Page 96 of You Only Love Twice
Or could he?
"Run away with me," he whispered.
Gemma's head jerked up. "What?"
Obsidian cupped her face in his hands. The words were as much a surprise to him as they were to her, but the second he breathed them into the world, he gave them life. They swelled, filling the gaping hole in his chest. An answer. A damned answer where neither of them needed to yield. "You and me. We could leave all this behind us. Run away together and never look back."
The more he thought of it, the more alluring the idea became.
"No moredhampir. No more killing. No more ruin. We could flee to the Americas. Create a new life for ourselves." He desperately needed her to sayyes. "All I need is you."
But he knew her answer even before she opened her mouth to reply.
Agony gleamed in her blue eyes. "Obsidian—"
The desperate need to still her words slammed through him, and he took her mouth, trapping the answer inside her. If she couldn't give it life, then he could linger here, in a dream world where they could be together.
Gemma kissed him back, her fingers twining through his hair, and her mouth just as hungry as his. Obsidian's hand slid down over the curve of her ass, and he hauled her against him, grabbing a fistful of what remained of her bustle. The crush of her breasts against his chest ignited the blood rushing through his veins, and her belly pressed against the flushed rousing of his cock. All he needed was Gemma. He devoured her with quick, helpless kisses until he could barely breathe.
Until he was dizzy with it—
She pushed against his chest, drawing back with a gasp. "No. No, I can't. You're asking me to throw away the lives of everyone I love. And I will not do that. Not even for you."
Stalemate.
He'd always known it would come to this.
"Gemma...."
"Please," she whispered, taking his hands. "Please help me stop them. With you on our side, we cannot fail."
"Gemma." He pressed his forehead to hers. "The second I betray them, I'm dead."
Or worse.
They would turn him against her again.
"Malloryn will protect you. I know he will."
"Stop." He clasped his fingers over her lips, stilling the words. "You can't hide me from what's inside me. It doesn't matter where I go in this cursed city. My only hope is to leave the country—to get as far out of Ghost's range as I possibly can."
Stillness leached through her, and she looked up.
"I am not the man I once was, Gemma." He tried to make her see. "Malloryn had you all implanted with a tracking beacon when you began to work for him, didn't he?"
Suspicion darkened her eyes. "You removed yours."
"I have what is called a neural regulating actuator implant in my brain. It took me years to even realize it was there. I have these... moments... where I black out. I lose time sometimes. And my memories are full of holes. Sometimes I can wake to find myself in a place with no idea how I got there."
"What are you trying to say?"
"There is a Dr. Richter working for Ghost. He's spent years perfecting the implant, and it killed most of the initial trial patients. It forces you to obey. You don't even know what you're doing."
Her mind was racing behind her eyes, but they suddenly lifted to his, and he could see the truth dawning in them like a sunrise.
"You shot me," she whispered.
He brushed his knuckles down the sides of her cheeks, unable to meet her gaze. "I can't remember pulling the trigger," he confessed. "All I can see is the moment you started falling. The last thing I knew before that moment was drinking a glass of blood with Silas as he checked my burns. And then I was on the bridge, and you were gone." His voice roughened. "It's all starting to come back to me. I thought I'd killed you. I couldn't stop thinking of the look on your face when you fell. I tried to find your body, but there was no sign of you, and then the explosion happened.... I barely escaped with my life. But I would never—"
