“WHY DO WE care?”
Her eyes bug out of her head. “Why do we care? We don’t, Omega. At least, when we leave this suite, we don’t. Got it?”
I stare at her, confused. “Not really.”
“Ugh,” she sighs. “Here’s the deal. We’re not supposed to care. We are Leviathans. Nobody in this whole damn building gives a fuck except for about themselves. At the end of the day, everyone is out for themselves.”
The screams of the damned flood my mind—horrific and sickening. I know that I care because I don’t belong here in the first damn place. But Lovenia? Ever since she fucked me over, I assumed she was one of them through and through—not a sympathetic bone in her body. Now I wonder what’s really going on inside that head of hers.
“I didn’t think you cared about anyone but yourself.” My words are meant to sting her, and the effect is immediate, because her shoulders sag.
“I have a heart, Omega. I’m so sorry I hurt you before.”
Her apologies are always verbal nonsense to me. I don’t feel the sincerity in my bones. She’s given me no reason to trust her.
When she stretches her bare legs out and props them on the coffee table, my eyes unabashedly skim over her tan skin. God, I miss those legs.
“So he fucked you and you watched them. Why would you fuck him in the first place? Was he better than me? Did you tell him you loved him?” I blabber out. My mouth has officially lost its mind.
Her hand finds the hem of the T-shirt she’s wearing, and she nervously fiddles with it. The shirt may be mine, and it may fit her like a dress—but it’s a short fucking dress and extremely distracting.
“Yes, he made me watch their begging and torment. It was sick. And no, nobody could ever be better than you.”
Pride swells in my chest—I fuck better than the damn Devil. There should be some award I could give him for his mantel on his precious fireplace. Second-Place Lover.
“So, you don’t love him?”
Her laugh is hollow. “Not even close.”
She continues to fidget with her shirt, so I cover her hand with mine, my fingertips brushing the insides of her inner thighs. The gasp that erupts from her is familiar, and I can’t help the longing that fills me.
I miss her.
“I’ve missed you,” she says, mimicking my thoughts in a small voice.
“I didn’t miss you,” I lie. My thumb gently strokes the top of her hand, because even though I want my words to hurt her, I want to comfort her at the same time. The sane brain in my head tells me that this woman is a liar and used me for her own personal gain. But my heart begs to let me hold her.
“Do you remember that time not long after you were assigned to look after Pedro and you got all pissed at something he said?” she asks quietly.
I know exactly what she’s talking about. It was the day I knew. The moment I knew I loved her.
“If you were mine, the first place my dick would go would be in that hot little mouth of yours,” Pedro flirts, his voice so low that I almost don’t hear it.
“What the fuck did you say?” I stand abruptly, my fists clenched at my sides. I’m supposed to be protecting this asshole, but he makes it hard as hell.
He lifts his wife beater to reveal his sleek Glock 19, which is tucked into the waistband of his jeans. The fucker is threatening me.
“Come on, Omega. I’m getting tired,” Love says suddenly, standing as well.
Pedro and I have a silent standoff, neither of us moving, only staring at one another. Finally, Lovenia grabs my fisted hand and tugs me out of the apartment. My teeth are nearly dust from angry grinding by the time we get back to my place.
Once the door is closed, the spell breaks and I want her close to me. Snaking an arm around her narrow waist, I pull her to me. Lovenia always smells like a hint of sweet smoke—a faint lingering of incense. Her scent is nothing like I’ve ever smelled—at least, not in this life—and I associate it only with her.
Dipping my head down, I capture her plump lips with mine. She might smell smoky and sweet, but she tastes like cherries. I devour her as if she’s my own delicious sundae. All that’s missing is the Cool Whip…
I want to carry her into my room and talk, but with the way her tongue dances with mine, I know that, once again, neither of us will be communicating with anything except our bodies.
“Wait,” I murmur, wrenching my lips from hers. My dick strains against my denim because fucking Lovenia is always his number-one priority. “I want you, Love.”
She raises an eyebrow in confusion. “Yeah? Then why’d you stop kissing me? Take me into your room and make mad love to me.”
Mad love.
All along, she’s wanted me to fuck her, but now, she wants me to make love to her—mad love. This girl, with her wickedly adorable ways, has me eating right out of her hands. I want her.
Forever.
My future job title means I can’t love her. There will be no forever for us.
Our forever is now.
“Do you remember, Omega?” she asks, tearing me from my sweet memory.
“Yes. I remember it clearly,” I bite out.
She looks directly into my eyes, and for once, the dark, calculating swirls that are always playing behind them are absent. With wide, innocent eyes, she whispers, “That was real.”
I glare at her. “Nothing was ever real between us, Love.”
Her eyes glisten with unshed tears. “Just because I had a job to do doesn’t mean I never lost focus.”
The look on her face, sad and remorseful, tells me she’s being genuine. But she’s confusing the fuck out of me right now with her sullen mood and lack of overt sexuality. The woman who always seems so poised and deliberate suddenly appears to be…vulnerable.
“You’re saying you loved me too?” I demand.
Her mouth opens to respond, but she’s interrupted by a pound on the door to my suite.
“What?” I snarl toward the door.
