~ TWENTY-TWO ~

Larissa opened the door. She wasn’t surprised to see Gabe in the hall. She’d planned to talk to him, but she suddenly didn’t know what she wanted to say to him yet. Without saying a word to him, she headed for the elevator. She knew he was following her. That was good. She needed to confront him. Her eyes met his when he got into the elevator with her. But how?

“How long are you planning to ignore me?”

“What are you?” she asked.

“I don’t understand.”

“What are you, Gabe?”

“I get rid of dangerous individuals that…”

“Stop,” she interrupted. “I am not asking what you claim to do for a living. I want to know what you are?” She kept her gaze locked onto his. “You. Are. Not. Human.”

“I’m not?” He laughed.

The mocking tone of his voice pissed her off.  And, even though she would never admit it, she was hurt by it. He’d destroyed her. She would never be the same. He knew her deepest darkest secret. She’d been dumb enough to share it with him. He would never be open with her. He would never be honest. She couldn’t be with him if he was unwilling to be genuine with her. “You’ve looked out for me. You’ve protected me when you didn’t have to do it. I’ll never hate you, but I want you to stay the hell away from me for now on.”

He frowned, moving closer to her. “Because you think I’m not human or because you believe I was with another woman?”

“I know you weren’t with another woman. I also know you’re not human, Gabe.” She took her phone from her pocket, pressed play, and handed it to him.

He took a deep breath and sighed. “I’m sorry, Larissa.”

“Why? Because you didn’t want me to remember that we were fucking around.”

He reached out and stopped the elevator. “That’s not true.”

“You didn’t take the memory from me?”

“I did.” He took her hands in his. “But it’s…we didn’t…”

“I’m not an idiot, Gabe.” She yanked her hands free and turned to punch buttons to get the elevator to move. “I know we didn’t screw each other.”

He wanted to tell her the truth. She deserved nothing less. He’d hurt her. He didn’t want her to think of him when she remembered the people who’d deceived and hurt her. He didn’t want to admit to being owned by another demon. He didn’t want to admit that he wasn’t free to claim her.

“You didn’t need to take my memory away. We messed around. It wasn’t a big deal. Not at all. We’re both adults. You never offered your friendship to me.” She glared up at him. “I never offered mine to you.”

“My friendship? You have it all. You have every bit of me. I want more than a friendship with you. I want to share everything with you.”

“As long as I don’t have a memory of it. You know that’s sick, don’t you? If not, you damned well should know it.”

“I want…I need everything with you.”

“And yet you think it’s perfectly fine to deceive me?”

“You’re hurt and that’s my fault. I didn’t want to take the memory from you. More than anything I wanted to stay with you.”

“And yet, you didn’t.”

“I got carried away. I wasn’t thinking. I shifted with you to your suite. I scared the hell out of you. I didn’t know any other way to calm you.”

“I don’t want to argue with you. I just want you to stay away from me.”

“I panicked when I realized I had scared you. I didn’t know what else to do.”

“Other than tell me the truth.”

“I’m not free to claim you.”

“What are you talking about? I never asked to be claimed by you or anyone. You should’ve just told me you’re married, Gabe. None of this would’ve happened.”

“What?” He shook his head adamantly. “I’m not married.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“You’re the only woman I want.”

“You’ve been hanging around because it’s what you do. But I am not your job, Gabe. If I need security, I can provide it.”

“Protecting you is not a job to me. It’s my privilege, my responsibility.”

“What am I to you, Gabe?”

He stared at her for several seconds. “I can’t do this right now.”

“Relax.” She actually felt bad for him. “I don’t want to know what you are. I don’t want to know anything about you. We don’t have anything between us other than a strong physical attraction. It’s my fault you know my darkest secret. Just because I blabbed to you doesn’t mean you’re obligated to tell me a damn thing.”  She laughed to hide her pain. “You’re young. Thirty at the most. I’m a forty-year-old woman. I wasn’t looking for a commitment from you. At the pool, I didn’t ask you to come to my room with me because I wanted to run off and begin a happily ever after with you.”

He pulled her into his arms. “I want you, only you. I can’t commit to you, to us, until I am free.”

