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Acceptance.

No longer fighting his hold, she softened against him.

Surrendering?

Gods, no.Where was her anger, her disgust? His stomach coiled with dread.

She tugged against the hand he’d wrapped around her wrists. “Jericho, let me go.” The order was soft and surprisingly calm.

He released his grip, freeing her. She would run now.Please, run.

Alex lowered her arms and lifted her hands to cup his face. Her gaze locked with his, probing, determined.

“I feel you, Jericho.” She brushed her thumb over his mouth. His lips parted, and she ran her finger over the tip of his elongated fang. “I feel your hunger…and your fear. Despite everything you’ve shown me, there’s something you’re still hiding. But why? What are you so afraid of?”

He knew she possessed the ability to probe deeper, rip him wide-open, and see what made him tick. And yet she asked, forcing the words from his mouth.

With a harsh curse, he leapt from the bed. He grabbed his pants from the back of a chair. Dragged them up over his hips before turning to face her.

The sight before him wrenched a possessive growl from his throat. Alex in his bed.

She knelt on the black sheets before him. Pillow-tangled hair tumbled over her shoulders. The T-shirt she wore barely covered the apex of her thighs. Alex was a beautiful temptress, sent to torture him for his sins.

The fire burning in her eyes clamped an iron band of panic around his chest.

No fear. None at all. The iron band tightened.

“What was that all about?” She flung her arm out, gesturing to the bed. “What? Did you think you could scare me? Well, I’m still here,” she stated with a tilt of her chin, challenging him.

Dangerous, so dangerous. This needed to stop before he answered that challenge. He took a step closer, an aggressive move meant to intimidate.

“That only proves that you’re a fool,” he snarled.

Alex flinched, then squared her shoulders, standing her ground. “Why, because I’m no longer running? Screw that. I’ve been running my whole life. Running from monsters. Running from myself. But I’m not running anymore.” Her hazel eyes leveled on him, shrewd, calculating. “And I’m sure as hell not running from you.”

Jericho raked a hand through his unbound hair. He’d been backed into a corner, caught in his own trap. “What do you want from me, Alex?”

“What I want is for there to be no more secrets between us. If you truly feel as you just said, tell me why you’re still pushing me away.”

Frigid determination settled deep in his bones. She wanted honesty? Fine. He’d give her honesty.

His gaze dropped to the ground before sliding to her face. He wanted to see it. See her reaction. “Her name was Sivanah. My first love,” he said with a sardonic sneer. “She betrayed me.”

“And?” Alex prodded.

“I killed her.”

Ah, there was the horror he’d expected.

Eighteen

Breath lodgedin Alex’s chest. Perhaps she’d misunderstood. The man she’d come to know so well would never harm a woman. Another scare tactic?

She gathered her courage and slid to her feet. He stilled at her approach, watching with obvious unease. She reached out a hand, wanting tofeelthe truth in his claim. The corded muscle in his forearm tensed beneath her tentative touch.

Truth. Truth and so much pain.

She peered into his eyes. “What happened?”