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rang in his ears. He needed her dirty and desperate, no boundaries in sight.
    But, because he wasn’t a complete savage, he didn’t stop her when her nerves came out in the form of speech.
    “I was eleven when I was with Ms. Torres and her boyfriend, but they sent me back after only three months. That always happened when babies became available. ‘She’s not what we’re looking for.’ That’s usually what the mothers of my families said before I found myself being dumped on the steps of Holy Cross. I didn’t mind, though, because the nuns became my fam.” The smile she flashed was brittle and forced. “Sister Cherise, who did nothing but knit and pray, always had a brand new pair of scratchy wool socks ready for me. She died before I was old enough to think to ask how she knew I’d return.”
    She slid her long fingers and their multitude of rings through her hair to swipe it away from her face. She wore three on one hand and only one on the other. Knowing she had a cat gave him some insight into why one of her rings was the outline of a feline’s head.
    “My regular social worker—the one that always taxied me to and from my homes—once told me a piece of paper had been in the blankets they found me in. Apparently, it had a Belarus address on it, but it was misplaced before anyone could investigate it. I wondered for a long time if they just didn’t bother. Maybe they didn’t think it was possible I could have had a grandmother or aunt over there that might have wanted me. Or, I suppose I should say over here, now that we’re…here.” She shrugged and twisted at the strap on her bag. “Or who knows? Maybe they did check the addy and my social worker was being nice by not telling me some old lady told them to keep me. I dunno.”
    Her shoulder went up in another shrug, and she shoved the bag under her arm as though annoyed she kept toying with it. She was twirling her hair in the next second, clearly agitated by what she was needlessly sharing.
    She came around to face him. “Will you please bring me to the airport, Lucian? I don’t want to be here. I’m very uncomfortable being away from home. This isn’t right what you’ve done.”
    He watched those ribbons of honey waver through the added moisture once more flooding her eyes. He came in close and cupped her face. He waited, holding fast when she would have pulled free. Then he watched intently, the trails two fat tears made when they overflowed. They stopped when they reached the sides of his thumbs and seeped in to dampen his palms that were pressed to her cheeks. For only a moment, he allowed his demons to latch onto and rage over her treatment; an innocent baby girl abandoned, shuffled from home to home, made to feel unwanted. Possibly abused by the women, and used by the men—
    He reigned them in with a snap. Was there currently an emotion available to him and his new friends that didn’t bring about the need to wipe out a healthy chunk of the population residing on the eastern seaboard?
    “This will be the last time you will shed tears in my presence.” He swiped his thumbs beneath her eyes to rid himself of the sight. “Now, do not be upset, draga . I will take you home—”
    His words stuck and his breath caught somewhere in his chest when her face instantly lit up, the illumination stunning in its beauty. Her posture immediately corrected itself from the dejected weight her shoulders had been bowing under. Ah, yes, he thought as his body came to life just as she did. Here was the woman he’d been coveting.
    She grabbed his wrists and squeezed, flashing a brilliant smile. He wanted those delicately pointed canines in his skin while he claimed ownership of her body.
    “Seriously? You’ll let me go home? But out there you said— Oh, uh, never mind.” She laughed uneasily and shook her head as if she couldn’t believe her luck. The motion made white lilies and deep ocean waters plume around them. He’d almost embarrassed them