speeded up some, Merrick noted.

  “Kindred males have scent glands we use to mark our females,” he explained. “Around our mouths and groins. When we find the right female, we want to rub against her, to touch her everywhere and mark her with our scent. That warns off other males—lets them know the female is spoken for.” He shook his head. “That was why I was so surprised when that little bastard popped up claiming to be your fiancé—I didn’t smell another male on you, even a human male—so I didn’t see how it was possible. Now I understand, if he’s never taken you…”

  “Never,” she said at once, shaking her head.

  “Then he’s never marked you.” Merrick let his voice drop to a low, possessive growl. “And if he’s never marked you, then you’re fair game, as far as I’m concerned.”

  “Merrick!” She bit her lip. “Don’t talk that way.”

  He raised an eyebrow at her. “What way? You know how I feel about you, Elise—why else would I come back for you? It’s fucking natural for me to want to mark you, to touch you, to taste you…”

  “T-taste me?” Her eyes were wide and her breathing was erratic. “You mean kiss me?”

  “Sure.” Merrick nodded. “But not on your mouth.”

  “Where, then?” she whispered.

  “You know where, baby.” Merrick stroked one of her thighs gently, loving the feel of her bare skin beneath the silky red dress. “Here,” he murmured. “Wanna taste you between your legs—taste your sweet little pussy.” The scent of her desire intensified and he knew she was probably wet as hell there right now. The idea of spreading her thighs and tasting her sweet, feminine core, of tonguing open her slippery petals and lapping her wet folds until she moaned his name and came all over his face had him throbbing in his pants.

  But Elise obviously had other ideas.

  “Merrick!” She pushed off his lap suddenly and jumped away, her arms held protectively over her bare breasts. “I…I think we should stop talking about this now.”

  “Sorry.” He regarded her lazily through half-lidded eyes. “Am I making you nervous?”

  “Of course it makes me nervous! I’m not used to having someone who wants…wants to do that to me.”

  “So your fiancé doesn’t even talk dirty to you?” Merrick shook his head. “He’s an even bigger idiot than I thought.”

  “James and I don’t discuss things like that because…well, we just don’t talk that way.” Her cheeks were flaming red now, he noted. Clearly what he’d said was affecting her, whether she wanted to admit it or not. Turning her back, she shrugged back into the dress. She buttoned it up rapidly before turning to face him again. Smoothing her hair back with both hands, she took a deep breath. “Let’s talk about something else. Am I cured now? I feel a lot better.”

  Merrick frowned. “I doubt it. Why—you that eager to go back to your fiancé?”

  “No.” She smoothed her hair again—a nervous gesture on her part, Merrick thought—and sighed. “I just…I don’t know. Maybe we should go back to the Kindred ship and find out what’s going on.”

  “Maybe so.” Rising, Merrick went to the control panel at the front of the ship and settled himself into the captain’s chair. “Take a seat and buckle up,” he instructed her. “My ship runs as smooth as silk normally but I never finished the long-range diagnostic. Getting out of the atmosphere is going to be a little bumpy.”

  She did as he instructed, silently, taking the chair beside his and buckling the too-large safety harness around her small frame. Merrick watched her from the corner of his eye as he prepped the star-duster for take-off. What in the seven hells was going on with her? She was willing to let him touch her and press her naked chest against his, but the moment the conversation turned sexual, she was a bundle of nerves.

  Something happened, he thought, remembering again the fear in her eyes when he’d tried to take off her dress. Someone did something to her. And now she’s got her idiot fiancé to believe she wants to wait to consummate until they’re joined. But there has to be more to it than just old-fashioned values. There’s a reason she doesn’t want to be touched that way. A reason she doesn’t want to think about anything to do with sex.

  But though her mind obviously rejected any kind of sexual physical contact, the same couldn’t be said of her body. Even now, Merrick could smell the warm, feminine scent of her desire drifting across the narrow divide between their chairs. When he’d talked about tasting her, her cheeks had gotten flushed and her breath had come short and erratic. Elise might not know it, but her body was hungry for something her mind wasn’t even willing to contemplate.

  And Merrick wanted to be the one to give it to her.

  Chapter Six

  “I’m very glad to see you looking so well, Elise.” Sylvan, the blond Kindred doctor who had overseen her recovery, smiled at her warmly. But Elise couldn’t help thinking there was a worried look in his pale blue eyes.

  “Thank you,” she said, shifting slightly on the exam table. “And thank you for sending Merrick back for me. I, um, understand that I might still be ill?”

  “I’m afraid so.” The worried look in the doctor’s eyes intensified. “In a way, anyway.”

  “What fucking way?” Merrick sounded impatient. He was standing behind her, not quite touching her but close enough that Elise could feel the heat of his big body against her back. It was both a comforting and somehow unnerving sensation. Ever since their conversation aboard his ship she was award of strange, new feelings toward him. Feelings she’d ne