Primal Desires by Susan Sizemore Page A

my mind.”
    He just smiled. “I’m glad you finally noticed. You’re taking it well,” he added.
    She banged a fist on the table. “You’re being insufferable.”
    He bowed his head contritely before looking up at her through impossibly long lashes. “Smugness is one of my prime traits. I can’t help it.”
    It was hard not to melt at the sight of those big blue eyes, but she tried her best. She sipped her latte and realized that she was very tired. She put the cup down as she fought off a yawn. “It’s been a long day.”
    â€œAnd the strangest day of your life?”
    Her gaze flashed back to his. “Not by a long shot.”
    He reached across the small table and took her hands in his. They were big, strong, capable hands, hands that had made love to her not long ago. She wanted them on her again soon, but right now she fought the urge to let his touch be comforting.
    â€œTell me about that day,” he urged in a gentle whisper. “Tell me about you.”
    She was sure he could have made her tell him anything. Though it was insane, she truly believed he could invade her mind. She didn’t know why his power excited her rather than frightened her.
    Since he didn’t take what he wanted, she decided to tell him. “Well, apparently I come from a family of insane people.”
    He shook a finger at her. “Facts first. We have a lot to correct about your opinions later.”
    She frowned but went on. “I’m an American mutt from east L.A. My mom died when I was little. This left me the spoiled only child, and female, in a run-down house with my father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. I guess the family came from someplace in central Europe. My father didn’t let my grandfathers discuss it with me. I learned a few words of what I later found out to be a Romany dialect, but I’ve forgotten them.”
    â€œAnd you weren’t curious about finding out more about your ancestry until recently?”
    She shook her head. “Until recently I was concentrating on putting some kind of normal life together.”
    â€œSurvival does tend to take up all of a person’s attention when things get rough.”
    â€œYou sound like you know all about what it’s like when life goes down the toilet.”
    â€œOh, I do. But we’re concentrating on you right now.”
    His gaze caressed her, making her go hot all over. It was hard to go on with a sudden spike of lust zinging through her.
    Sofia cleared her throat. “We didn’t have much, we didn’t do much, but it wasn’t a bad childhood. I was loved and protected. Even when—”
    This time she had to clear her throat because of the sudden welling of pain. She’d long ago stopped crying over the memories, but now her eyes blurred with tears. She ran the back of her hand angrily across her face.
    â€œThen one day my grandfather came home with the news he’d been diagnosed with cancer. That same day, the dogs chased me. My great-grandfather chased them off, then had a heart attack and died.”
    â€œYour great-grandfather was Grigor Hunyara?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œI knew him when he was young.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œGo on,” he urged.
    The look in his eyes was too compelling for her not to. “My father—my stupid, idiot, hot-tempered bastard of a father—reacted to all this by going to the garage where the dogs’ owners hung out and shooting three men in the head.”
    She’d watched her father then barbarically cut out his victims’ hearts, but she wasn’t about to add that gruesome detail to this already lurid tale, no matter how much she wanted to confide in Jason Cage. Some things couldn’t be talked about. The pain of thinking about them was still almost unbearable after all these years. She could still see brain matter splattered against dirty gray walls. She could still smell the