Page 159 of Sins of the Heart

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care and pressed hard on the wound. After a few seconds, he used the second piece to tie off the first. But

his watchful gaze never left her.

She thought about bolting—

“Do not even think it.”

“I’m not.” Not anymore.

He wiped her knife on his jeans. Leaking from beneath his makeshift bandage was a three-inch margin

that was dark and wet with blood. The scent of it—

She froze, mastering her nature. Instinct screamed

for her to lean down, rip his jeans and open her mouth

against his skin, latch on to him like a suckerfish and

drink and drink and drink like the parasite she was. The

power of her need was startling. Disturbing. Rarely did

it hit her so hard.

Was it because his blood was supernatural? Or because it was his fault that she felt such cravings at all?

Eleven years ago, he had awakened the seeds of the

creature she had become. He had ended her old life and

given her a new one, set her on the winding path that

had brought her to this moment.

And then he’d walked away.

Had he ever given that a second thought? Givenher

a second thought?

No. He’d left her to make her way all on her own.

To stumble and fall and almost give up. To hate him

and curse him.

To fear him.

To dream of him and yearn for him, twisting the fact

that he’d saved her life into some sort of attraction. That

was the worst part. The nights she woke thrashing and

covered in sweat—not because she was terrified but because she’d been dreaming about him.

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