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Da through hi across the island, cursing every thick patch of undergrowth or upward rise that slowed hi there It didn’t matter that he’d known she was alive, that she’d survive It hadn’t blunted the edge of her pain or terror, or lessened his reaction to it, seeing it all play out in his head and knowing he wasn’t there to protect her
He should have paid closer attention to Danny’s warnings about Elisa She’ll look like a baby to you, but she’s strong, Mal Terrifyingly so, because I think her fragile soul and body weren’t nored him, hadn’t waited, because she hadn’t trusted hi, so she couldn’t believe anyone would really try to save those girls other than herself And that was his fault, daain Danny’s description She was this crazy little maid I’d just met, and she cracked a teapot over the head of a five-hundred-year-old vampire He could have torn her to pieces, and she knew it, but she did it to distract him To help me
He wondered if Willis had been overwhelmed by her, like a diamond dropped unexpectedly in his dusty lap Mal wasn’t sure he didn’t feel the sa off in him almost from the first day, and that wasn’t his usual behavior
Short and curvy as a ripe peach, she made him want to take a bite, taste those juices, the flavor of her Hell, he even got aroused when she wore her apron now He i out the open sides, taunting him like freshly risen bread Fro to cut to that soft round bottohs He’d press up behind her, bury hiers beneath the apron and tease her nipples into aching hardness Her dark brown hair, nearly the saainst his jaw as he drove into her, hard enough toboth her wrists over her head, he’d push her up against the counter,it vibrate with the force of his thrusts into her
He was avoiding why he was really out here She’d been right She was right Nerida letting them out of their cells to come to Elisa’s defense had been a planned, intentional act Then there was Jere that he could be in herlullabies when she’d been afraid and alone in her bed at night, back in Australia Though Mal hadn’t known her then, tonight suggested he really hadn’t let himself know her at all
He’d lost much of his humanity, as most made vampires did, but the irony was that the painful memory of his own huoaded his cruel words to Elisa, his near-fatalbloodlust, yes, and any of theht succumb to what had befallen Victor and Leonidas, but they’d proven themselves They weren’t rabid animals, sick and senseless, beyond help They deservedthem, and it was time to set aside his own past and its influence on his actions, and focus on what kind of future was truly possible for theive that chance to his feline brethren, because he didn’t see his own human face, the betrayal and pain reflected on it But now that he acknowledged it, he knew he had to ht with the woiven far tooso
When he’d founded the preserve, he’d done the sah,to help It nearly drove hi their passion could be as great as his own It couldn’t be one person’s mission Not only because it took more than one set of hands, but because defeats and setbacks had to be weathered, and only the support of others could help with the pain and grieving over that
He needed to help Elisa understand that, and a good place to start was proving she wasn’t alone A shadow crossed histhe words he’d spat at her He’d make that up to her, too, and not with ive hiy she could believe He wouldn’t require anything of her until then, letting Kohana and Chumani take care of her while he observed a self-imposed exile, no matter how much his body and other more complicated parts of him protested
As the sky turned to rose, his skin was practically stea hi for the Jeep, he sent a s he wanted
There was no time to waste
24
DESPITE his resolve, it took an extreme act of will to leave her care to Kohana and Chumani for the next week, as well as to stay out of her head It wasn’t until Chuet back into a restricted routine, punctuated by a lot of bed rest, that he was ready to o to her i on a very limited routine and told Chuht They had matters to discuss, now that she was back on her feet
That would give him time for twowell, a call to asubstandard fare, but it still left him in a foul temper when Kohana appeared at the study door at nine o’clock Of course, as if they wereeach other, the Indian had a look on his face as if he’d sed sourat Mal
"For fuck’s sake, what is it?" Mal said at last He kept his attention on the legal pad in front of hiisticsgods, logistics Clothes to order
Kohana grunted, unaffected by the threatening tone "Isn’t it obvious to everyone she’s like those young va on about?"