She used my hesitation as an opportunity to take control. She lifted her mouth to mine and ran a hand through my hair, pulling my face closer to hers....Her kiss clouded my mind and forced any coherent thought from forming. She tasted irresistibly delicious. Like fruit and honey. Kelli didn’t taste like this. I froze. Shit. Kelli. There was a clear thought. I tried to pull back but she held me even tighter, wrapping both of her arms around my neck and lifting her body so I could feel that perfect. This talent allowed Diane to enter the workforce very easily. Starting as a receptionist with a printing company, she quickly moved through a number of companies. Each move increased her status and salary, until she became PA to Crispin Beauchamp, the senior partner of a major architects practice.Diane was five feet eight inches tall, brunette, and slender. Clothes suited her. Any clothes. She was the original "look good in a flour sack" type. On site she was the perfect employee. Her dress. I should have known better. We weren't dealing with a man. And women have long been known as the creators of the worst atrocities.With revulsion choking me, we walked into a room Elizabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess, would have felt at home in.The once-white tiles of the floor, walls and ceiling were encrusted with untold amounts of blood and gore that the water hose in one corner had been unable to remove. The steel grates of drainage holes shone dimly here and there, some clogged with chunks. In his strength. Her belief he would pull through. It was a balm to his soul, a lifeline in those times when all the world went dark and his grip on all he was began to falter. Always, her words were there to cling to, and he drew resolve and will from her precious voice. Rael did not remember what she said. Not entirely. Her words were snatches, bits and pieces, half phrases and monosyllables etched in his mind and carved into his soul. I’m so very afraid of being alone, she’d whispered to.