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Sara stared, completely disinterested, at the beautiful plate of roastedto eat that?"

She glanced up, smiled into the curious, ravenous eyes of her boss, Dr Pete Albert "No"

"May I?"

"Of course" She inched the plate toward hina had been a wet dream on her culinary brain for more than a year Now she couldn&039;t conjure up an appetite no matter how hard she tried She refused to use her emotional state as an excuse, so work-related frustration would have to do Good thing she had plenty of that She sat back in her chair, focused on her boss over the easy candlelight

"Listen, Pete," she began as he poured her plate of atoni with sweet fennel "I need to knohat I can get aith legally in the McClean case I want to go to the house, talk to Moh he&039;d heard it all before "I think you should leave it alone Let the police and social services handle it"

"You mean wait six months?" she said dryly

He paused, his fork in the air "I admire your commitment to your patients, you know that"

"Thank you"

His eyes wars about you"

"I appreciate that--"

"But," he ju laws is one helluva career-ending s don&039;t get done; probleet solved--people reo out on a li about Pearl?"

The cozy one-roouests were leaning toward Sara and Pete&039;s table, listening to their conversation, waiting for Sara&039;s response Total iinary bullshit, but it felt that way for a"Just because Gray hasn&039;t responded to the treatet to the treat on the hypnosis"

"--Doesn&039;tfelt as though it were closing in She understood that perseverance was the only way to get results Odds were good that at so the ie in his me, and she couldn&039;t see about Pearl, okay?" she said

He reached across the table and touched her hand "Sure"

"I don&039;t think her hter That boyfriend of hers " Sara wasn&039;t sure what happened first, if Pete jerked his hand away or she did, but the next thing she knew, her boss looked white as a sheet and was grabbing his sto

She leaned forward, concerned "Pete? What is it?"

His face contorted with pain "II " He shook his head "Oh God!"

"Are you all right?"

"I have to go to the restroo for the back of the restaurant Sara stared after hiaze to the mussels Oh jeez And she&039;d invited hiinary this ti not to see Pete laid out on theto do with her boss Walking through the restaurant, looking like six feet three inches of branded, terrifying sex appeal was Alexander The other patrons seemed to either shrink in his presence or, and this was mostly the female clientele, stare covetously while their dates sluodforce walking past Even the staff stopped what they were doing and had the good sense to look nervous

He sat down in Pete&039;s chair and glared at her "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Having dinner with a colleague" His scent seized her nostrils, rowl for the first time in twenty-four hours

He lowered his voice "Trainer is still out there and bloodthirsty"

"And Dillon&039;s right over there"

He snorted, as though the veana he&039;d recruited to protect her had zero skills to actually do the job

Sara leaned forward and whispered, "You need to leave My boss will be right back"

"Don&039;t count on it"

Her eyes widened "What did you do?"

He shrugged "Stoave him a stomachache?" she said, furious at his cavalier attitude

"I suggested it"

"Unbelievable! Why the hell would you do so like that?"

Barely controlled possessiveness rolled off of him "I don&039;t want him around you

I don&039;t want anyher voice barely above a whisper

A growl rumbled in the back of Alexander&039;s throat as his eyes lowered "Your mouth is exquisitely delectable when you curse at h Sara and in herup the insides of her legsGoddammit! Why did he have to coet over hilared at him, asked with barely restrained calht hers and held There was great care in their depths "I wouldn&039;t know Lucian is responsible for that particular guest"

So he hadn&039;t fed fro? Or he had and he was done, like fast food? She didn&039;t want to ask, couldn&039;t bear the answer if it was the wrong one

He atching her, his eyes heavy lidded and filled with ire "The man in the bathroom wants to fuck you Did you know that?"

Yes, she knew "What do you want, Alexander?"

"I want you to come home"

"That&039;s not my home" She shook her head, as much to herself as to him She had no home, wouldn&039;t until Gray recovered What Alexander offered her was another place for failure and pain

"I want you inin your bed" Where she was good enough to screw, but not feed from

"Why are you out with thislow and controlled, though his face contorted with rage

She knew people were staring at them "It&039;s none of your business," she told him

"I won&039;t have it"

"Do you hear yourself? You sound like a cavelanced over his o"

His face changed and his eyes softened "I need you," he said gently

"What you need is soive you"

"Not true" His eyes blazed with heat, with so close to anticipation "I wish to make you an offer"

She shook her head, her heart utterly deflated, her body and ht "What does that mean?"

"You return home, and I will help your brother"

She froze "What did you say?"

"His memory of the fire, the pain, all of it, I will remove it fro about?"

"I wish you had told me earlier I wish I had asked" He nodded, reached for her hand "I&039;m sorry for that But I can help you now I can remove theher head Thewas almost intolerable, cruel to say the very least All these years, all the work, and she had barely made a dent in Gray&039;s memory As if it were so easy

"Sara--"

"I don&039;t believe you" She pulled her hand away, ignoring the feeling of i like that? Suggest so like that? When you knoould hurt me"

"Sara, it is the truth"

"It&039;s not possible"

"It is," he insisted "It is part of my abilities as a h the blood"

The explanation stopped her, made her stare at him The thread of hope she&039;d carried with her these past ten years suddenly trembled inside her tired body

"There are risks to his e in her expression "But they&039;re very low I have every confidence he would--"

She stopped hilare "No" She had to think, had to process what he was telling her hat she knew to be real The threads of hope pulsed within her, wanting to kill the fear and confusion that accoo"

"Sara, you are a practical woestion emotionally or irrationally"

Her eyes filled with tears It was too eness of what he&039;d just offered her?

She spotted Pete co pale, but alive

"The

Sara locked eyes with hi for ue, but didn&039;t Instead, he nodded "Think on my offer, Sara"

Pete drew closer Sara uttered, "Please Go"

Alexander leaned dohispered in her ear, "If he touches you," he said, lapping at the sensitive skin of her lobe, "I swear I will hunt him down and rip out his heart"

As every ounce of blood in her veins went hot and electric and traveled south of her navel, Sara forced her gaze away fro dispiritedly toward her

Two hours later, Sara lay on her bed at the hotel roo for the inevitable to occur He would coain claione All visions of the fire and the terror and the pain of his burns

Gone

She rolled onto her sto to do that for more than four years noith very little success, and yet the a, all-powerful, morphed vampire could ht?

She flipped to her back again, stared up at the ceiling, at the shadows the adjacent buildings made What if he could do it? Really take thewas, Alexander himself was an impossibility, a miracle

She turned in to her pillow and closed her eyes for a ht because when she woke up the shadows on the ceiling had changed Now, instead of floating rooflines, the outline of a man stretched out above her She sat up, turned toward the floor-to-ceiling s Alexander stood on the balcony, twenty stories froround, his black wool coat turned up at the collar, the tails striking his thighs in the wind Her heart leaped into her throat at the size of him, at the brutality of his face, at the raw desire in his eyes

She scurried off the bed and went to theBut instead of letting hiid hipped at her face and her hair the second she stepped onto the concrete

"I&039; in every feature on her face "But I had to see you"

She stood a good three feet froed her arms to her chest "I knohy you&039;re here, and I&039;ve thought about your offer" She shook her head "I just can&039;t do it, Alexander"