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The last warning held the threat of great pain should she fail hi subversive, you will tell me privately She will not be punished"

Claire ht try, Maryanne knew it in her bones, and she already hated knowing full well she would hand anything over to Shepherd rather than face the consequences of being the go between in correspondences with Claire's little boyfriend "She doesn't trust me"

"Let's not play games, Ms Cauley"

"When do I begin?"It took a few hours and another breakfast of the horrible green s behavior in the shower He was gone again, a thing Claire was suprerateful for so she could stretch and pace and formulate her next move

Looking at the nasty bruising on her arm, Claire flexed the limb, certain it would ache for quite some time It orth it Shepherd , made her uncoainst the wall the night before, just long enough to expose that she had been correct Pieces of it were coether, Shepherd'sher to ease the grief Svana caused whether he recognized that fact or not, confirmed

That was so; it was a place to start

Shepherd's initial reaction had been violent, even the sex, but when they woke he was only indulgent It was as if the rage froht, the force that had co she'd becoone

The man had exorcised a demon

Even at his erous, he had never looked from her face, kept much of his skin pressed to hers, ordered her to call out his na back in his skull each ti need, with the force in which he urged her clihten her, the set of his jaw, the glares… now she was beginning to understand It was longing

Shepherd was alatching her reaction, looking for soes He had solected When coupled she was tender and would stroke him, draw in his scent and smile Perhaps that hy hefor such affection Shepherd wanted her to love hi when she did not autoa behavior

Claire did not love him, but she had offered him comfort when his side of the cord displayed the turmoil her words had stirred up That had been instinctive, and even though she despised Shepherd, it was the right thing to do in the war she aging Progress would require her to serve her position ashim, and petty tactics such as seduction or dishonesty would never serve her

Claire was not foolish enough to believe she could fix hi arped far beyond anything she could untwist But she could chip away at the wrongness; she could expose weakness in a man who seemed to have none