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also ask Father Mulligan and Velda and Inez if they have seen her. They seem to be the eyes and ears of
the neighborhood."
She nuzzled his throat. Hunger was rising, sharp and demanding. Her insides were burning, a terrible
scalding from the inside out. The bubbling water and Nicolae's nearness helped considerably. She inhaled
his clean, masculine scent. Took his scent deep into her body. Held it there. She had been in a storm, a
whirling, turbulent storm, but she had made it safely home. Nicolae was home. She settled in his mind.
Her one refuge. She could admit it to herself now and not feel ashamed and humiliated.
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"I did my best to push you away. I should have been stronger, but right now I'm glad that I wasn't." Her
lips skimmed his throat. Her tongue swirled over his pulse. Her bare buttocks were nestled in his lap and
she could feel there the strong reaction of his body to that small, erotic movement of her tongue. He
hardened. Thickened. Pulsed with need. She savored the feeling, wanted to remember it forever.
His hand skimmed over her hair, tugged her long braid. "I would not allow you to push me away. I am
tenacious when something matters to me."
She smiled against his skin. She kissed the small, steady pulse in his neck. "Is that the word? I thought
stubborn suited you better."
"You are not in the best condition to try to do battle," he reminded her.
She won the battle without a single word.
His head fell back as she took what he offered. The air rushed from his lungs, a soft sound of ecstasy
escaping as the white-hot pleasure-pain rushed through his body. The intensity of his love for her shook
him. His arms tightened possessively. She swamped him with warmth, with her need of him, the way she
wanted him.
Beneath it all, he felt her sorrow, the weight of Pater's words implanted in her mind and heart. She would
never believe the Carpathian race would accept her with her tainted blood. If Nicolae called the healer,
Destiny would never allow him near her. She would run. There was no way to erase what the vampire
had wrought. Nicolae could remove all traces of the virus. He could restore her strength. He could give
her unconditional love, but he could never remove those words.
Because his words are true. Her hands found his hair, tunneled her fingers deep into the mass of silken
strands. She wanted to lose herself in sensation. She couldn't make the words false, but she could put
them somewhere in a little corner of her mind, replace them with something that consumed her: the
bubbles popping against her bare skin; the silken strands of dark hair sliding through her fingers.I love
your hair .
You are supposed to love me. And it is not true. Vampires twist the truth until you can no longer see
what is. You know that, Destiny. More than most, you know what they do.
In this instance even a grain of truth is far too much. She swept her tongue across the pinpricks, closing
the tiny wounds with her healing saliva, lifted her head and met the dark intensity of his gaze without
flinching. "You can love me with your heart and your mind and your soul. You can be my salvation when
the memories come to haunt me, Nicolae. You can be my everything, but you cannot change what I am.
A vampire put something hideous deep inside me. It is evil and dark and dangerous. I've lived with it
most of my life, and I know. You can love me, even with that terrible flaw inside me, but you can't
change it. I can't change it. It isn't going to go away because we want it to. I recognize darkness in
others. Others will recognize it in me. Like calls to like."
Her voice was a thread of sound. Exhaustion lined her face. Nicolae couldn't bear the way she was
looking at him with such a mixture of love and regret. His hands moved over her body with exquisite
tenderness, washing the remnants of blood and poison from her skin. "Destiny, I've found you to be
stubborn and independent but never dense. Are you deliberately not understanding that we are two
halves of the same whole? We are alike. Like did call to like, and I am it. I am what you got."
She was warm and safe huddled in the shelter of his arms, cradled by his body. The water lapped
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pleasantly against her skin, bubbling and fizzing against every sore spot. The flames flickered and danced
and released a fragrance conducive to healing and comfort. Destiny lifted her gaze to Nicolae's face,
studied the hard angles and planes. A slow smile found its way to her mouth. "Lucky me."
Her words twisted his heart. "How do you do that, little one? It bodes ill for our future. One moment I
am determined to chastise you severely as you so obviously deserve, and the next all I want to do is kiss
you senseless."
Destiny framed his face with her palms. "It's a gift. I much prefer the kissing." The pad of her thumb
moved over his jaw, traced his chin. "You have such shadows in your mind. You think I was wrong not
to call you to me, but I wasn't. Why would you think yourself less important to me, less to me in some
way than I am to you? Do you think you're the only one with rights? I do not want your protection at the
expense of your life.You're the target here, not me. I'm merely the bait used to draw you out. Fortunately,
one of us is able to think in tight situations."
His breath escaped in a hiss of impatience and frustration. When her soft mouth began to curve in
amusement, he gave her a little shake. "Now is not the time for you to laugh, Destiny. I am still shaking
from your near miss on the street and in the cave."
"Did you know that when you are exceptionally upset with me, your eyes darken to the most beautiful
black? It reminds of the midnight hour. So perfect when the air is still and the stars are out and you can
see the night sky. Your eyes are like that."
Deliberately he sighed. His hands continued to wash her body, lingering on her curves. "My eyes should
be making you tremble. I am giving you a most disapproving look. It is meant to intimidate, not make you
think of the sky at midnight."
A laugh slipped out. That small carefree sound that was so rare for her. "I can't help how you look. It's
tempting to upset you just to see that particular color."
"I am not amused." He tried to sound as grim as he felt. She might turn him inside out, even melt his
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