Blood Bond by Kit Tunstall Read Free Book Online Page B

us.”
    She felt a stir of anger, remembering how
she had always respected the barriers in place between them. Being a vampire,
it would have been easy to tune in to their thoughts, especially in the early
days of their bonding, when their minds hadn’t acquired any psychic abilities.
How dare they not give her the same respect?
    “We felt bad about it,” Sorin said. “We knew
it was wrong, but we never, ever listened in when you were doing other
things. It was only when we sensed your arousal. You have to understand that it
was desperation driving us, dragostia . We’ve been aching for you since
we were seventeen and formed the blood-bond with you.
    “When we joined with you, we didn’t think
about not being able to have you in every way. When we realized what your
future position meant for all of us, we tried to deny our feelings for you, but
the time passing has only increased our need, not diminished it, as we had
hoped it would.” He gave a small, forced laugh. “Your being forbidden made you
all the more tantalizing.”
    She remained motionless when Lucian touched
her thigh. She refused to look at him, but couldn’t pretend that her heart
didn’t race at the light touch.
    “Hasn’t it been the same for you? Knowing
you can’t be with us, but longing for it. Haven’t you been tempted to do things
you thought you shouldn’t?”
    She turned her head to meet his eyes. She
winced at the mingled shame and desire she saw there. Slowly, she nodded,
remembering the hours she had spent masturbating while fantasizing about the
two of them.
    “We planned to tell you that we had seen
your fantasies,” Sorin said. He glared at Lucian. “We just hadn’t planned to
today.”
    Heat blossomed in her cheeks, and it wasn’t
from the temperature of the hot springs. “You know what I fantasized about. Was
last night staged?”
    There was a hesitation, before Sorin spoke
again. “We did arrange for you to walk in on us. We’d hoped you seeing what you
desired would crumble the last of your resistance—because we are all lovers, dragostia .”
    Should she be angry for their manipulation,
or grateful that their plan had finally overruled her sense of duty? Starr
couldn’t decide. She had known coming to the cabin with them would lead to
lovemaking, but had expected it to occur naturally. She hadn’t imagined it
would happen because they had orchestrated it.
    Would she have been brave enough to make
the first move? Even last night, she had been powerless to act on her wants for
a long time. If she were honest with herself, she had needed that extra push
provided by Sorin and Lucian.
    She fixed a frown on her face. “I expect
you to stay out of my mind now that you’ve gotten what you want.”
    “We will,” Sorin said.
    “What we all wanted,” Lucian added
simultaneously.
    The last bit of anger faded away, and Starr
relaxed. “Yes, that’s true.” She leaned back and closed her eyes. Sorin and
Lucian moved closer to her, but neither reached out to touch her. They seemed
content to relax without speaking.
    It was a while before she broke the
silence. By then, her muscles had relaxed, and apparently, her tongue had
loosened too. “We’re very near Necheau. Perhaps you should visit your
families.” She was instantly aware of the way they tensed and could have kicked
herself. She knew they didn’t like talking about their past, but still couldn’t
resist trying to get them to reconcile with the Pack at least once or twice a
year.
    She opened her eyes when Sorin shifted away
from her. The bleak expression he wore made her frown. She looked at Lucian and
saw it mirrored on his face. This was different from their usual brusque
reaction to any mention of the life they had turned away from when they were
seventeen. “What is it?”
    It was a long moment before Sorin answered.
He sounded reluctant, and there was no disguising the trace of pain in his
eyes. “My mother is dead, Starr. She died a year ago, last