Page 2 of The Inquirer

She’d said more than once that she didn’t date, but we’d gone on a sort-of-date before she left. It’d been a private one, but this would be an opportunity for a public one…and a chance for me to meet the most important people in her life.

“I’ve known Nyx since she was thirteen years old.” Kaimi’s voice softened. “I can read her better than anyone, and when she talks about you…she didn’t say anything different than what I’ve heard her say about other guys, but I heard what she didn’t say. If anyone can make something with her, I think it’d be you.”

I closed my eyes. I wanted that. I’d wanted it from the first moment I saw her at the airport, a split second before she’d crashed into me. I’d taken one look into those bright green eyes of hers, and I’d been lost. A couple inches over average height, she was still a foot shorter than me, but she carried herself as if she was six feet tall.

“Rose would really like to meet you too. She was worried about Nyx being alone at the wedding. Here, let her tell you herself.”

Shit. How was I supposed to say no to a kid?

A little over twenty-four hours later, I was standing less than a foot from Nyx and trying to figure out if she was glad to see me or not. I’d been honest about why I was there, but I felt like I was blaming Kaimi and not taking responsibility for my own part in the surprise.

“Do you want me to stay?” I forced myself to exhale the breath I’d been holding. “I came for you, not for me. Just say the word, and I’ll go back to my hotel and spend the rest of the weekend sightseeing.”

My stomach clenched at the thought of leaving her so soon, but I’d do it if it was what she wanted. The short time I’d known her had been enough for me to understand that there was a fine line to walk when it came to her. If I left, I needed her to understand that it wouldn’t be because I was mad that she didn’t want me here, but because I respected her wishes.

As I waited for a response, the look in her eyes shifted, like she was lost in thought. Too many thoughts.

“Hey.” I touched her cheek and restrained myself from turning it into something lingering. “I mean it, Nyx. Say the word, and I’ll leave. No hard feelings. And if you want me to stay, there’s no expectations. I’ll follow your lead.”

When she took my hand, relief went through me. It didn’t matter how little or how much time we spent together, or how intimate that time was. I was just glad to be here.

I felt the same way later that night when I went back to my hotel room alone. I wanted her, but I planned to let her be the one to decide what that would look like and when that would happen. The next day at the reception, my patience paid off because she asked me to take her back to my room.

Everything went better than I could have dreamed. I gave her a massage and took down those gorgeous dark red waves of hers. Then we made love.

She wouldn’t call it that if I asked what we did, and maybe it was too soon for me to feel it, but I never really liked lying to myself, and that’s what it would’ve been, plain and simple. I couldn’t flat-out say that I loved her, but it was damn close.

I didn’t do one-night stands. Nothing wrong with it if that’s what someone else needed, but I just wasn’t wired that way. I was more of a serial-monogamy person. I dated with the intention of the relationship growing. I never started something that I didn’t anticipate continuing.

Then again, I hadn’t thought I’d be the type of guy who’d make out with a woman the same day I met her. If she hadn’t stopped us that first night, we might’ve had sex right there. Then I’d completely stepped back at Hades, voluntarily submitting to her even though I’d never thought of myself as anything but Dominant. The fact that I’d had sex with her there at all had surprised me.

Hell, everything about this thing with her was new, not the least of which was me and how I was with her. I wanted to protect her – even more after I learned what’d happened to her as a kid – but I couldn’t treat her like I had my past girlfriends.

My last two girlfriends had been submissive in all aspects of their lives. They’d wanted total domination from me, and I’d given it to them. I hadn’t been into BDSM when I started dating my first girlfriend in high school, but she had the same quiet, timid personality. The only one of my ex’s who hadn’t really fit into that mold had spent most of our relationship pretending. She’d been a brilliant actress, hiding pretty much everything about herself until things had exploded.

Nyx wasn’t any of that.

She was bold and strong and tough. While she wasn’t an open person, she didn’t lie about who she was either.

At least, I hadn’t thought so until just now when I heard her side of a conversation with someone I assumed was her boss.

“…I can use my contact to get some face-to-face time.”

She hadn’t said my name, but considering she’d preceded that statement by telling her boss that she’d found someone connected to the Traylor family, I felt pretty confident that she meant me.

“I’ll send you more information as I get it.”

I clenched my teeth, barely hearing Nyx end the call. What the fuck had that been about? When I’d introduced myself to her at the police station, I could’ve sworn she hadn’t recognized my last name. But she had to have known who I was, wouldn’t she? Nothing else explained what I’d just heard.

She’d been using me this entire time.

Here I’d been worried about her, angry about what had been done to her, concerned that I could accidentally trigger her, and she’d been playing me.

Betrayal cut deep, magnified by a too-familiar humiliation.

“You’ve been spying on me this whole time?” I was proud of myself for not yelling the question, but I doubted this conversation was going to get quieter or calmer.

I was right.

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