Lawe's Justice - Lora Leigh [96]
“You make it sound as though the bastard hadn’t just finished taking potshots at you and your men last week,” Lawe bit out angrily. “I was there, I know what was going on¸ Diane, and that bastard could have killed you as easily as he wounded your men. There’s more on his agenda than giving you a helping hand.”
Duh. No kidding. This wasn’t her moron week, no matter what he wanted to think.
She shrugged again as she continued to gather her things together. There was no point in staying any longer, just as there was no point in attempting to convince him that she was trained well enough, that she was intelligent enough to do what had to be done.
“Would you listen to me.” He grabbed her arm as she turned to move her bags to the door. “You don’t have to do this.”
Diane stared back at him, seeing the worry in his gaze but also seeing the fact that her future would be as bleak as hell if she gave him what he wanted, if she left with him and returned to the safety of Sanctuary.
“I do have to do this, Lawe,” she stated softly, the growing anger dropping away in the face of his concern and the conflicting emotions she could see darkening his gaze. “I don’t have to do it for you or even for myself. It’s for Honor Roberts. It’s for Fawn and for Judd and the other Breeds that were tortured in those labs. I’m doing this, Lawe, because no one else cared enough or knew enough to protect them when they needed it. I do this for my niece.” Tears filled her eyes at the thought of Amber. “For the consequences she may pay for Breed research after that bastard injected her. I do it for what they did to you, to the others and for what they’ll continue to do. God, Lawe, I do this because it’s who I am.”
Lawe stared into her eyes, saw the conviction there, saw the woman she knew herself to be as well as the woman he knew she could be. “You only see the warrior you are, Diane.” He sighed, feeling as weary as she had sounded moments ago. “You don’t see the rest of you, but I sense her. I hope you find her, before you destroy both of us.”
Mating heat was so much more than a sexual hunger that brought a couple together. Lawe knew it for the emotional abyss it could be as well as the thriving, beautiful relationship it could become.
Staring into her eyes, he tried, God knew he tried with everything inside him, to still the dominance that was so much a part of him. To tell her what he felt and know it wouldn’t give her the encouragement he was certain she would get from it.
He’d felt her hurt, knew what he’d done to hurt her and he hated himself for it.
Without a thought he’d attempted to wound her self-confidence just as he’d attempted to weaken her belief in herself.
He’d done it without thinking, without a moment’s hesitation, and she’d seen right through him. He’d seen it in her eyes, in her expression. She’d known even before he had what he was up to. And she deserved so much more.
She deserved much more from him.
“Before I destroy both of us.” She sighed as she turned away from him. “There is no ‘us,’ Lawe. There’s still just you and what you want.”
She looked alone, bereft. Staring at her, Lawe couldn’t believe the gift standing before him or the incredible strength and will she possessed. She was as strong as the woman who had given him birth. And he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt she would die for him the same as Morningstar had died for her mate, Elder.
“After my escape from the labs I avoided every woman who I felt, even remotely, could have been my mate.” The surprise on her face was nothing compared to his own as he heard himself speaking.
Reaching out Lawe touched the side of her face with the backs of his fingers, brushing her hair back as he did so. “Not because I didn’t want you.” He cupped the back of her neck as that remembered ache of hunger shot through him. “Because I did, Diane. With everything I am, everything I was, I wanted my mate. I wanted to hold you, to have you hold me. I wanted to laugh and feel the contentment I knew other Breeds felt with their mates. I wanted to sleep