“Then don’t we have to try? I don’t want Laurel’s death to be in vain. I don’t want all those patients who died in her trials to have been for nothing, either.”
“What are you saying?”
“Laurel said to find someone who can be trusted. You’re the only one I trust to help me decide what to do, Razor. You’re the only person who’s never lied to me.”
Ah, Christ. He only wished he were the man she seemed to think he was. Some part of him he hardly recognized hoped he could be worthy of the faith she placed in him now.
While it hadn’t been a betrayal of her trust that he’d been watching her sister’s cabin all these past months, withholding that fact from her was nothing less than a lie. One he could no longer stand to keep inside him.
“Willow, I . . .”
“I know what I want to do with the drive, Razor.” She spoke over him, as if she thought he might try to persuade her away from the decision she’d clearly already made. “I know what I need to do with it, but I don’t want to do it unless you agree.”
He stared at her. “Tell me.”
“I want to give the flash drive to the Order. Let them carry out Laurel’s work. I assume they have the means.”
Razor nodded. “They do. Lucan Thorne and his warriors have endless resources and capital at their disposal.”
“And they’ll have me too,” she said, resolve shining in her gaze. “I want to do whatever I can to contribute to the cure my sister was trying to develop. If the healing properties in my blood might be part of the solution, then I want the Order to have access to it. Whatever they need to get this right. Whatever it takes to vindicate Laurel and help fulfill her mission to do something good and lasting.”
Pride filled him as he looked at her, as he listened to the ferocity and commitment in her voice.
“Do you have any idea how incredible you are?” he murmured, marveling at the courage and honor she possessed, even when her heart had just been broken open. He slowly shook his head, nearly at a loss for words. “I was born and bred for destruction, for killing. You have every right to wish my kind extinct for what was done to your parents, instead you want to try to save us.”
She made a dismissive noise and started to shake her head. “I’m only doing what any decent person would.”
“No. You’re doing what only Willow Valcourt would do.” He cupped her face in his hands. “I’ve been sitting here wondering how I’ll ever be able to prove myself worthy of a woman like you. Now, I realize I never will be. You are . . . beyond extraordinary. God, you bring me to my knees.”
Her eyes began to fill with tears once more, but it wasn’t sorrow he saw in her beautiful face. It was affection. It was deep caring, so pure and unbridled it nearly undid him.
On a reverent curse, he pulled her toward him and took her mouth in a passionate kiss.
She was so soft in his arms, melding against him and meeting the strokes of his tongue with equal desire. He should have known that his first taste of her last night would only make him hungry to have her again.
And he was starving for her.
Her lush curves ignited his arousal, rendering him hard as granite as they continued to kiss and caress each other. His fangs surged from his gums, fueled by both his lust for her and his blood thirst, which had already gone unattended dangerously long.
Not that he could blame his craving for Willow’s blood on the physical need to feed. She stirred more than just an urge for nourishment.
She made him crave a taste of her vein that would seal her to him forever.
As his mate.
His lover for the rest of eternity.
He wanted it with a depth of obsession that shocked him.
A growl curled up from the back of his throat, whether in warning to himself or Willow he couldn’t be sure. She answered him with a pleasured, greedy-sounding moan that sent an arrow of heat licking through his veins.
Despite the discipline that told him he was perilously close to the edge of something he may not be able to control, Razor pivoted with Willow, moving her beneath him on the bed.
Their clothing came off in a blur of impatient hands and urgent kisses.
The instant they were naked, Razor thrust inside her. The wet, hot feel of her wrenched a curse from him. She was sleek and soft around his cock, her legs wrapping around his waist to take every inch of him. He drove deep, his vision filled with amber, his fangs throbbing as intensely as the rest of his fevered body.
His desire for her was an untamed, possessive thing. All it knew was the need for this woman.His woman.
