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“Where do we go from here, Jonas?” Stygian asked from behind her. “Don’t play games with me where she’s concerned. The time for your manipulations where Liza and I are concerned is over.”
Liza. She had to stay Liza, not Honor. At least for a little while longer.
“Now, we’re tracking her assailants.” His expression tightened once again. “Once we have them in custody and we learn how much the Genetics Council knows concerning them, I’ll handle that end. Until then, what you do remember of those years and the serum you were given, I must know.” Agony flashed in his gaze. “If I lose my daughter, Ms. Johnson, then it won’t matter the battle we’re fighting or the need to move with caution. I promise you, there won’t be a scientist or an individual associated with that organization that I will allow to continue breathing. That, I promise you.”
That promise Liza felt to the bottom of her soul.
“I still don’t remember everything.” She was holding on to Stygian as though he were a lifeline, terrified she was going to sink into the fears tearing through her now. “But—” She lifted her hands from Stygian to rub at the ache in her temples. “Jonas.” She stared back at him miserably. “There were so many injections, and only Gideon knew what each one was. I was assigned to the scientists that worked with the blood transfusions and who analyzed the data on the blood tests and the different hormones that showed in them. Fawn worked wi
th the techs that coded the information, and Judd was with the group that created and administered the medications for the different side effects. Gideon was with Brandenmore and his scientists as they created the serums for the different groups and administered them.”
“There was more than your group?” Jonas growled.
“Unfortunately.” She had to bite back the sobs that still ached in her chest as more tears fell. “I don’t know how many, or what they were focused on. Only Gideon knew.”
Jonas’s jaw clenched tight as his gaze flashed with a brutal fury.
“Then we’ll just have to ensure we draw Judd and Gideon in. Until then,” he continued. “No one outside a very select group, chosen by me, will know that you are now aware of your identity or that we’re aware you’re anyone other than Liza Johnson. Not even your parents will know. Claire Martinez, especially, will be kept in the dark.”
“What are you going to do?” she asked as Stygian’s arms wrapped around her once again.
He’d remained quiet, but it was as though she could feel him, sense the careful calculation and the plans he was working on himself as she and Jonas spoke.
Dropping his arms from his chest, he slid them instead into the pockets of his slacks as his lips quirked mockingly once again. “Why, Ms. Johnson, I’m going to do exactly what I’ve been doing for the past months. I’m going to pull in the final two pieces. Once I have the four of you together, then I pray to God, I’ll have the key to saving my child.”
With that, he moved to the door, calmly, carefully opened it and stepped into the sitting area of the suite. The door closed behind him almost silently as chills raced up Liza’s spine.
“Will he keep her safe?” she whispered.
“As a mate in her lover’s arms,” he sighed as his arms wrapped around her and pulled her against the warmth of his chest. “She just might not enjoy the experience.”
Turning to him, exhausted, still torn and filled with doubts, she allowed his arms to surround her, to wrap her in the comfort and the warmth she’d always ached for.
“I wouldn’t have missed it,” she told him, feeling his lips at her temple, the beat of his heart beneath her ear.
“Missed what, baby?” he asked gently, as though he didn’t know.
He had to know.
Tilting her head back, she stared up at him, her eyes filling with tears, but this time, tears of thankfulness, of joy.
“You.” Her voice was thick with that emotion. “I wouldn’t have missed what we have, Stygian. Not for anything.”
His hand lifted, brushed back the hair at her temple then cupped the side of her head as his lowered to hers. “Neither would I, mate. Not for the world, or the safety of anyone in it, would I have missed a single moment we’ve had, or all the moments to come.
She wouldn’t have missed it for anything; now she just prayed the past she had managed to escape for twelve years didn’t find a way to turn around and destroy them. Then she didn’t think, regret or fear. As his lips slid over hers, his tongue stroking against them, parting them and sending brilliant forks of sizzling pleasure to race through her body, Liza knew there was nothing on the face of the earth that could have convinced her to miss this moment, this life and this man.
The taste of the mating heat filled her senses, washing through her, sensitizing her nerve endings and leaving her wet, needy, wanting his touch, his hold as she had never needed anything before.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she held on to him, feeling the heat and incredible hardness of his body as he lifted her closer. As he gripped her hips, lifting her and bearing her back on the bed as he came over her, Liza felt a sensual, feminine weakness sweeping over her.
This was the most incredible pleasure. Watching him come over her as he leaned close, the fingers of one hand moving for the buttons of the light cotton blouse she wore and slowly loosening them.
Her heart rate jumped as the backs of his fingers brushed against the mounds of her breasts. A moan whispered past her lips as he flicked open the front clasp of her bra and eased the cups from the swollen breasts.
“Stygian, yes.” Her hands moved from his shoulders to his hair, reaching for the thin strip of leather that held the silken strands back from his face.
“Not yet.” Catching her wrists, he pulled them back over her head, anchoring them to the mattress with one hand as his lips lowered to the hard tips of her nipples.
