Midnight Awakening(69)

The knock came again, and this time Tegan threw open the door without a thought.

As the panel swung wide, he was surprised—and not a little furious—to see the subject of his frustration standing there. Just what he didn’t need right now. Gorgeous as ever, still wearing the proper navy pantsuit she had on at the clinic, the sight of Elise was a major dose of gasoline tossed on his fire.

“What the hell are you doing up here?” His voice was harsh, more rough than he intended.

Elise didn’t so much as flinch. “I thought we might talk.”

“What happened to Reichen finding you some dinner downstairs?”

“He did. That was almost an hour ago. I…waited for a while to see if you might come out of your room, but when you didn’t, I decided to come to you.”

He stared at her for a minute, then mentally cut the shower off and turned to grab his shirt and weapons holster. “I was just on my way out.”

“Oh.” She didn’t look like she was buying it. “What could be so urgent all of a sudden?”

“Just a little thing called duty, sweetheart. I’m not used to spending my nights sitting on my ass when I could be outside killing something.” He said it deliberately to shock her, and he probably took a bit too much satisfaction at the disturbed frown that creased her forehead. “I need to get out of this place for a while. I should be in the city, on the streets, where I’m useful. Not wasting my fucking time sitting around here.”

He expected her to give him space and be glad he was leaving. His cold attitude had scared away countless Breed males, even among the Order, so he didn’t expect this female to linger for long.

For a second, he really thought she was going to retreat like he’d intended her to do.

But then she strode right over the threshold and into his room.

“You’re not going anywhere tonight,” she said, soft but resolute. There was apprehension in her expression, but damn if she didn’t close the door behind her and keep coming toward him. “Tonight we need to talk. I need to know where things stand. Where we stand, Tegan.”

He glared. “You think it’s wise to shut yourself in here with me? It won’t take long for Reichen and the rest of this house to figure out where you are and think the worst. He may be discreet when needed, but the others who live here—”

“I don’t care what anyone else thinks. I just need to know what you think.”

He scoffed, a grating sound that held more mockery than he’d intended. “I think you’re out of your fucking head.”

She glanced down, gave a little nod. “I’m confused, I’ll give you that. I don’t know if you…I don’t know what to make of you, Tegan. Not from day one. I don’t know how to play this game that we seem to be playing together.”

“I don’t play games,” he said, deadly serious. “I don’t have the interest or the time—”

“Bullshit!”

He arched a brow at her unexpected blurt of profanity. He was ready to push again—seething with the compulsion to shove her away hard, before she got any closer to the truth of what he was feeling. But the glint of anger in her eyes gave him pause.

She crossed her arms over her breasts and took a couple of paces nearer to him, making it clear that if he pushed now, she was sure as hell going to push back.

“What do you call it when you’re tender with me one moment, then cold as ice the next? You kiss me, only to push me away a minute later.” She drew a breath, letting it out on a frustrated-sounding sigh. “Sometimes you look at me as if you might really feel something for me, but then…then you blink and it’s like the feeling was never there in the first place. What is that, if not your twisted idea of fun?”

Since she wasn’t about to stand down, he pivoted away from her on a snarl and went for the duffel bag that held more of his gear and weapons, ignoring her attempt to goad him. He reached in and blindly grabbed for a cache of combat supplies. He pulled out a sheathed blade, then a clip of titanium rounds for his 9mm—anything to keep his hands moving and his focus trained on something other than the maddening awareness of the woman who was slowly walking up behind him.

Incredibly, his fingers were shaking as he put his gear down on the settee’s velvet cushions. His vision was going sharp, his field of sight taking on a hard edge as his pupils narrowed and a flood of amber fire bathed everything in a hunter’s light. His gums ached with the emergence of his fangs, his mouth watering with the hunger he’d barely been able to stave off before Elise arrived in his room.