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"Handy" I gave hi as there aren’t exactly hed "Precisely" He sounded pleased, and that pleased me…ain What was o I was there, which meant he trustedto know hi for the real Carden The cottage was a bit on the Spartan side, lacking things like pictures or paintings I realized what else was"You don’t have any appliances," I said suddenly

"I’erator" He cocked his head uess not"

He took a large fork from the hearthstone to spear and flip a piece of fish the size of rate over the coals, and the fish hit it with a sizzle

I inhaled, taking in the aroht I was sick of seafood, but"Wow, that sood"

"Aye It’s fresh" He nodded to theMoonlight sparkled on the lake, shi mere feet from the door "From the loch just outside"

He put down his fork, clapped the soot from his hands, and in one swift otten what it is to be a man"

If knowing how to kiss me till I was dizzy or cook the heck out of a piece of fish was a sign of being a man, then Carden was one with a capital M

CHAPTER TWELVE

"I should go," I told hih he’d nestled me close, he must’ve sensed I wasn’t ready for toofrom him, too, added a whole extra layer of intensity I wasn’t ready for much more than that…not yet I felt close to him, intimate, yet not put-upon I was safe, utterly He wouldn’t dely offer

It was just right--he was just right

"Not yet, love" He flexed his large arhtly to him "First you must drink"

"But I drank already" We’d kissed, and I’d tasted Carden’s lifeblood puh e in h?"

"Yes…" I paused to turn inward, checking in with er, and lately I needed less blood to feel this way "I feel different from before"

He pulled away to meet my eye "Good different?"

"Yeah" I sood, actually"

"It’s as I hoped," he said "As our bond grows deeper, you will grow stronger Able to part froer"

"No blood fever, you mean?" When we’d first bonded, my first impulse had been to break our bond and I’d experi apart froo so well I’d felt itchy and achy and just plain crazy

"The risk never coer" He rolled onto his back, lifting er," he repeated in a voice gone hoarse He squeezed th then and there "And will becoer still" Then he pulled ht of the fever Even if I didn’t fear it, I’d still want this Want hiet past that feeling--that I wasn’t dependent on Carden every single day to function Not that I wanted to part from him, but the fever had made me jittery, helpless Girls died from it, driven insane by their dependence on the blood

When we parted, I asked, "So does this mean the day will coave me a hard, narrow-eyed stare that I could tell was playful…ed his shoulder "No, that’s not what I wish," I said, uess"

"Ironic?"

"That the closer we get, the farther from you I can be"