“This has turned into a huge mess. I never should’ve allowed anything to happen between us. I don’t need or want a boyfriend, Gabe. I chose to be a career woman many years ago. I can only be happy with no strings. No commitments. No relationships. This hotel is my life. I want to be mad at you. But I can’t. Everyone has secrets. Everyone has the right to choose what to share, what to hide, what to accept, and what to reject. You’ve rushed into some dangerous situations to save me rather than save yourself. I will never forget you, but I don’t want to see you anymore. I can’t. For some reason, I’m a sucker for you, for everything about you. It’s like just being around you intoxicates me.”

“Don’t give up on us.”

“What us?” She shook her head. “There is no us. I want you to stay away from me. I hope you can respect my wishes enough to do it.”

“I can’t stay away from you. I won’t.”

“You don’t fit into my life, Gabe. You dominate every aspect of it. I need to get my head back on straight before it’s too late. I really need to get back to work.”

“Larissa…”

“Stop. I can’t stand here and…I have a million things to do today.”

“Come away with me.”

“Where?”

“Anywhere. You name the location. I will take you anywhere.”

“You’re running away from something?”

“I would do anything to keep you.”

“You’re not the type of man to run from anything. And, just to be clear, you never had me.” She held her hand up when he opened his mouth to respond. “I don’t even really know you.”

“I need time. I need to straighten things out.”

“Take it. I need to get back to work. We can talk later if you still want to.” When the elevator door opened, she walked out and turned to take one last look at him. “Goodbye, Gabe.”

****

Gabe should’ve swallowed his pride and told her the truth. He should’ve told her about his arrangement with Adam. He should’ve made her understand that he couldn’t claim her because he cared about her too much to force her into a life of bondage.

He couldn’t breathe. A fire in his belly, burned out of control. His heart pounding, thundering in his chest felt as if it would burst. He should’ve taken her away. He should’ve made her understand. He didn’t. And now she was lost to him. She didn’t want anything to do with him.

Desperation and rage exploded in him, bringing his dragon to the surface. He couldn’t hold his human form for much longer. The finality in her eyes, in her voice would haunt him long after he took his last breath.

His firedragon roared, commanding him to go after her, to stop her. He didn’t dare go to her. Not now. He feared hurting her in his dragon form.

He felt Adam’s mind touch his. You can stop it. You control your dragon.

Not this time.

Find your center.

I don’t have one. I lost her. The building began to shake as his fury grew.

Her?

He wasn’t going to say anything else. If he didn’t get out of the elevator, the entire building would burn to the ground.

You would never hurt Larissa. Not even in your dragon form. Go to her, Gabe. Go to her. Claim her. You need to end this before you truly lose it.

You know damn well I won’t fuck her over by claiming her.

What are you talking about?

Drop it.

Do you need me? He felt Adam searching for answers.

No! he roared, shoving Adam from his mind.

His dragon was in control. He needed to get out of the building. He needed the open sky. He shifted from the elevator. In his firedragon form he moved through the sky, he traveled hundreds of miles an hour. He’d never burned so hot. His fury became all-consuming as his need to claim her clashed with his need to protect her freedom.

****

“Oh. damn.” Adam winced, pressing his hand to his forehead. “This is bad. Really fucking bad. I need to go.”

“That had better not be Gabe,” Joseph said.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll go after him and calm him down.”

“He’ll fry your ass if you approach him now. You told me he had it under control.”

“He does. He did. Did you order him to stay away from Larissa?”

“No. That would be stupid. I don’t want my ass fried over a losing battle. She’s his mate. He makes her happy. And he’s been damn good about watching over her and protecting her.” Joseph shrugged. “Besides, despite the fact he’s a firedragon, I like Gabe. You’ve done a pretty damn good job raising him.”

“Why is he making himself miserable? I don’t understand what’s wrong with him. Why is he refusing to claim her?”

“Have you ever had a heart to heart with him?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Have you ever told him the truth?”

“What does…oh, fuck.” Adam realized Gabe would never condemn her to a life of slavery. “He has to know better, doesn’t he?”

“When you love someone, you’ll sacrifice everything, including your chance to keep them, to protect them.”

“I’ve never treated him badly. I’ve made him my equal.” 

Joseph shook his head. “All that says to him is that you value his contributions to your army of heathens.”

“I need to go to him. I need to fix this now.” Adam stood up. “Right the fuck now.”

