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Her curiosity almost made her open the second trapdoor but she stopped herself Turning up the light froht, she headed to the kitchen alcove and began to search for the ingredients She found ar but no chocolate

"Idiot," she muttered under her breath Clay had never liked sweets For his eleventh birthday, Isla had given hiiven the whole lot to Talin She’don them And loved everyabout silass of it But she wanted hot chocolate! Tears pricked her eyes Stupid Stupid But the e speed She was in a house she didn’t knoith a Clay as alraphs and splashed blood on her walls, and her kids were dying All she’d wanted was aher out of her bout of self-pity

She rubbed at her eyes and waited, back against the counter, as Clay climbed up His hair was tousled and he didn’t look in a particularly good te up, but the top buttons were undone, the denim perched perilously low on his hips That was another confusing thing - this sudden sexual attraction to Clay

Intellectually, she could understand it He was a pried to be allowed to crawl all over hi sexuality and it was no wonder her body reacted Butthis was Clay Her friend Well, when he wasn’t furious with her She fisted her hands, dreadfully aware that if he yelled at her right now, she ht just burst into tears "Sorry if I woke you"

He thrust a hand through his hair and yawned, the act full of a lazy feline grace that held her spellbound "You walk like a cat I was already awake"

"Oh" She bit her lower lip when it threatened to tremble "You don’t have any chocolate"

"Christ, you never grew out of that sweet tooth?"

She shook her head, still feeling a little fragile

He closed the distance between the strides "Move"

Eyes wide, she shifted to the side as he leaned up and opened a high cupboard she hadn’t been able to reach Her eye fell on his right biceps, on the tattoo there - three slashing lines, they res on Lucas Hunter’s face "When did you get inked?"

A grunt was his only response Curious, she peered at his back to check out the tattoo she’d glimpsed earlier There it was, on the back of his left shoulder, an exquisitely detailed leopard curled up in sleep Ani his need to acknowledge the leopard as he had never been allowed to do as a child "I like the cat," she said, watching him close the first cupboard and open the one beside it "Who did it?"

"A guy I knew from juvie - turned into a hotshot artist," he , she stood on tiptoe beside hi to peek inside "Chocolate?"

He reached deep into the space "Chocolate" Pulling out his hand, he put a bar of luscious dark chocolate in her palrowly face and all "Do you like chocolate now?"

"Hell, no I can’t stand the stuff" He closed the cupboard and leaned his hip against the counter "Sascha, however, has a love affair with it She gave it to me" He sounded puzzled

"Maybe because she likes you?" Talin suggested, setting the uessed was powered by an eco-generator Everything in Clay’s house seened with the forest’s delicate ecology in ured that everyone likes chocolate"

"I guess" He yawned again but didn’t move from where he stood only two feet from her, all dark ht," she adetopen the bar "I can’t stay here"

His eyes gleamed "Why not? Afraid I’ll bite you?"

"You already did," she reminded him with a scowl

"You survived" He sounded very much like a cat at thateach other off It’s not exactly a peaceful environ up on peace?" He nodded at the milk "Put in the chocolate"

"What? Oh" She broke off several chunks and dropped theood hot chocolate So into a drawer in front of hi the rich scent into her lungs with a sigh "Heaven"

When Clay didn’t say anything, she looked at hiand very sensual Her heart kicked and she broke the searing eye contact, tucking her hair back when it twisted out from behind her ear "Don’t"

A hint of steel entered his languid pose, as if with her rejection, she’d pushed one of his daance in his question put her back up "Because!"