Insatiable

wanted to see me. But I hope now we can talk—”

Abruptly, Meena’s knees buckled. Just gave out beneath her. She would have collapsed

to the floor—there was no furniture left in the apartment for her to grab to keep herself from

smacking into the hardwood that came swooping toward her so fast—if he hadn’t caught her in

his strong arms, then sunk to the floor with her, cradling her body against him.

“I’m sorry, Meena,” he whispered into her hair. There was a world of remorse, of pain,

of hurt in his rich, low voice. “I’m so, so sorry. You have to know that I—”

“You have no right, ” she said. She was surprised her lips and tongue worked. She felt

numb all over. That’s why her legs had stopped working. But apparently, though it was weak,

she still had a voice. “After what you did—”

“I know,” he said. He was rocking her, his forehead pressed to hers. “I know.”

“You can’t just come in here,” Meena said. Her voice had begun to sound stronger. “And

clean up my apartment like that’s going to make everything better. Because it isn’t. Lucien,

people died .”

“I know,” he said. He looked—and sounded—as if he were carrying around the regret of

a thousand vampires from a thousand years, not just a single five-hundred-year-old one. “More

people than you even know, Meena. My brother was evil. He always was. I should have killed

him long ago. This was all my fault. All of it. He’s gone now, though. He’ll never murder

anyone again.”

“People got hurt, ” she said, shaking her head. He had to understand that it wasn’t enough

that Dimitri was gone. If he was really gone…

“I know,” he said, and lifted her wrist in its air cast and kissed it. “And I want to spend

eternity making it up to you.”

“It wasn’t just me,” Meena said, the tears in her eyes making it hard for her to see. “They

kidnapped my best friend. Who was pregnant . They bit a chunk out of her husband’s neck as

he was trying to stop them. And she went into early labor because of what happened. She

could have lost the baby. She almost did.”

Lucien stroked her. “How can we make it up to them?” he asked. “A college savings

account for the baby, perhaps? I’ll open one for them and move a million dollars into it

tomorrow.”

“Lucien!” Meena stared up at him disbelievingly through her tears. “You can’t just go

around paying people off to make up for your mistakes. You burned down a church !”

“I know, Meena,” he said. He reached up to capture some of her tears with a thumb. “But

what do you want me to do? How do you expect me to make amends? I’ve already made an

anonymous donation to the church. A sizeable one that should take care of any reparations not

covered by their fire insurance—”

Meena sucked in her breath. “No. That doesn’t make it right. You turned into a—”

He laid a finger over her lips to silence her before she could get the word dragon out.

“There were mitigating circumstances,” he said. “Your brother shot me. With a stake. In the

back.”

She winced. “I know,” she said. He’d lowered the finger. “And you’ll never know how

sorry I am about that. But, Lucien—”

“Whatever else may have happened, Meena—whatever else I may have done wrong, and

I’m not denying that I did many, many things wrong that night—please allow me to point out

that, despite what you insisted I would do, I killed neither your brother nor that Palatine guard

you’re so fond of…despite meticulous efforts on their behalf to murder me. They’re still both

very much alive today.”

Meena sucked in her breath. “Because of me, ” she said. “ I saved them. I put a tourniquet

on one and I sent the other to the maternity ward with my best friend. But, Lucien, I can’t keep

on doing that. I won’t always be there. I can’t keep watching the people I love almost get killed

because of you. Oh, wait, excuse me. Almost get incinerated —”

“That’s why,” he said, leaning his head down to place his lips where, a minute before,

his finger had been, “I suggested that we go away. Thailand. Remember?”

Meena stared up at him, her face wet, her mouth still tingling from the kiss.

She definitely didn’t feel numb anymore. Not anywhere. The tears and his lips had taken

care of that problem.

“I can’t go to Thailand with you, Lucien,” she said, starting to shake her head. How

could he not understand?

“Of course you can,” he said. “Why not?”

His hand was already traveling up her thigh, already slipping beneath the short skirt of

her new—used—black dress.

“A…a million reasons,” she said.

“I know you’re frightened, Meena,” he said in his deep voice. His dark-eyed gaze

seemed to have a hypnotic pull on hers…the same kind of pull his fingers seemed to have on

her.

She was having a hard time remembering how angry she was with him when he was

touching her the way he was. How could she ever have been frightened of him? Of those lips,

which were kissing her, right now, on her neck?

“And you’re right to be,” he went on, in his deep, low voice. “There are unspeakable

horrors in the world, the likes of which you can’t even begin to imagine. What happened to

you that night—that day—was inexcusable. Those things—those creatures—should never have

touched you. It’s my fault you were ever put in a position where they were able to. And you’re

absolutely correct: none of what happened to you can ever be righted with a check, no matter

how sizable.”

“I don’t want your money, Lucien,” she murmured. The feel of his mouth on the skin of

her neck was almost more than she could stand. She was ready to start tearing off her dress

right there on the bedroom floor.

“I know that. And I will never allow you to be put in that kind of danger again,” he said.

The hand he’d dipped beneath her skirt had reached her panties. Now his fingers skimmed the

lace trim along the inside of her thigh. “But in order for me to protect you the way I want to,

you have to come live with me. So we can be together. Really be together.”

“In Thailand,” Meena said, her eyes closed. She’d thrown her head back against his

chest, her throat arched in tantalizing invitation.

“Or wherever you want to go,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be Thailand.” His mouth

moved toward her throat.

Meena’s heart thumped again. It all sounded so perfect. The two of them would go away

together. Maybe to Thailand. Lucien would protect her. He could because he was so big and

strong. Also rich. She wouldn’t need to worry about Leisha or Jon or Adam or Alaric or the

baby or anyone else she cared about getting killed.

Because she’d be gone. She’d be far away from them. She’d only have Lucien to care

about.

But…

Something tickled the back of her mind. The same thing that had always bothered her

whenever Leisha mentioned the baby. The same thing that had bothered her when Yalena had

shown her a picture of her boyfriend on her cell phone….

The pit of nothingness.

She opened her eyes, surprised to find that Lucien’s mouth was open and on her throat.

“Wait,” she said, jerking away, her pulse suddenly racing, her breath catching in her