Sea Haven 02 - Spirit Bound

container with loose-leaf tea. “What about Stefan Prakenskii? I’m more interested in him and what he wants.” She turned then to face him, leaning back against the counter, studying his face, locking her gaze with his. “What does Stefan want?”
    “I want you, Judith. I want to live with you and love you. I want to be everything you need.”
    He cupped the side of her face, unable to keep from touching her, his thumb brushing back and forth over all that smooth, soft skin he couldn’t resist. She was so beautiful to him. Her bone structure, her exotic eyes, her mouth, that small, straight nose and her intriguing dimples, yet it was what was inside of her, spilling out, that brought him a kind of joy singing through his veins.
    “I can be good at this one thing, radost’ moya, making you happy. Keeping you safe. Loving you. I can do that.”
    When she started to speak he shook his head, laying his fingers across her lips.
    “But you have to be sure. There’s no going back. You have to know what kind of man I’ve been, what I’ve done, Judith. You have to realize that you’re nothing like me. All those dark places inside of you are normal, people are supposed to have them. I am those dark shadows, the embodiment of them. Can you live with a man who is scarred inside and out? People like me don’t recover. We have certain things ingrained in us, and we can’t change. You have to be able to love the real me.”
    The teakettle began to whistle and Judith spun around to pour the hot water into the teapot. Stefan didn’t step back to give her more room, instead, stood close to her, inhaling her fragrance and willing her to understand him. He knew himself, knew he was a hard man, honed in the fires of hell and probably dwelled there most of the time, lost in the ranks of the damned, but he saw the way out. Right here. Now. In spite of Ivanov hunting him. In spite of Sorbacov panicking because a journalist had begun digging for information regarding a rumor that orphans and children of political enemies had been taken to military camps and raised for all kinds of purposes.
    Mostly, Stefan knew, the outside world pictured young children being prepared as sleeper cells to be sent to the United States, the United Kingdom and a few other countries. Those few people, living in the open, marrying, having children, would probably never be called into play and how much real damage could they actually do? It was the others, trained to live in the shadows, assassins and seducers, men and women who could kill in seconds and vanish as if they’d never been, that the countries needed to fear. And those were the ones Sorbacov feared would come into the light.
    Sorbacov’s methods had been brutal and only the toughest children with the strongest wills had managed to survive. If his torture of children came to light, if the true deadly nature of his small army of agents was to reach the light of day, the man and his political ambitions would be destroyed and he knew it. He couldn’t afford to allow the information to be made public.
    Judith poured two cups of tea and turned to face him, the cups in her hands. “We need milk. In the fridge over there.” She nodded toward her refrigerator.
    His heart skipped a beat. Getting the milk for the tea was such a domestic thing to do. He forced himself to walk slow, determined to tell her as much of the truth as he could. “If you choose me, Judith, the way won’t be smooth. Your sisters are going to try to pull you away from me,” he said. “I can’t blame them, they’ll be doing it out of love for you, afraid you’re doing something crazy, tying yourself to me. It will be difficult not to listen to them, Judith, because the things they say will most likely be truth. I’m not a good man and they’ll point that out. I’ve killed people and they’ll know. I’m capable of hiding my true aura and they’ll know that at some point as well. They’ll be afraid for you.”
    He poured the milk himself into both cups, noting Judith wanted more than he did. She took a sip, regarding him over the rim of her teacup.
    “Make a kaleidoscope with me.”
    He frowned at her. “Judith, I need to know if you’re with me or not.”
    “I don’t know yet. Make a kaleidoscope with me. That’s what I need. Right now. Tonight. Come to my studio and make the scope.”
    “Is this some kind of test?”
    She nodded slowly. “I can’t trust my instincts with you. I can’t listen to my