Waiting for the results was excruciating. Carter had gone off with Caleb after they’d taken me to a beautiful guest room to shower and change clothes. Nancy was my size and had loaned me a pretty floral sundress that floated around me along with some fabulous jeweled sandals.

Looking in the mirror I felt like a girl without a care in the world. My eyes appeared bright and my hair was clean and silky. It was a true luxury and I felt like a princess. All of it was a lie of course, but I wanted to hold onto the fantasy for as long as I could.

Wearing a spaghetti strap dress wasn’t something I ever thought I’d do again but these amazing people had scars of their own and mine didn’t scare or repulse them. The marks on Nancy’s back had horrified me and made me want to hurt the people that had done it to her. They were old scars that I was fairly sure had been burned into her skin by their parents from the little Carter had shared and Caleb’s reaction. For the first time I was grateful I’d simply been ignored by my parents. I’d wanted to ask Nancy more, but would wait until she chose to tell me.

However, it really didn’t matter if she ever did. Nancy had made her point. What hadn’t killed her made her stronger. She’d become a doctor—the exact opposite of someone who causes harm.

If I got out of this shit show alive, would I be able to turn my pain into something good? Could I become something whole or would I forever be broken?

“You didn’t infect Carter,” Nancy announced, walking into the room and sitting down on the bed.

Relief made my knees buckle. I dropped onto a chair so I didn’t hit the floor like a sack of potatoes.

“Are you sure?” I asked, feeling lightheaded and wildly grateful for at least one small favor in the enormous mess I’d made.

She nodded and spread her notes on the bed. “That’s not the way it works. He’d have to be injected like you were.”

“But he was out for three days,” I told her.

Nodding again, she studied her findings. “You have traces of poison in your system, Georgia. It was in a higher concentration when Tex evaluated your blood. Now it’s far weaker. Your bite put some of that poison into Carter’s bloodstream, but it never would have caused him to turn into a panther. It could possibly have killed him, but my brother is a tough motherfucker. I’m sure the vaccines he’s had for going overseas to fight helped.”

“So my bite is poisonous?” I asked, feeling ill.

“Was,” she corrected me. “I’d hazard a guess since you’re off the regimen of shots and ointments, you’re losing the poison. Therefore losing the ability to turn.”

“Are you sure?”

“Not a hundred percent, but that’s doctor speak. As an MD, I’m never allowed to be a hundred percent sure about anything. However, as a human being and the sister of two annoying assholes, one of whom likes you a lot… yeah, I’m sure,” she admitted and then gave me a sly little grin. “So my advice to you is not to bite Carter again anytime soon, but everything else should be okay.”

I felt the heat crawl up my neck and settle squarely on my face. Mortified didn’t quite cover how I was feeling. How freaking uncomfortable was it to talk to the sister of the man you’d only known for twelve hours about possibly getting intimate with him?

Very.

Very uncomfortable.

“Look, umm… Nancy. I’m not, you know…” I mumbled wondering if I should insert my foot all the way down my throat and pull it out of my ass or just stop now. Knowing when to call it a day wasn’t one of my stronger points and to my horror, I kept speaking. “I think your brother is a wonderful guy. I mean, he’s kind of rude and a little weird, but he’s nice too… and hot. Wait, you don’t want to know that.”

I slapped my hand to my forehead and tried to drive the horrible conversation back to something more manageable. “I’m not exactly good relationship material with a bounty on my head and all—not to mention the whole fucked up animal thing. I really wouldn’t be good for him—or anyone.”

“He’s not good for anyone either,” she pointed out, amused by my apparent misery. “Seems like a pretty good fit to me.”

“I’m the reason the government wants him dead,” I reminded her. “Kind of hard to imagine him wanting to be near me at all.”

“Trust me,” Nancy said with a laugh. “I’ve never seen him like this. He sang for you. Carter Davis doesn’t do that. Ever. He’s got it bad.”

“We’ve known each other for less than a day,” I insisted, more for my benefit than hers. I mean, how could this be happening? And was it happening? And if it was, what the hell was it?

