More Than Blood by Amanda Vyne Page B

managed the presence of mind to deny her instincts to claim him by taking his blood. But, hell, she only accepted him when he overwhelmed her with her own attraction. He didn’t want that final and sacred exchange to occur over the fucking hood of a rental car in a parking garage.
    Fuck! She would never understand what she saw as a rejection. She flouted the laws of his people, her people, with every word and act, whether she knew it or not. The short hair. The piercing. He suspected they were her way of denouncing the culture that had condemned her. How was she to understand his need to share his blood in a more traditional way, without any regrets or recriminations? How could he even expect her to accept it, accept him, let alone his House, after what had happened to her in that fucking Triumvirate home? He didn’t even understand how his House, his father, could have condemned a child to such atrocities.
    Even now her hurt and confusion ate at him, despite her attempts to pull away from their connection. Away from him.
    But it was too late. Even without the overwhelming craving of the beast inside him, he was no longer willing to let her go. There was no returning from this. He would find a way to make it work.
    “Just let me go.” He absorbed the pain of her softly spoken words.
    “I can’t.” His warm fingers wrapped around her wrist and pressed the release mechanism on the silver cuff, letting it fall into his palm. “I’m sorry, baby. I truly am.”
    Kel didn’t acknowledge his whispered words or the feel of his lips brushing over her hair as she silently shimmered out of his arms.
    Gabe braced his hands against the sports car, hanging his head. The dim light reflected over the gleaming hood and he frowned. Two sets of gouges marred the surface. With a finger he traced one thoughtfully. Claws.
    She was Guardian as well as Sanguen. He’d been so absorbed with the fact that she was a crossbreed he’d been focused on pressing her to accept the part of her that was like him that he hadn’t thought about the part of her that wasn’t. His people viewed Guardians in a worse light than even crossbreeds.
    Gabe flattened his palm against the gouges with a curse. There had to be a way to make this work.

 
     
     
Chapter Six
     
     
    “What is this place?”
    Kel glanced back at Ferrar. He stood tall and solid behind her, a pair of dark sunglasses obscuring most of his face. It was just before noon the following morning and there was just enough cloud cover to offer him some protection from the sun. Not that it mattered to her.
    It wasn’t like she asked him to come along anyway.
    “Haven House.” She reached out and pushed the doorbell. Usually she just shimmered in, but Gabe was unfamiliar to the ladies inside and ultimately they had to grant him entrance.
    From the corner of her eye, she watched his reaction. She didn’t know why she should care, but somehow it was important to her. Haven House was important to her. He was noting the peeling paint around the windows and the rusted metal railing, his expression unreadable. It was nothing like what he’d come from. House complexes were usually kept in immaculate condition. From the outside it didn’t look much different from the Triumvirate home they’d visited last night, but the inside more than made up for its lack of aesthetic appeal.
    Peering briefly at him from behind the mirrored lenses of her sunglasses, she tried not to shift uncomfortably under the weight of his gaze as they slowly trailed over her short, frayed jean miniskirt and tall black boots again. He’d been preoccupied with the skirt this morning back at Incog. Maybe pureblood girls dressed more appropriately, but she dressed as she damned well pleased. This morning his body language was very proprietary, like what happened the night before had suddenly given him a legitimate claim on her. He was crowding her by standing too close. It was driving her nuts. She was still battling an edgy