"You could call it that," he groused. "As much as I hate to admit it, there wasn't much of a fight. I barely sensed the Jinn's approach before he'd killed my brother and captured me."

"And he did this to you when you tried to escape?" she husked.

Uriel's bitter laugh echoed through the nearby trees. "No, he allowed me to leave. This was his curse."

"A curse?" She looked genuinely confused. No big surprise. Uriel was still trying to puzzle out what the h.e.l.l had happened. "Are you certain?"

He rubbed the scar that had throbbed with a low intensity ache since his escape from the London docks, belatedly realizing that the throb had become more p.r.o.nounced since his unexpected journey into the underworld.

A coincidence?

It had to be.

He couldn't allow himself to consider anything else.

If he went postal and hurt Kata . . .

Yeah, he so wasn't going to go there.

Not even in his darkest awhat ifs'.

"Painfully certain," he said, his voice clipped.

"What did he do?"

"The b.a.s.t.a.r.d made me his slave."

Dropping his bomb of shame, Uriel abruptly turned to dive into the water of the stream. The cool, crystal clear water washed over his skin, although it couldn't wash away the helpless fury that pulsed through him.

Surfacing, he shook the hair out of his eyes and turned to find Kata standing at the edge of the stream, her dark eyes troubled.

She was so beautiful that she made his heart ache.

The dark curls wildly tumbled around her lovely face. The ivory satin skin. The lush curves.

An intoxicating, earthy woman that called to a man's most primitive desires.

"What did he do to you?" she softly asked.

He clenched his teeth against the savage longing that clutched at him.

He had to keep her safe.

Nothing else mattered.

"He said that I was to be the instrument of his revenge," Uriel repeated the words he'd shared with Victor almost two weeks ago.

She averted her face, wading into the water until it lapped over the full curve of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"You think this Jinn is the father of Laylah?"

He couldn't deny her accusation. "Since there's only been one Jinn sighting in London for the past millennium it seems like a safe a.s.sumption."

"And that's why you treated me like I carried the plague."

He flinched at her harsh accusation, not wanting to remember his arrogant disdain.

"I've done everything in my power to rescue you."

She refused to look at him. "You think I'm a Jinn wh.o.r.e."

Even knowing it was a truly stupid idea, Uriel couldn't stop himself from moving through the water to stand directly before her. Gently he grabbed her shoulders, battling back his surge of l.u.s.t.

"I know that Marika held you against your will."

She turned her head, her eyes snapping with her ready temper.

Kata would never be a soothing female. She was pa.s.sionate, turbulent, and unpredictable.

She was also intensely loyal, courageous, and the very essence of female temptation, he acknowledged with a bleak sense of loss.

"And yet you suspect I might actually have enjoyed being trapped with the handsome demon?" she accused him.

He wouldn't lie. Not to this woman.

"At first."

"And now?"

"Now it doesn't matter," he said with simple honesty.

She once again turned away, studying the trees that lined the far bank as if she had a sudden fascination with the tiny violets that were hidden among the moss.

"Right."

"Kata. Look at me," he said softly.

"No."

"Please."

Grudgingly she snapped her gaze back to glare at him. "Satisfied?"

"No. I'm . . ." Words failed him.

"What?"

"Furious," he at last managed to rasp.

She jerked as if she'd been slapped. "I didn't ask you to soil your vampire hands with my tainted . . ."

"Shut up and listen to me," he interrupted her.

The very air vibrated the force of her anger. "You're an idiot if you think I won't hurt you just because we had s.e.x."

"We didn't have s.e.x, we made love." He cupped her face in his hands, shuddering at the erotic sensation of the water stroking over their nude bodies. He moved close enough that the tips of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s brushed his chest. "Or do I need to remind you?"

Her breath caught, the scent of her swift arousal perfuming the air.

"Uriel," she growled in warning. "Don't."

His lips twisted, but he refused to release his grasp on her face. He wouldn't let her believe he thought she was anything but glorious.

"Kata, what happened between you and the Jinn . . ."

She poked a finger into the center of his chest, her expression stubborn.

"I won't discuss it."

"Fair enough," he swiftly agreed. "Someday you will trust me enough to share your past, but for now you can keep your secrets."

"Big of you."

He ignored her sarcasm. "All I care about is the Jinn's curse. And what he might force me to do."

Her anger faltered at his blunt confession. With a frown, she lowered her gaze to his scar.

"The demon is dead." Impossible to know what she felt about the creature's violent demise. "How do you know that his curse didn't die with him?"

"Because I can still feel his power."

"That doesn't mean the spell remains active."

"It's not a risk I'm willing to take." He held her gaze, his expression somber. "Not with you."

"I don't understand."

"You're mine."

Something flared to life deep in her eyes.

Something hot and wild and shockingly primal.

Then, with an obvious surge of panic, she was swiftly trying to disguise her instinctive response.

"So you've said, but then you remembered I'm the mother of a Jinn half-breed," she accused him, her voice brittle.

He shook his head. "No, then I remembered that I couldn't risk my mate just because I desire you beyond all reason."

Chapter 8.

As show-stoppers went, this one was a doozie.

She was supposed to be angry with him.

Who the h.e.l.l did he think he was judging her for what had happened two centuries ago?

Did he think that she'd asked to be kidnapped and held captive by her nutcracker of a sister? Or that she'd wanted to be involved in the evil scheme to create a Jinn half-breed for the sole purpose of returning the Dark Lord to the world?

It was bad enough that a part of her would always feel guilty that the Jinn had made certain their time together hadn't been rape. Did Uriel have to dredge up the memories she wanted to keep buried far in the back of her mind?

Now, however, she was . . .

h.e.l.l, she didn't know what she was.

Flabbergasted? Gobsmacked?

Full on monty, had-to-be-losing-her-mind excited?

With a shiver, she studied the unearthly beauty of his face, wondering if this was some sort of painful joke.

"Mate?" she croaked.

His lips twisted in a humorless smile. "Does the thought horrify you because I'm a vampire?"

"I'm not horrified," she swiftly denied. "I'm shocked."

"Why?"

"Why?" She snorted. "Do you want a list?"

His velvet gaze skimmed down to the thrust of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, lingering on the nipples that hardened beneath the feral heat of his inspection.

"The top three should be sufficient," he said, his voice thick.

She yanked away from his lingering touch.

How was she supposed to think of anything besides wrapping herself around him and doing lovely, wicked things when he was so close?

"We barely know each other," she finally managed to choke out.

He shrugged. "A vampire often recognizes his mate within the first hours of their meeting."