Hot Blooded

was.
    Without warning the clouds rained sparks, red-hot embers, slivers of molten
fire that fell like raindrops in a steady barrage. Riordan bent his body
protectively over Juliette, cursing that he wasn't at full strength and couldn't
provide the shelter they needed as they streaked through the sky. Despite his
best efforts, several slivers penetrated her arm and burned through her skin
nearly to the bone. He heard her gasp, but she turned her face against his
chest, against the terrible burn marks there, and remained silent. The embers
burned his back and shoulders, raised welts and stung like angry bees along his
arms. He was infinitely weary and wanted desperately to go to the healing ground
in the way of his people, but Juliette could not do that, and he would not leave
her unprotected while human and vampire enemies searched for them.
    She was an unexpected gift, drawn to him by their connection, two halves of
the same soul. She didn't want the connection, but it was there and it was
explosive. In spite of the relentless pain, he was all too aware of her soft,
generous curves and the heat and scent of her body. It only added to his
physical discomfort and raised the level of her wariness. With her face nuzzling
his bare chest, his insides were turning to mush. She had no idea how much faith
and trust she showed him with that simple gesture.
    I'm hiding from the embers
. She denied his thoughts.
    You are hiding from yourself, from the truth.
    You could be the most infuriating, exasperating creature on the face of
this earth.
    Perhaps, but nevertheless, you find yourself inexplicably attracted to me
.
There was purring satisfaction in his voice.
    Riordan took them lower into the comparative shelter of the jungle canopy and
made his way toward the small forest stream where the plants he needed grew in
abundance. Lightning slashed the night skies, lighting up the forests in
flashes, sending animals scurrying for shelter. He moved through the trees until
he found the darker, overgrown spot he needed for safety.
    "If we are lucky, the vampire is weaving his way through the forest miles
from here. Let me look at those burns." Riordan set her down and crouched beside
her, drawing her arm straight out to examine it.
    "You're hurt worse than I am," Juliette objected, her heart pounding. It was
the way he was looking at her wound, his black eyes moving over her skin as if
he took it as a personal affront that she'd been scored by the slivers of fire.
"I can live with it."
    "I cannot," he said simply and bent his head so that his dark hair, wild and
tangled from the journey through the sky, cascaded around him, hiding his face.
    She felt the warmth of his breath first. His lips, featherlight, a mere brush
so that her heart quickened and her body tensed. His tongue swirled over the
blackened welt. Electricity sizzled through her entire body. The breath went out
of her lungs and her mouth went dry. She jerked her arm in reaction, but he held
on firmly.
    "I am sorry if this hurts, but I have a healing agent in my saliva. It should
remove all pain. Just relax." He didn't just say the words, he breathed them
against her skin. She felt his voice crawling through her pores, winding around
her heart and lungs and every other vital organ.
    Juliette closed her eyes against the waves of heat coursing through her
bloodstream. Bloody and torn, swaying with weariness, Riordan was still the
sexiest man she'd ever encountered. There was his voice, his eyes, the way he
looked at her, the way he turned his head, his hard, masculine body, but most of
all, the danger emanating from him. He was a powerful predator and it showed,
yet his touch with her was amazingly gentle, almost tender.
    She swallowed hard. "It isn't right that you're trying to heal me when your
body is so torn up. I can wait."
    "I feel your pain beating at me."
    She made an attempt at finding humor when her body was stirring to life and
her thoughts were turning to things better left alone. "See why we shouldn't
share minds? It would be so much easier if you didn't have to feel my pain on
top of yours." She frowned. "I'm in your mind, why can't I feel your pain?" She
could feel how tired he was, but he had to feel pain with all the lacerations
and burns.
    His tongue swirled a second time. Then a third. "I am shielding you."
    He could rob a woman of sanity. Juliette couldn't look at his gorgeous face
without wanting to wipe away