She looked up to find Hunter watching her, naked hope in his eyes. It hit her with the force of a punch.
His phone rang, and he pulled it out and answered. “Yes.” His gaze leapt to her face. “Now?” He stepped away to finish the call.
When he returned to her he was scowling.
“What is it?”
“I have to leave and go to Ricci’s territory. His arrest and Trevor’s death have thrown the clan into chaos. I have been elected to go there and take care of things before someone else moves in and attempts a takeover.”
He paused, studying her closely, before adding, “Your name is still on the contract, Phoebe. You’re legally Ricci’s heir.”
She shook her head. “He didn’t really expect me to take over. And his people won’t, either. I’d be walking into hostile territory.” But he’d be in the same position, without anyone to back him up. The idea cramped her stomach with fear.
She didn’t want him to leave. What would she do once he was gone? She had to remember. “Will you take me to the hunting blind?”
He clasped her hand and led the way.
The wooden box with its square-cut windows seemed a flimsy shelter. “It stormed last night. It may be wet inside,” he warned.
She climbed up into the cramped space and backed against the tree trunk to make room for him. “I remember this being here when I bought the property.”
An odd, quick sound like a woodpecker tapping at a hollow stump rattled in the distance. Hunter cocked his head and listened. “Vlad has sent a helicopter for me.”
Not yet. She wasn’t ready for him to go. Not yet.
Hunter’s features were stiff, and his eyes kept straying to the floor at her feet. “You were dying, Phoebe. I had to leave you to get the antidote.”
She saw the pain break through his composure, triggering an answering pain inside her.
She’d been cold when vampires weren’t supposed to notice the change in temperature. She’d willed her heart to beat for him when it had wanted to stop…but it hadn’t been enough. He asked her not to leave him.
“But you came back,” she said. “I’m alive because you came back.”
His eyes took on the blue glow of powerful emotion held in check. The sound of the helicopter grew louder and louder. “I have to go.” He stood abruptly, his hands fisted at his sides and his throat working as he swallowed. When he moved toward the opening in the floor, she caught his arm.
He caressed her fingers with his own, his voice huskier when he gazed in her eyes and told her, “I’ll wait as long as it takes for you to remember how much I love you, Phoebe.”
Quick tears stung her eyes and ran down her cheeks. She reached for him and was suddenly in his arms, being held tight, his lean, muscular body aligned with hers like a perfectly fitted puzzle piece. He’d protected her, fed her, made love to her, saved her. She fought to stay alive for him. For them.
“I remember, Hunter. It’s all a jumble. But I remember.” He kissed her, a desperate longing in the contact that fed them both. “You didn’t leave me, you were here the whole time.” She placed his hand over her steadily beating heart.
“I don’t want to leave you behind. We can do this together.”
“I don’t know what my powers are like, Hunter.”
“It’ll be okay.”
His reassurance made it easy. “Okay.”
He stepped through the opening in the floor of the blind and dropped to the ground, moving aside to wait for her.
They walked toward the sound of the helicopter, but she stopped and turned back. She dragged in power from the elements and, with a flick of her wrist, threw it toward the blind. The structure exploded into tiny, toothpick-sized pieces and powdered the forest floor.
She met Hunter’s raised-eyebrow look.
She laughed. “That felt good.”
His grin was all bad-boy vampire, sexy and suggestive. She’d seen that look before.
“I still can’t read your mind, Hunter,” she murmured against his ear. “But when I get on board the helicopter, I might just have to wiggle in my seat.”
He chuckled the masculine sound erotic. “Be careful not to set your panties on fire, Phoebe.”
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