“Probably not many.”
“Only two. You and…” He stopped, clearing his throat. “Well, my asshole of a twin, but we won’t talk about him right now.”
Oh, no. He had a twin? “That part of the story is true, too?”
His fingers stopped their gentle caress. “You’ve heard about him?”
His touch made her feel funny. Hot. Shivery. Weird. “Could you move your hand?”
His brows lifted.
“Please?”
“Am I hurting you?” His fingers were still around her throat.
“No.”
“Then why move?”
Her eyes closed. “Because I think you’re turning me on. And it’s weird…wanting you when I’m scared. Wanting you when all you’re doing is touching me on my throat.”
He’d gone silent.
“I think you’re using your power against me now.” It was easier to speak when she didn’t have to look him in the eye. “Payback, huh? To see what it’s like to be vulnerable? To need someone else, to want someone, against your instincts. To—”
He laughed again. Only the sound was richer. Darker.
Her eyes opened. For just an instant, she could have sworn that she saw the flash of gold in his dark gaze. Gold…like the panther shifter’s stare. But then the flash was gone.
“I’m not making you want me. I’m not using any power against you.” His lips brushed lightly against hers. “What you feel is real desire. No tricks. You want me, Mina. You want to strip off that robe and have sex with me right here, right now.”
He was wrong. “That isn’t me. I’m not like that.” Despite what everyone thought. Despite what she’d made others think. “I’m not supposed to want you.”
He kissed her again. His tongue slid past her lips, pushed into her mouth. Tasted her.
A moan broke from Mina.
“Why not?” he rasped against her mouth. “I want you.”
She had to stop this. Stop him. Stop herself. Her hands flew up and pressed to his chest. “Don’t do this to me! Stop punishing me!”
But he shook his head. “Desire isn’t a punishment, especially not between us.”
She realized that he was telling the truth. “You…aren’t doing anything to me?”
“No.”
Her heartbeat seemed to echo in her ears.
“You just want me.” He shrugged. “Most women do, so don’t beat yourself up over that.”
Jerk.
“Only I don’t want them…” Luke continued in the next moment. “Not the way I want you. You’re…something different. Something special.”
She’d spent most of her life thinking she was a freak, and any “special” talk had always been an insult. But this was different. His voice, the way he looked at her…
“I think you’re something extraordinary.”
She swallowed twice. “I’m a siren. My voice makes humans lose their control. I’m…evil.”
“Then that just makes you mine, if the stories are true.”
Ah, right. The stories. They were back to that. And she found that she had the courage to push him a bit. “I know one of those stories. According to it, two twin boys were born, a very, very long time ago. One was predicted to rule the dark and all of the creatures that found solace in the shadows.”
He didn’t even blink. “And one was supposed to reign in the light. To have an army at his call, to defend the weak, to protect the innocent…and blah fucking blah.” He exhaled. “An old tale. Good twin, bad twin. Only we went to some pretty big extremes in my family.”
Yes, they had.
“Leo,” Luke said. “That’s my brother, older than me by all of two minutes and the biggest pain in the ass you can imagine.”
“I doubt that.” Her gaze was on his mouth. She needed to stop staring at his lips. “I’ve got my own pain that I’m dealing with right now.”
As soon as the words left her, Mina knew she’d said the wrong thing. The very air around her seemed to thicken. Tension rolled through her—tension that came from him.
“Someone scares you, sweetheart?”
“You scare me,” Mina said quickly. “That whole ‘I’m keeping you’ thing isn’t normal, you know. People don’t just—”
“I’m not people.”
No, she supposed he wasn’t.
“Who scares you?”
“I scare myself.” Another truth she had always kept hidden from others. But for some reason, out there, with him, she was finding that her secrets wouldn’t stay silent. “I don’t like being this way. I don’t like having the ability to control others. I don’t like having to watch every single thing I say for fear of hurting someone, killing someone.”
He nodded, seeming to understand. “Words can be powerful weapons. Especially, I imagine, your words.”
He had no idea. But that was exactly what she’d become. A weapon. One that some very deadly people were determined to use, whether she was willing or not. “I really wish you’d just give me the Eye,” she muttered. “It would make everything so much easier.”
His hand slid away from her throat and she immediately missed the warmth of his touch. “The Eye…the precious token you came to steal from me.”
She didn’t deny it.
His gaze swept over her. “You can’t get the Eye by theft.”