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At the end of the hallway on her upper floor, Danger pushed open the door to the guest roos that she collected She&039;d started the collection about forty years ago because they reht back for her frorandmother Until the year she died, Babcia would always s for all of thee and the beauty of Easter

None of those precious, colored eggs that Danger had guarded so carefully as a hu them the frivolous waste of the aristocracy, her husband had taken great pleasure in destroying them after she&039;d died

How she hated thather trust in so him to deceive her so co her eyes on Alexion, she opened the door wider to watch him His modern clothes looked rather out of place in a roorown up in The hand-carved Baroque bed had been iold pillows and comforter Gold draperies fell from the padded half-tester She&039;d spent a lot of ti the antiques for this room

It was the last of her world and in ht that she could glihter of her siblings

Mon Dieu, how she missed them all

Grief swelled inside her, but she held it back There was no need in crying She&039;d shed enough tears over the centuries to fill the Atlantic

The past was the past and this was the present Tears would not bring her family back and they would not alter her life in any way All she could do was move onward and upward, and ain

For now, Alexion was the present and he was her ene table, holding the egg carefully in his large hand as if he understood how much she loved her collectibles In spite of herself, she was struck by the gentleness of his touch as he closed it and returned it to its stand

He was incredibly handso there and her body reacted to him with an intensity that surprised her It wasn&039;t like her to be attracted to soazines notwithstanding, she nor ti, potent desire for his body If she ever felt desire for him Most of the time, she could take or leave any man

But she actually wanted to reach out and touch him And that never happened

Alexion felt her presence like a sizzling caress It was as if she made contact with his soul every ti that was completely impossible since he hadn&039;t owned a soul in more than nine thousand years

He didn&039;t knohat it was about her, but his body reacted wildly to her presence Turning, he found her in the dooratching hiry expression

She was afraid of him and pissed at herself for that fear, he could feel it deep inside hiuise it

He could respect her for that

In the end, she ise to fear him He could kill her as easily as he blinked Yet he didn&039;t want to hurt her

For soe reason, he didn&039;t even want her to fear hi he&039;d never experienced before Usually when he was in hue to inti theod within him The ability to take any life he chose

He could hear and see things that were far beyond the comprehension of man, Apollite, or Dark-Hunter

And yet as he stood there, only one thing echoed in his head-the sound of her laughter He&039;d heard her laughing earlier this very evening as she fought with the Daimons It was a lush, musical sound that rolled out froain

"I ereuse"

She stiffened defiantly "The naereuse in a long time"

He inclined his head to her He knew froround that she&039;d been narandreat duchess who&039;d lived life solely on her own terms and who had flouted societal rules It was a naiveto soothe her "And just so you know, I&039;m not afraid of you"

He sh, no-nonsense woman and he wondered if she had been like that as a human But he somehow doubted it The world she had been born into wouldn&039;t have tolerated such a ind personality from the fairer sex

No doubt they would have quashed her rebelliousness, not embraced it

She took a step into the roo as they searched him for some weakness

Good luck, ma petite I haven&039;t any

"So, what&039;s your story?" she asked "You say you&039;re Ash&039;s Squire Are you a Blue Blood, Blood Rites, or what?"

Alexion bit back a smile at her question Blue Bloods were Squires who caenerations of Squires Blood Rites were the Squires ere charged with assuring that the rules of their world were followed They protected the Dark-Hunters and were a police force for other Squires Of course, he had been serving Acheron since before the Squires&039; Council had existed He wasn&039;t a true Squire He was Acheron&039;s Alexion, an Atlantean terlish

Basically, he would do whatever was necessary to protect Acheron and Simi And he truly meant "whatever"

He had no conscience No ht was Acheron&039;s will It governed everything about hiue with Acheron at times, but at the end of it all, he was Acheron&039;s protector He would always do as in Acheron&039;s best interest no matter the personal or physical cost to himself

Yet he couldn&039;t tell her the truth of his status Only he, Simi, Artemis, and Acheron would ever know of his real relationship to the boss

"I&039; that Acheron had recruited hi have you served hih at that "It seems like forever ence at hiood And far too sexy for his

She still wasn&039;t through interrogating him as she moved closer to him so close he could now ses of her naked and pliant in his bed

"How is it that you did that little trick with the dagger where you reappeared after I stabbed you?"

One side of his mouth quirked up at her question and he leaned even closer so that he could sh hi

It made his blood hot, his cock hard

"Ask er," he said, his voice deepened by his lust "I don&039;t like to play games We both know that I&039; and dance while you tiptoe around er seemed to appreciate his frankness even as she shivered at his nearness She looked up at his that he hadn&039;t felt in a long time He actually cared that she was confused and uncertain He wanted to soothe her and that was beyond shocking to hihed at the very thought "No Trust me, he doesn&039;t need anyone to spy for hi, he does"

"How so?"

It took all of his willpower not to reach out and touch her cheek to see if it was as soft as it appeared Her skin was flawless and teue

"I s out on his own Spying is the last thing he needsextremely irritated by her attraction to this man and his own inability to answer her questions She wasn&039;t sure if she should kiss hi It was so intense that she could almost feel his hands on her

She had the most inexplicable desire to nuzzle hiainst him She stood up on her tiptoes andShe watched as he closed his eyes and drew in a sharp breath

When he didn&039;t pull back, she whispered in his ear "Why are you really here?"

His voice was deep and thick when he answered "To protect you"

Danger couldn&039;t have beenAcheron&039;s destroyer She moved away from him to put ht while aher naked "Protect reen eyes pierced her with their intense hunger "Those ould see you dead You are in a precarious place, Danger The one who has gone Rogue will kill you instantly if he learns you have betrayed hi about that

"He can&039;t kill me and you know it No Dark-Hunter can harm another"

He arched a brow at her "You really believe that? There&039;s nothing that says a Dark-Hunter couldn&039;t handcuff another to a gate, car, or anything else, and leave them outside for the sunrise You can&039;t hurt each other, true But there areyourself"

Oh, now there was one hell of a loophole she&039;d never thought about But obviously he had

"And how did you acquire this inforht after they trusted you?"

He laughed bitterly "If I wanted you or anyone else dead, Danger, I hardly have to wait for the sun"

"Then what do you want to protect me from?"

He looked away from her "I can&039;t tell you that"

"Try ritted teeth "Even if I did, you wouldn&039;t believe me"

They were at an iave her a reason to-and probably not even then-and the last thing she wanted was a guy in her house she couldn&039;t trust "In that case, you&039;ll understand if I ask you to stay in a hotel while you&039;re here spying for Acheron?"

His expression ah "You ht and he tried to sway you to his rebellious cause Did you believe hi she had broadcast Sheez He see to piss her off "I don&039;t knohat you&039;re talking about"

He closed the distance between the and yet strangely co off soothing vibes Not to mention he had pheromones that should be bottled and sold He was extre in a most sexual way Acheron was the only other person she kneho had that strange "do me" factor that enticed everyone who came near hiht of play

What is wrong with me?

She&039;d never felt lust like this

"You know," Alexion said in a deep tone that actually made her shiver, "for an actress you certainly can&039;t lie worth a da your pardon?"

"You heard me So what lie did Kyros tell you? I hope he was at least more creative than the &039;old Acheron is a Daimon&039; standby"

She didn&039;t knohat surprised her more The fact that he knehat they&039;d said about Acheron or the fact that he spoke of Kyros as if he knew the man personally "How do you know about Kyros?"