Whoever the fuck it is might just get their ass kicked for interrupting this conversation I’ve needed to have with Lovenia for some time. If we can’t be together, I need answers as to why not. Answers as to why she chose her career over me. Why she lied to me. Why she made me love her if the feelings weren’t mutual.
Gabe pops the door open and peeks his head in. Once he sees that I’m not balls-deep in some African goddesses, he struts in as if he owns the goddamned place.
I glower at him, but the fucker doesn’t seem fazed.
“Love,” he greets with a wary grin. He knows what went down with her six months ago, and I’m sure he’s surprised to see her here. And it probably looks fishy as hell considering she’s freshly showered and wearing nothing but a T-shirt. My T-shirt.
Lovenia stiffens, and I feel it. It’s almost as real as the air I breathe—the protective walls that come crashing down around her. I want to step inside them with her, but she’s already shut me out.
“Always a pleasure, Edward,” she smirks. Her shoulders have risen and her whole body is a pillar of assurance.
Gabe rolls his eyes and grumbles, “I’m not a gay-ass, sparkling, teenage vampire.”
Normally, I might chuckle at the banter going on between them, but I’m too pissed. “What the fuck do you want?”
His eyes widen, and he runs a hand through his hair. “Dude, calm down. You promised to have a drink with me tonight. Besides, I came to check on you. Why the hell did you piss off Corson? He was ready to bash your head in.”
“I’d like to see him try. He’s nothing but a Matt Bomer–lookalike pussy,” I snap back.
He shakes his head. “Seriously, man. You don’t want him on your bad side. He’ll make your life a living Hell.”
I smirk. Too late for that.
“What were you doing down there in that closet anyway?” I question now that Corson isn’t around.
Lovenia stiffens and sits up slightly as if suddenly interested in our conversation.
Gabe eyes Lovenia, but when I nod, he sighs. “Nothing. Just giving something to Zo.”
That name again. Who the fuck is Zo?
Before I can ask him that question, Lovenia pipes in with her two cents. “Zodiac? He runs HEL’s servers. What would you need in there for?”
Good question.
Awareness prickles at my senses, and I’m overwhelmed with the fact that I’ll never feel as if I can ever trust anyone again. I would have trusted Alpha with my life and my darkest secrets. Al was a good guy, and I miss him like fucking crazy.
“I, uh”—Gabe pauses and his lips twitch as he so blatantly whips up a lie on the spot—“accidentally deleted some files for my next assignment from my computer. I was going to ask him if he could check the backups and get them to me.”
After what I sense is clearly a lie, he flashes a smug grin.
“Hmm,” Love murmurs in disbelief, mimicking my thoughts.
I’m about to tell him to stop lying when Love slides her hand over mine and squeezes it. She’s acting like the typical Lovenia in front of him, but the unspoken plea not to pursue Gabe’s lie has me halting. It’s clear that she wants me to let it go. Why? I have no fucking idea.
“So, what’s up with this new assignment?” he questions.
Again, I’m unsure about whether or not I want to tell him.
“It’s classified,” Lovenia smarts off, squeezing my hand again.
Gabe, typically an easygoing guy, glares at her. “You’re a bitch. A lying bitch. Omega, don’t get too close to her. She’ll rip your heart out again. Fucking monster.”
Lovenia can be a bitch. And she most definitely lies like it’s the truth. But she’s not a monster.
“Get out,” I growl. “If you ever speak to her like that again, I’ll kick your fucking teeth in.” My chest heaves as I believe every word that comes out of my mouth.
Gabe gapes at me. “She’s poisoning you, Omega. When she breaks you again, I’ll be waiting to sweep up the shattered pieces,” he grits out before storming from my suite.
Maybe she is poisoning me. Until this evening, my resolve to hate her was unwavering. I’d managed to avoid her for six straight months without incident. But the moment we had to spend more than five minutes together, I was already under her fucking spell—reconsidering every thought, word, and action that had transpired between us.
Dying from Lovenia’s poison seems like a sweet way to go.
“I don’t like him,” she pouts and looks up at me, batting her eyelashes.
This. Now I see what this is. When she acts like this, she’s Lovenia the Leviathan. The so-called monster Gabe speaks of.
“Stop.”
A flicker behind her eyes gives her away, but she continues on anyway. “Stop what, baby?”
Baby. Another one of her ploys.
“Where did you go?” I growl as I snatch my hands from her grasp.
She slides a hand over my chest and hikes a leg over my hips to straddle me. Just knowing that she’s probably nude under my T-shirt has my dick on full alert.
“I’m right here,” she purrs as she rocks her pussy against the rock-hard bulge in my jeans.
I want to forget what she’s done to me. To kiss her like old times. I want to flip her over onto her back and fuck her like a madman on this sofa. I want to feel her again. Taste her. Own her.
But I can’t. The woman she hid away is the one I am missing. Not this fraud who’s dipping her head down to kiss me.
I let her steal one kiss simply because I’m a selfish motherfucker. For one small moment, I want to devour her and consume the memory that is her. Her lips are soft on mine—teasing—and I’m holding on to a small thread of self-control.
“That’s the last kiss you get,” I murmur as I pull away from her. “Ever.”
Even I know that’s a lie.