Deeper than the Night - By Amanda Ashley Page 0,36

she felt her throat growthick, felt the sharp sting of tears behind her eyes.

"Kara, say something."

She lifted her shoulders and let them fall. "Gail will be thrilled to know she was right," she murmured, and burst into tears.

He took a step toward her, wanting, needing, to comfort her, but her outthrust hand held him at bay.

"Don't touch me!" On the verge of hysteria, Kara turned and ran out of the room, sobbing.
Chapter Eleven
He stared after her while shards of pain splintered through him. The sound of her voice seemed to reverberate off the walls: Don't touch me! Don't touch me . . . Don't . . .

A coarse oath escaped his lips. He hadn't let himself care for anyone in two hundred years. Not that he had lived like a monk. Though he wasn't human, he was still a man, with a man's hungers, a man's needs. Needs that, since coming to earth, had been gratified only after a cash transaction. The women who had satisfied his lust had been willing to do whatever he asked. A few had thought it odd that he insisted the room they met in be kept completely dark; most had thought it strange that he refused to let them see him naked, but he hadn't cared. He had never spent more than fifteen minutes with any of them. He had satisfied his lust and left their beds, ashamed of the need that had driven him to seek them out in the first place. Never, in two hundred years, had he trusted another living soul with the knowledge of who and what he was. He had lived on the edge of humanity, alone but never really lonely, until he gazed into Kara Crawford's dreamy blue eyes.

Now, for the first time, he had found a woman whose touch he craved. He had risked letting her know who hewas, had shown her what he was, and she had looked at him with horror and revulsion. It shouldn't have hurt. It was exactly the reaction he had expected, but that didn't lessen the pain.

His steps were heavy as he left the cavern. He stood in the yard, hardly aware of the rain as he pondered what to do next. He couldn't take her home. She wouldn't want to stay here, not with him, not now.

How could he let her go?

How could he make her stay?

He couldn't. Tomorrow he would give her the keys to his car. If she was smart, she would find a place to hide, someplace where no one knew who she was.

No doubt she would feel safer with Barrett than with him.

Weary to the depths of his soul, he stared up at the night sky. His world was out there, millions of miles away in another galaxy, and everyone he had ever known, everyone he had ever loved, was long dead. As he should have been.

He felt suddenly tired tired ofbeing alone, tired of living in the shadows. Tired of living, period.

Crossing the yard, he activated the opening in the rock face, then stepped out onto the narrow ledge.

He stared dispassionately into the blackness that yawned below, and for the first time since he'd arrived on earth, he contemplated ending his life. It would be so easy. One step over the edge into nothingness and all his troubles would be over . . . .

"Alex? Alex, where are you?"

He whirled around at the sound of her voice.

"What are you doing out here?" Kara asked, glancing around.

"Nothing."

She stared past him, her eyes widening with the realization of what he meant to do.

Taking hold of his arm, she gave a slight tug. "Come inside," she urged. "We need to talk."

He shook off her hand; then, as though he had no mind or will of his own, he followed her through the opening, touched the lever to close the portal, then followed her into the cavern.

Kara sat down on the sofa. Alex stood at the opposite end of the room, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his Levi's.

"What do you want to talk about?" His voice was flat, emotionless.

Kara's raised her eyebrows. "What do you think?"

"I would think you'd be anxious to get away from here." He withdrew his right hand from his pocket and tossed his car keys at her. "You can leave any time you wish."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

Kara looked at the keys in her hand, then dropped them on the low table beside the sofa. "I thought you were going to protect