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"He has great presence, and ould not believe those big, innocent, round eyes of his?"

"Yeah, he looks so sincere I loathe hiht in the course of my life to hate anyone, but that’s all I can feel for him"

"I understand," he said And he did He truly did

As he glanced at the clock next to the ht His wo hours and so did he Fiona needed her rest and he needed to get into the field But he did not want to leave her As hard as it was to be around her most of the time, this was the hour he despised the , he would be separated froet to her if she needed hi close and dipping down to s sniff and heard her swift intake of breath "May I see you ho roll of her delicate croissant scent struck his nostrils Oui, they were both trapped inside the breh-hedden He also knew she was a woman quick to experience the little death, the place of ecstasy He did not understand the why of it, but he could bring her with just a kiss The first time had occurred the day she was in the hospital just after her release from the New Zealand blood slavery facility

She turned to face hi neck Her vein pulsed He held back a groan He longed for this woman in every way He craved her He wanted her blood

She shook her head A wisp of her hair had come loose She pushed it behind her ear Even the shape of her ears was beautiful--as if everything about her was designed to torood idea, Jean-Pierre, do you?"

He shook his head as well but his heart tightened a little more He did not understand all that he felt Was he experiencing love or was this just the terrible lure of the breh-hedden?

From his side vision, he saw Seriffe move in their direction Seriffe would fold her back to his house, where she lived with his fauest suite all her own That had been the one piece of grace that had come out of Fiona’s enslavement, that when the Warriors of the Blood rescued her and brought her to Metro Phoenix Two, she had discovered that the daughter she had lost so long ago, because of her abduction, had ascended in 1913 and was now married to Colonel Seriffe and had birthed three small boys

But as Seriffe drew closer, Jean-Pierre’s heart rate increased He did not want to leave Fiona His instincts kicked into high gear and he stepped in front of her, his chin lowered, his gaze fixed in a hard stare on the colonel

Seriffe shook his head "You’re still going to do this?"

Fiona pushed at his back "Jean-Pierre, this isn’t necessary"

Fuck theht How could either of theht now? "You ht that you atch over her and let no harm come to her You must promise, Seriffe, or by God I will tear your heart out"

Seriffe sighed He put a hand on Jean-Pierre’s shoulder "By all that I hold sacred, by the lives of my wife and my children, I do so promise"

It was the best Jean-Pierre could do

He turned to Fiona and though feeling that his heart would break, however absurd, he caught up both her hands in his and kissed her fingers "Torave; demain, chéri"

He loved her for that She showed hiht be, however stubborn, however obsessed with finding Rith, Fiona Gaines was kind

The following , Fiona stood before the iven her a suite in their sprawling home where she had lived for the past five hter had ascended

Dressing to go to the christening, she conte her clothes one more time The woman she was before her captivity would have had no trouble selecting an outfit to wear Though she’d adjusted to s about her neorld and her new life, she couldn’t quite seeht kind of clothes for herself She despised the quandary and saw it as a weakness, so under Rith’s thumb

She needed to be patient with herself, but sometimes she wanted to screas and a cream silk tailored blouse tucked into a navy pencil skirt that had a small slit up one side, topped by three covered buttons Around her shoulders she wore a light blue cashh Prescott Two and this ti, the outdoor ceremony would be on the cool side of fifty, as opposed to the perfect seventy of Phoenix right now

Still, she worried: Was she overdressed, underdressed, too , was the slit too much? She was uncomfortable in these clothes but she wasn’t certain why exactly, except of course that her back itched like crazy and there wasn’t anything she could do about it

Except …

She turned away frohtstand on the far side of her bed She drew the deep drawer open and took out … a ruler She hated doing this because it -apertures weep but she needed sole" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>