Audrey Wright

Making love to Miguel hadn't been as I thought it would. I thought he would be all fire, all passion, but he had been so very sweet and tender. There was a time and a place for that, and after all I had been through, after all the pain and torture I had endured, all I wanted to do was feel something good, something incredible.

And it was. So incredible and amazing and perfect.

Then, he brought me to bed and asked that fucking question.

"Is there someone you need to contact so they won't find your secret file?"

"How the hell do you know about that?" I demanded.

"How do you think?"

"You were snooping around on my computer?" How?"

"It wasn't as if there was a password on it, and even if there was, I was a hacker in another life."

I gaped at him.

"Yeah, I know. Didn't think I was that cool, huh?" Miguel grinned. In his eyes, I could still see his love for me, but there was also anger. He was furious with me.

Of course he read the file after finding it, and of course he would be angry with me.

But learning he had been a hacker didn't surprise me. It was that my password had been done away with.

Someone else had had access to my computer before Miguel.

"I did have a password," I muttered.

He shook his head. "No, you… Your lace was locked. I had to break in. Well, picked the lock."

"You a master at lockpicking too?"

"I picked your lock," he said with a wink.

I groaned. "Seriously?"

"Well?" He shrugged, looking so damn fine it wasn't fair. "Worth a shot."

"Not really." I rubbed my forehead, right between my eyes. I couldn't tell if I was more flustered by everything, including making true love to one of the three dragons, to pissed as hell at that same dragon, and feeling betrayed.

But I had to text the detective. Miguel was right about that.

First, though, I had to shake my head. "You honestly didn't think that I have the right to be upset with you for invading my privacy?"

"You were supposed to keep a secret, one that was so important for all of my clan, the clan I am one of the three leaders of. This is bigger than us."

"I know, but I wasn't entirely in the wrong. I mean, I was worried something would happen to me, and, yeah, it did."

"Karma."

I squeezed my fist, and he patted it.

"Yes, I was wrong. I'm sorry. That someone came here, though, and fooled with your computer… Who do you think that could've been?"

"I don't know, but that's unnerving as hell."

"Yes." Miguel rubbed the back of his neck. "I have something else to confess."

"Go on."

"I might have emailed the detective on your behalf for you. I panicked basically. I didn't want to risk anyone finding it but—"

"Did you delete the file?"

"No." He blinked, surprised.

"Why not?"

"Because I knew that what I was doing was wrong but wouldn't quite cross that line." He shrugged. "I screwed up, didn't I?"

"You bet you did. You invaded my house while you knew that I wasn't here, when you knew I was kidnapped. Why did you even come here? And to snoop on my computer, why? What possessed you to do such a thing?"

"I make no excuse. I was wrong, but I mean, chica, you can't say—"

"No. This isn't about the file."

"The hell it isn't!" He gritted his teeth. "If that comes out, if we're exposed… Witches aren't even real, and look what happened in Salem."

"You really think that humans could kill dragons? Come on. I tried. I shot at a dragon and hit so many times, and I didn't hurt it at all. I failed. How much firepower would we need?"

"You'd need icepower." He winked.

I shook my head, not amused in the slightest. "Dragons are the ones killing humans, not the other way around."

"Only because humans don't know about us."

"Well, maybe the public at large should know!"

Miguel's face turned white beneath his tanned complexion. A vein jumped in his neck, and his jaw tightened as he turned around and marched out the door without another word.

Just like that, everything that had happened came crashing down. Being attacked twice by dragons. Drinking dragon blood twice. Being kidnapped. Being tortured. Even falling for the three dragons wasn't enough to make up for all of that, especially when I had just learned that one of them had betrayed me.

I shouldn't stay here. I should find a hotel, pay cash, and sleep there. Not go back to the mansion. Not stay here. It's been compromised, clearly, given that my computer had been tampered with.

Tears welled in my eyes, but I didn't allow myself the luxury of crying. I also couldn't dare sleep alone though.

Should I leave? Should I get that hotel room? But I would have to go to the bank to get money, and the banks were all closed by now.

And I should sleep. I needed to recover. I wasn't fully myself yet even after drinking Miguel's blood twice.

I lay down and tried to settle, but I knew it, and it proved accurate. I couldn't sleep.

Just then, someone stood in my doorway. Miguel. Wordlessly, he climbed into bed with me and wrapped his arms around me. Although I was still upset with him, I also needed him, and as he held me, I was finally able to fall asleep.