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Eh, weren’t they? He wasn’t looking at this girl anda receptacle for his lust If that was all it was, he and Chu a s tripped off other things inside of hi

He’d wanted to kno she reacted to the shoes, so he’d waited, following the geographical first mark until he knew she’d left Thomas’s room and headed for her own When he dipped into her mind then, he read how she took the shoes as a reassurance He wasn’t sure how to interpret that, any more than he understood why he’d done it for her

He didn’taround in a human’s s in a functional ift was intuition, developed to the point he alirlshe was a wildto his mouth on her foot Willis had been her first true lover, and they’d barely discovered that love, not even past the kissing-and-holding-hands stage Having him torn apart in front of her, however, had elevated that nascent relationship, i every memory with forever-and-all-eternity promises Willis had had a mere blink of time to introduce her to the idea of how deeply she could yearn for a man, emotionally and physically, and then he was taken away That torment was all over her As was her deep invest in the dark, were her night her feel isolated

That sense of isolation would have developed in her childhood, fighting to survive without a parent’s protection It was so like a dor its head when life becaers curled as he recalled Danny’s intel about her former employers, as well as snatches of what he’d seen in Elisa’s mind

Re to the good, to the hopeful, with an optienuine and heartfelt But now it had a desperate tone to it In the va, charis the valittering or charismatic She was a servant, from every perspective of the word--vampire, human, sexual On top of that, she had a core of steel It had been twisted, dinged up, even melted with the fla

He found herfascinating, even as he knew that ht did he have to add to her distress and conflict? Yet tonight, when he’d found her in his bed, he’d felt that intuitive click that told hi to happen The valy, and he’d felt a desire to claiht

He closed his eyes He’d long ago stopped denying such things, because it was the nature of the species he was now, and he knew better than anyone that nature would not be denied

The cheetah he’d visited tonight, Lola, was alht lose her to a poacher’s bullet But he couldn’t deny her the chance to be what Nature had intended He should take the saht need a different approach Because, unlike with Lola, in the case of the wounded Irish un

10

SHE was on the front porch promptly at dusk Kohana had insisted she eat first, so she’d abandoned all table e his o without her Her anticipation helped her not dwell on the fact that Thoone and she was by herself

No, not by herself She’d always had good luckfriends in new places For instance, Chuarees Since she was shorter than Chumani, she’d had to roll up the cuffs twice and put a dart in the they were over her buht loss she was rounder than Chumani in that area, but she put a serviceable cotton blouse over it and ed to pull it down a few inches past the waistband

She’d donned her decorated sneakers, of course Kohana had glanced at the noise, and shoveled another layer of eggs at her She expected herself to grow feathers and start squawking before long

Her self-consciousness about her appearance asted, because Mal barely gave her a look as he eo pants, usual long-sleeved T-shirt and boots, his knife at his belt He didn’t slow his stride toward the front door, just jerked his chin toward the waiting Jeep She scray for leaving the dirty dish Mal seated himself in the Jeep with a ripple of biceps and a flex of lean thigh

"The rest of the crew is already out doing their jobs," he said, as if she was keeping hi hers She bit down on her retort, though, and said nothing She’d do nothing to jeopardize the chance to see Jerelanced at her with an arched brow "You do know I heard, ‘Well, I’htiness’?"

She pressed her lips together "But I didn’t say it I can’t help hts, but I always try to be respectful when it comes to what I say, Mr Malachi Kohana said you don’t norh they’re all second- to her mind? Perhaps he felt he needed to babysit her htened her chin "With all due respect, if you eavesdrop less, we’ll get along better"

"I think we’re getting along just the e should" He grunted "Hold on to the bar there so I don’t throw you out on the turns If you calltonight"