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“And killing you.” My thoughts raced to keep up with everything. It was an act—all of this. “Dee?”
Daemon’s thick lashes lowered as he shook his head.
“What?” I pulled in an unsteady breath as the crush of disappointment hit me. Her words had stung me, but it had to be worse for Daemon and Dawson. “She’s not . . . pretending?”
“No. She’s sucked into them. It’s kind of like a hive.” He shook his head again, and I could see the weariness settling in the lines around his full lips. “I don’t know why Dawson and I are able to . . . think for ourselves but not her.”
I placed the tips of my fingers against his cheek, feeling the faint stubble. “I think I know.”
His brows rose.
“Dawson has Beth,” I said quietly, meeting his eyes. “And you have me. Maybe that’s it. Just like with the mutation thing. It’s something so simple.”
“There’s nothing about you that’s simple.”
A faint smile crossed my lips. “I was so scared,” I admitted after a few moments. “When you left with them, and then seeing you again like . . . like you were. I thought I’d lost you.” Emotion clogged my throat, and it took several seconds to get the words out. “That after everything we’ve been through, I’d lost you anyway.”
“You haven’t lost me, Kitten. You could never lose me.” He folded me in against him, and when he spoke in a low voice, his lips brushed my cheek. “But I didn’t want you here, anywhere near here. It’s not safe for you.”
The fierce ache in my chest eased a little as his words sank in, but the bitter tang of hurt and fear lingered in the back of my throat. There was still so much I didn’t understand, things I didn’t think even Daemon understood.
He took one of my hands and placed it against his chest, above his heart. “You really thought I’d forgotten you?”
I dipped my chin, and it was too easy to recall the coldness in his stare. “I didn’t know what to think. You . . . you looked at me like you did when we first met.”
“Kat.” He uttered my name like it was some kind of prayer, and then he pressed a kiss against the skin behind my ear. “I broke every rule of my kind to heal you and keep you with me. I married you and burned down an entire city to keep you safe. I’ve killed for you. Did you think I’d forget what you mean to me? That anything in this world—in any world—would be stronger than my love for you?”
A choked sob escaped my lips as I buried my face in the space between his shoulder and neck. Circling my arms around his shoulders, I clung to him like a needy baby monkey. I squeezed until his low chuckle whispered against my cheek.
“You’re strangling me,” he said, smoothing a hand up my back. “Just a little.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled against his shoulder, but I didn’t let go. He kissed the crown of my head, and a sigh leaked out of me. God, nothing was okay. Far from it, but Daemon was okay. He was himself, and dammit, together we could face anything. We would because we had to. “What are we going to do?”
He tucked the tangled mess of my hair back from my face, exposing my cheek to the path of his lips. “Keep pretending. There are gonna be things I’m going to have to say, maybe even have to do—”
“I understand.” My heart dropped anyway. I didn’t want to relive the whole office thing again, but I would if needed. I had to.
“Of course you do.” He placed a kiss on the corner of my lips. “But it’s not something I’ve ever wanted you to have to understand.” His lips followed the curve of my jaw, eliciting a shiver from me. “We’ll get out of here, but I can’t go without Dee.”
I nodded. I would never expect him to leave her behind, even if she had turned into a raging bitch who apparently wanted to throw me down a flight or three of stairs.
“And not before I know what they’re planning,” he added. “They’re up to something big.”
“Obviously.” I smiled faintly. “The whole invading-Earth part kind of gave that away.”
“Smartass.” His teeth caught the edge of my earlobe, and the little nip sent a jolt through my entire body.
I gasped, and his answering chuckle was downright wicked and wholly inappropriate given the situation. I drew back, cheeks flushing. “Only you could behave like this with everything going on.”
One side of his mouth tipped up as his gaze dropped to my lips and then below. “Well, you are sitting in my lap wearing only jeans and a bra—a cute bra—after kicking some chick’s ass. That’s hot. And I’m really turned on by that.”
The blush traveled to the lacy edge of my bra, because I could tell he was really turned on by that. “You’re ridiculous.”
“You’re beautiful.”
“I stink,” I murmured.
Daemon chuckled hoarsely. “I can help you rectify that. I mean, I can be really helpful in that department.”
“Oh Lord, seriously?”
“Hey, I’m supposedly all about the physical.” He paused as I stared at him. “Okay, probably not supposedly. When it comes to you, I’m feeling physical pretty much all the time.” His hands moved up my bare arms, leaving a rush of tiny bumps behind them.
I tilted my head back. “So besides the obvious me dying equals you dying, the other Luxen think you want to keep me around because you just like . . . ?”
“Having wild, animalistic sex with you?” he suggested.