“No. Sit down. Let him blow off some steam. He obviously needs to do it.  He’ll come back.”

“If he doesn’t?” Adam sat down.

“Are you kidding me? She’s here. You’re here.” Joseph laughed. “He needs to come back to kill you to be free to claim her.”

“Shit.”

 “You can consider the little squabble you had with him at the club a warm-up.”

“I should’ve told him the truth when I realized what was happening. I never thought of him as property. I thought he was resisting the urge to claim her because of what his father did to his mother.”

“That might be part of what’s stopping him. Don’t worry about it. You’ll get your chance to tell him everything soon.”

Adam and Joseph stood up as Hanna and Mia walked toward them.

“Who had the tantrum?” Mia asked.

“I don’t have a clue.” Joseph smiled. “It wasn’t me.”

Adam pulled Hanna’s chair out for her to sit and pushed it back up to the table. When he took his seat, he moved his chair, so his leg was touching hers. She reached down and placed her hand on his thigh.

Mia took her phone from her purse and handed it to Joseph. “The alarm at the boutique was triggered by it. It happened at several businesses and car alarms going off in the parking garage.”

“It was a meteor, Mrs. Payne.” A waitress began to place glasses of water on the table. “It’s on the news. They’re saying it was huge and right over the city.”

“Do they have video?” Joseph asked.

“Sure. It’s blurry. It looks like a ball of fire. It was moving too fast for anyone to catch a clear image. Are you ready to order or do you want me to come back in a few minutes?”

“Give us a few minutes,” Joseph said.

“Sure thing.”

“Thank you,” Mia said.

“He wouldn’t allow anyone to get a clear view of him,” Adam said.

“Who?” Mia looked at Joseph.

“Gabe.”

“I thought you didn’t have a clue. It looks like Uncle Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire, hasn’t learned to tell the truth,” Mia said.

“What are you talking about?”

“You lied to me twice today. And apparently, despite promising to always be there for her, you refused to take Megan’s call when she really needed you. That’s three lies. How many more have you told recently?”

“I didn’t have my phone on me.”

“That’s another lie. She mentioned in her blog post that she watched you send her call to voicemail.”

“How? I would’ve known she was around.”

“Now, since she also posted a short video of you sending her call to voicemail, it’s clear you’re also lying to yourself.”

“Damn it. That little girl is getting sneakier every day. Something needs to be done about her.  What’s wrong with Haden? I can’t believe he caved to her demands.”

“What are you talking about?” Mia asked.

“Why did he give the computer back to her? She’s never going to learn if he keeps spoiling her.”

“You’re the one who decided it would be a good idea to give her the computer.” Mia smiled. “But, you don’t need to worry about Haden’s parenting skills.”

“Someone needs to.”

“You shouldn’t be so judgmental. He didn’t cave in.”

“He didn’t?” Joseph asked.

“She didn’t use her computer to post today.”

“How do you know?”

“She included an incredibly adorable selfie while sitting at your desk in your office.”

“She can’t sign in to my computer. She doesn’t know my password.”

“If her blog post is fact rather than fiction, you are the one who no longer knows your password.”

“She didn’t…she’s…that little girl is evil.”

“I think she’s funny,” Adam laughed.

Mia frowned at Joseph. “Why are you calling her evil?”

“Because she is.”

“You’re the one who sent her call to voicemail after promising to always be there for her. I bet she would never miss a call from you. I guess I should warn you about the special little surprise she left for you in your office.”

“What did she leave?”

“I am sorry. I really wish I could warn you. I mean, I wish I could tell you, but I don’t have any idea.”

“You’re lying.”

“Not at all. She wasn’t specific.”

“What about clues?”

“She mentioned something about the undead.”

“That’s it?” he asked.

“And you would never find it until you started smelling it.”

“You don’t think she resurrected roadkill again, do you?”

“I need to recruit her,” Adam said.

Joseph shook his head. “She scares me.”

“She’s sweet as can be if you don’t ignore her or lie to her.”

Joseph frowned. “I can’t always answer her calls.”

“If that’s the case, I guess you shouldn’t have given her a phone.”

“I only gave her the phone, so we could track her when she shifts.”

“And yet, after she disabled the GPS, you allowed her to keep it just to piss Haden off.”

“No. She blackmailed me.”

“With what?”

“I can’t say.”