Nancy gathered her paperwork and slipped it back into a thick folder. She stood up and approached me with a small, sad smile on her lips.

“Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed, Georgia,” she said, looking me straight in the eye. “Timing is rarely right and falling for someone never makes sense. I’ve only known you for a few hours yet I would trust you with my life. Does that make sense? No, it doesn’t. But this is what I know. My brother’s life has been filled with sadness and violence I don’t want to even try to imagine—as has yours. Our upbringing was a fucking real life horror movie. I rarely sleep through the night even now. You make Carter smile. Instead of running when he didn’t like what you said, he punched a wall. You might not realize it, but that was an improvement for him. My brother is a jackass, but he’s not a liar and he can’t fake his emotion. What you see is what you get. Enjoy what you can while you can. Always. You deserve it and my brother deserves it.”

With that she kissed the top of my head and left the room.

Oh. My. God. I was just given permission by Carter’s sister to do him. How freaking weird was that? My life had jumped from boring to fucked up to terrifying to flat out weird. And this new weird was the scariest of all. I wasn’t good for him and he probably wasn’t good for me, but…

For the first time in my life I cared about the person I wanted. It was strange and heady and frightening. In fact, I was very sure I was falling for him.

Fast? Yes.

Ridiculous? Yes.

Absolutely true? Yes.

And that’s when I knew I couldn’t let anything happen between us. As much as I wanted to pretend I was normal, I wasn’t. I never would be normal and who knew what the long-range effects of what the mad scientists had done to me would be? The most loving, mature and responsible thing I could do was to leave him alone. That was going to be harder than hell, but doable.

We had forty-eight hours here, and then hopefully Tex would be able to get us out of the country. Once we were safe, we would part ways, and Carter could find someone who wasn’t a fucked up mess like I was. The thought of that made me want to tear the pretty guestroom to shreds, but it was the right thing to do.

I was fine. No. I wasn’t fine. I was dying inside, but that was just too damned bad. It was time to pull up my big girl panties and be selfless. I’d survived being an experiment and living in a cage. I could survive giving up someone I was falling in love with because it was better for him to be without me. Eventually I would bring him down. I was sure of it.

Great. Decision made.

And then he walked into the room and I forgot my fucking name.

“Did you talk with my sister?” Carter asked.

He was wearing loose-fitting sweats and a t-shirt that hugged every gorgeous muscle in his broad chest. Tearing my eyes away from his beauty was impossible, so I didn’t even try.

Nodding my head yes in answer was all I was capable of. If I spoke, I was terrified I’d beg him to take me immediately.

“I liked what she had to say,” he said, pinning me with a stare. “Did you?”

Again, I nodded—still didn’t trust my ability to speak.

“Also spoke to Tex,” Carter went on. “He’s having a little trouble so we might be here a bit longer than forty-eight.”

“He can’t get us out of the country?” I asked, finding my voice now that we were discussing life and death—his and mine.

“Not yet, but he will. Tex hates losing even more than I do. However, I can think of a few things we can do to fill the time.”

“You can?” I asked in voice that sounded foreign to my own ears. It was breathy and full of need. I was the absolute uncoolest in this sexy little cat and mouse game we were playing. I needed to keep to silent communication or I was going to ruin what might be happening here.

His smile was slow and filled with so much erotic innuendo, I actually laughed. He was every kind of crazy and it was hotter than hell.

“Would you like a tour of the house?”

“The house?” I asked confused. Maybe I’d misread everything. Or maybe he’d changed his mind. I wouldn’t blame him at all and everything would be easier if he had.

“Wait. Did I say house?” he asked, shaking his head and biting back his grin. “Sorry, my bad. I meant room—my bedroom.”

“You’re not scared of me?” I asked, pissed that my voice still sounded so girly and breathy.

“Nope.”

“You should be,” I warned him.

“Right back at ya, Georgia from Georgia,” he replied, grabbing my hand and leading me out of the guest room. “I’m the scariest thing you will ever come across.”

And that’s where this beautiful man was dead wrong. He was Beauty and I was the Beast. I was far scarier than he was, and I always would be.