Caring about her beyond a basic need to keep her safe, he could not. Maxwell Tremayne never should have touched her, kissed her, tasted her. It was foolish -- dangerous -- for a vampire to get involved with a human, let alone a flesh-and-blood spitfire of a woman with curves like Linnet's.
Maxwell had to remember that it was tragedy that had brought them together on this dangerous quest to catch a cold-blooded killer. Even if they survived this struggle unscathed, imagining that they could share anything more than a fleeting affair was as ridiculous as...imagining that he could live another hundred years without her.