Primal Desires by Susan Sizemore Page B

blood.
    The nausea that always welled up in her when she let herself remember churned in her stomach. She tried to control it, but had to run to the bathroom to throw up like she always did.
    â€¢â€ƒâ€¢â€ƒâ€¢
    Jason watched the bathroom door anxiously while Sofia was gone.
    I will never again think I’ve had a hard life, he thought, miserable for her.
    Why hadn’t anyone told her the truth, he wondered angrily. Why hadn’t Pashta told her about her father?
    Jason knew why her father had killed those three men. At least, he was almost certain of the reason. Did he have the right to tell Sofia? She certainly wasn’t ready to believe him yet.
    It couldn’t be easy to be mortal in this modern era. So many things that had once been sureties about the supernatural world had been taken away from them. Very few believed anymore, even fewer knew. His kind had helped push the changes to the mortal psyche, triggered by the scientific age. Scientific discovery had benefited everyone, vampires perhaps even more than mortals. Because of science, his kind could now live in the daylight, and because no one believed in them, they could hide in plain sight as long as they were careful and circumspect.
    But it also made it very difficult to explain reality to those who had a need to know, he thought as Sofia returned from the washroom.
    â€œBetter?” he asked, and handed her a cup of mint tea he’d ordered while she was gone. “This will help.”
    She took a sip, breathed in the scented steam, and sighed. “Thank you.”
    He very nearly melted from her grateful look. Jason wanted to tell her then and there that he would do anything to comfort her, to protect her, to give her pleasure. She had him.
    Why the hell did her people have to need her now, when all he wanted was her?
    â€œWhat happened next?” he asked. “After your father—”
    â€œHe took a plea bargain and went to prison instead of getting a needle in the arm.” Her dark gaze flashed fiery anger. “He got better than he deserved.”
    â€œAren’t you being a bit harsh on your own—”
    â€œWhy do you want to know, anyway?” Her fingers clamped tightly around the cup.
    â€œYour family lost track of you. I was wondering how that happened.”
    â€œMy father went to prison. My grandfather died two months after being diagnosed. I ended up in foster care.”
    â€œThat had to have been unpleasant.”
    She smiled at his dry tone. “Understatement’s a gift with you, isn’t it? I got lucky eventually,” she went on. “I eventually ended up living with a retired Navy SEAL and his family. I joined the navy when I finished high school, and spent the last six years mostly on sea duty and reading books. Now I’m a civilian, I’m going to college, and for no good reason I’m using my spring break to meet up with a bunch that claim to be relatives—and turn out to be crazier than my murdering old man.” She folded her hands together on the tabletop. “How about you, Jason Cage? Where do you come from? What is there to know that I didn’t find out about from your Beast Master website? How did you end up on the other side of this conversation? Why did you end up in this conversation?”
    He pried her hands away from the cup and took them in his again. “At first I didn’t want to be here. Now I can’t imagine being anywhere else.”

Chapter Eleven
    S ofia snorted rudely. The fact that he sounded serious scared her to death. When he looked offended, she couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t need romantic drivel,” she told him, then ducked her head. “But that did sound—nice.”
    â€œI see,” he said. “You tell yourself that you don’t need what you want.”
    â€œI learned early that it’s not wise to harbor expectations. And so far, this trip to meet the family has