Bound by Danger (The Alliance #6) - Brenda K. Davies Page 0,43

the doors and the top of the vehicle. A cooler was strapped to the rack attached to the back of the Jeep, but Lucien hadn’t looked inside it yet. Another cooler, the one they purchased at the convenience store, sat on the back seat and was full of Callie’s supplies.

The lights attached to the polls at the edge of the parking lot dimly illuminated the compacted dirt beneath their feet as they strode toward the office. The crickets and frogs broke the hush of the night as they chirruped and sang. The stars and moon were bright in the sky, and Callie tipped back her head to examine the Milky Way as it stretched across the sky.

“I have to feed again,” he said as they walked. “It will be on whoever is inside.”

Callie glanced at him before shifting her attention back to the motel. She bit her lip as she contemplated the awfulness that lay ahead for the unsuspecting person within.

“I….” Her voice trailed off as she tried to figure out what to say. “Why are you telling me this?”

“I thought it was better to prepare you for it.”

“Yes, I suppose that is better.”

Feeling her distress, Lucien rested his hand on her arm; she stopped walking to face him. “They won’t feel it. I won’t let them. What I did to you was a huge mistake, and it should never have happened. I will hate myself for it for the rest of my life.”

The harshness of his tone and the anguish on his face told her that he meant what he said.

“It’s no excuse,” he continued, “but I was out of my mind with starvation when it happened. They brought you there so that I would kill you.”

Callie swallowed the lump in her throat. “Why didn’t you? If they brought me there to feed you and to turn you into them, and if you were so starved, why didn’t you kill me?”

He studied her lovely face as he savored the feel of her silken flesh beneath his palm. His gaze fell to her luscious mouth, and he almost bent his head to taste it. He longed to run his tongue across those lips and discover how she would react to him, but he didn’t think she would be open to that, considering she was staring at him like he was the fox in the hen house.

And she was waiting for an answer to her question. He contemplated how to respond to her, but he wasn’t exactly sure why he hadn’t killed her either. He’d certainly been ravenous enough and crazed enough to do so, but….

“Because the second I tasted you, I knew I had to protect you,” he admitted.

That was not the response she’d expected. She wasn’t sure what she expected him to say, but it certainly wasn’t those heart-melting words. He’s a vampire. And for the first time, she found she didn’t care. He was also a man, and despite his faults, he was a good one.

“Why?” she whispered.

He didn’t know how to explain that to her when he could barely explain it to himself and he was too damn hungry to think about it. “I’m not sure.”

A twinge of disappointment tugged at her heart, but she still hadn’t known what she’d expected from him.

“I do know that whoever’s in there won’t recall me feeding on them, and it won’t hurt them. I shouldn’t have hurt you either time, but I was so far gone I couldn’t stop myself. I’m sorry about that, and I hope you can one day forgive me.”

Callie pondered his words before replying, “I already do.”

He’d made a mistake, and she couldn’t continue to hold it against him when she’d made plenty of mistakes in her life too.

He couldn’t stop himself from grinning as relief washed through him. She was still uneasy around him, and he didn’t blame her, but at least she didn’t hate him.

“I will never take your blood again, unless you give me permission.”

She wouldn’t ever give him permission to inflict that kind of agony on her again, but she found herself asking, “And then what would happen?”

When he stepped closer, she swore the air crackled with tension as his chest brushed hers. She tilted her head back to take him in. He was a good seven inches taller than her, but she didn’t feel intimidated as he stood over her.

After the pain he’d inflicted on her and everything she’d seen him do, she should be terrified of this man, but her