Close Obsession (The Krinar Chronicles 2)

His expression darkened, and his eyes turned that dangerous shade of gold again. “Mia, if you don’t walk away right now, you won’t be able to. Ever. Do you understand me?”

Her heart hammering in her chest, Mia stared defiantly at him. “No, I don’t. I don’t understand you at all.” And instead of walking away, she took a step in his direction.

In the blink of an eye, he was next to her, moving so fast that she jumped in surprise. His hand flashed toward her and closed around the front of her dress, holding her in place as he loomed over her. “What don’t you understand?” he said softly, and she heard the barely controlled rage in the velvety smoothness of his voice. “You want me to beg you to stay? To tell you how much I love you again?”

Her chest rapidly rising and falling with every breath, Mia swallowed to get rid of the obstruction in her throat. She’d never seen him in this kind of mood before, and she was almost frightened. Almost – because she now knew that he would never hurt her. Not physically, at least.

“Why didn’t you leave when I gave you a chance, Mia?” he whispered harshly, jerking her toward him until she was pressed against his body, feeling the heat radiating from him and the hard bulge growing in his jeans. “Don’t you know how much it cost me to let you go?”

He wasn’t trying to get rid of her. He was giving her freedom because he thought that’s what she wanted.

The truth dawned on her, and Mia almost burst into tears again. Korum loved her; he loved her enough to let her walk away, to overcome his own need to keep her with him.

For the first time, he was giving her a choice.

Her heart filling with incandescent joy, Mia stared up at him, seeing the signs of strain on his beautiful face. He loved her, and he was letting her walk away. The magnitude of his gesture didn’t escape her. This gorgeous, powerful man had never been denied anything he truly wanted before – and she now knew beyond a shadow of doubt that he wanted her. His intellect and ambition had propelled Korum to the top of Krinar society, and he was used to having an extraordinary amount of influence and control. Here on Earth, his power was even greater; as a member of the race that conquered her planet, he could do almost anything without consequences. Among humans, he was like a god.

What would it be like, to wield that kind of power? Would she have been able to restrain herself if she knew that she could take anything she wanted? Have anyone she wanted? Mia had never asked herself that question before, and she wondered if she would like her own answer.

The fact that he was giving her a choice now . . . She knew how difficult it was for him, how much it went against his nature. He considered her his, and by Krinar law, she belonged to him. For Korum to relinquish that power, to let her leave him – that, more than anything, showed her how much she now meant to him.

So instead of flinching away in fear of his temper, she slid her hands up his chest, gripping his face between her palms. Holding his gaze with her own, she whispered, “I don’t want to go. I don’t ever want to go . . .”

His eyes flared brighter, and she could see his pupils expanding even as his mouth descended on hers, his lips hard and almost bruising. His tongue invaded her mouth, his kiss all-consuming, and she met him eagerly, reveling in the frantic hunger she could taste in his kiss. His hands migrated to her back, tightened until she could barely breathe, and she could feel his large body trembling with the intensity of his emotions.

Pulling back for a second, he growled, “You’re staying,” and Mia nodded, even though it wasn’t a question. Standing up on tiptoes, she kissed him again, and felt the room tilt as he swung her up into his arms, carrying her to the couch.

The control he exerted over himself earlier was completely gone, and she could feel the primitive need driving him now. He wasn’t gentle, and she didn’t want him to be, not right now, not when she so desperately craved his passion. His hands ripped off her dress, her underwear, and then he was plunging into her, wild with the urge to get inside, to claim her in the most basic way possible.

At the force of his entry, Mia cried out and arched toward him, her fingers curving into claws, digging into the back of his neck. He felt impossibly hard and thick, stretching her, filling her until she forgot all about the agony of nearly losing him, lost in the driving power of his thrusts.

His right hand fisted in her hair, pulled her head to the side, exposing her neck, and then he bit her, the sharp edges of his teeth slicing across her skin. Mia gasped at the sudden pain, and then his mouth latched onto the wound and the world around her dissolved as ecstasy rushed through her veins.

For the next several hours, all she knew was the dark rapture of his embrace.

Chapter 25

“So tell me more about this immortality thing,” Mia said lazily, watching as he lifted one long curl and traced a circle with it on his own shoulder.

They were lying in bed side by side, having sated themselves yet again this morning.

Mia could hardly remember the rest of the day yesterday. After he’d bitten her, she didn’t regain her senses until late in the evening, when he’d woken her up from exhausted sleep in order to feed her dinner. Then he brought her back to bed, and she passed out again, opening her eyes this morning only to find him watching her with a hungry look on his face. “Finally,” he’d muttered before stripping away the blanket and crawling down her body, his skilled mouth bringing her to orgasm before she was even fully awake. Afterwards, he’d taken her again, as though he couldn’t bear to be physically separated from her for even a few hours.

Now he turned his head to look at her, a warm glow in his eyes. “What do you want to know?” he asked, smiling.

“Everything,” Mia told him. “Have you always known how to do that – to make humans immortal? And how does it work, exactly? Am I still human, or am I some weird hybrid? Do I also have enhanced speed and strength? And will I ever change physically, or is this how I’m going to look for the rest of my life?”

He laughed, rising up on his elbow. “That’s quite a few questions. Let me start with the easy ones. Yes, you’re still human. No, you’re not really that much stronger or quicker than you were, although you’re in somewhat better shape. However, you do heal very fast. If you wanted to get stronger, it would be easy for you; all you’d need to do is start lifting weights and doing exercise. Your body regenerates so rapidly now that you won’t need any downtime, and you could become as fit as any of your top athletes in a matter of weeks.

“You have more endurance now too, again because of your body’s rapid healing properties. And no, you’re definitely not a hybrid of any kind. The nanocytes mimic the natural functions of your body and repair all damage; that’s really all they do. They restore your body to its optimal state, so yes, you won’t really change physically going forward. You’re going to remain young and beautiful for years and centuries to come.”

Mia listened to his explanation, her pulse beginning to pound with excitement. “Wow,” she whispered in amazement. “I don’t even know what to say. Just . . . wow.”

Korum grinned at her, and then his expression became more serious. “As to the first part of your question, this is a relatively new technology for us. We’ve only had it for the last few thousand years.”

“A few thousand years? That’s a really long time . . .” They could’ve given humans immortality at any point in the last few thousand years?

He sighed. “If you say so.”