Destined for an Early Grave(81)

Almost grimly I did. The bed seemed to loom in size while the walls felt like they were shrinking, leaving nothing in this room but that soft, waiting arena.

Bones drew off his shirt. I looked away from the stunning, sculpted flesh it revealed. My nails dug into my palms. Things were coming to a head quickly.

“Turn around.”

I was both grateful and reluctant to do it. While it meant I didn’t have to stare at the carpet instead of him, I also felt vulnerable. Like I couldn’t defend myself if I didn’t see what was coming.

Cool fingers pushed my hair aside, making me shiver. A tiny tug on my dress preceded the slow, inexorable sliding of the zipper all the way to its base. Without that support, the dress sagged on my shoulders, slipping, then was flicked aside to fall to my feet.

A slight hiss came from him. Absurdly, I shut my eyes, as if that made me any less naked. I held my breath, shivering again.

“You’re chilled, luv. Let’s get you into bed.”

His voice was thicker, his accent stronger. I walked the short distance to the bed, letting him sweep the covers back, and pulled them over me as soon as I climbed in.

Bones knelt next to the bed, reaching out to touch my hair.

“With those covers up to your chin and your eyes so wide, you look very young.”

“I guess that makes you the would-be pedophile.”

He inclined his head. “Considering our age difference and all the things I intend to do to you, it does indeed.” Then he became serious. “Kitten, underneath your sarcasm, indifference, and outright anger, I think you still want me, else I wouldn’t have insisted on this. I admit to being a ruthless, manipulating bastard, just as you said, but I’m not a rapist. If you truly don’t want me, I’ll let you alone, but tomorrow I’ll still change you like I promised.”

He paused. Dropped the curl he’d been toying with and cupped my face. “Yet I will do my best to persuade you otherwise. I have absolutely no qualms about that.”

Oh no, was my thought. I’m a goner. Think about the junkyard. That smell. Gregor’s sneer. Anything but the fact that he’s now undoing his pants.

There was one thing guaranteed to douse my mood. “Why did you cheat on me, Bones?”

He stopped. His top button was undone, but the zipper stayed up.

“You truly believe I was unfaithful?”

A rude snort came from me. “After seeing pictures, then Fabian’s report, Cannelle’s reminiscing, and hearing you admit it that night Geri pulled you out of New Orleans, yeah. I do.”

His gaze felt like it was drilling into the back of my head. “You saw pictures of me entering my home with women, but you didn’t see what happened once the door shut. I’d gone to New Orleans under the pretense that I was celebrating my bachelorhood, hoping Gregor would take the bait. He did. Even sent Cannelle there, as if I were too stupid not to smell him on her. It was easy to drink her blood and convince her to report back to Gregor that I was defenseless in my debauchery. By the time Fabian confronted me, several of Gregor’s spies were around. What was I supposed to say to him?”

My mind reeled. “But I heard you. You told Cannelle she’d picked all the women the two of you had fucked together!”

“And she believed that,” Bones replied. “I let her pick a new human girl each night to take back to my house. Then I drank the pair of them into insensibility and had them wake up naked together. It was a simple deception. I know what it would have looked like to you, Kitten, but you should have let me explain what it was, instead of going off with Tepesh.”

My emotions warred with my suspicion. I mean, what woman, after everything I’d seen and heard, would believe it was all an elaborate charade, and her lover had been only fake cheating?

“But you left me.” I couldn’t keep the pain out of my voice. “You said you were through.”

Bones sighed. “I went mad when I discovered you’d gone to Gregor. Didn’t know if you’d choose to stay with him out of love, or you’d be forced to—and neither idea made me rational. By the time you’d returned, I still hadn’t gotten control of myself. One of the reasons I left was because if I didn’t, I’d have said more things I regretted. Then I went to New Orleans to end this issue with Gregor, intending to sort things out with you afterward, but you jumped the gun.” Again, his tone implied.

“By rescuing you?”

He gave me an exasperated look. “Did you forget I could fly? Gregor knew that. So did Marie. She wanted me to slaughter Gregor, so she told Gregor she intended to force me from the Quarter, knowing full well Gregor would realize either he had to come in and get me or I’d fly out to safety. But you sent your old team after me, which Gregor would have soon been alerted to no matter how covert they were. I knew they’d get themselves killed if I resisted and gave Gregor time to storm in, so I let them take me. But it ruined my plan.”