Page 32 of Savage Fire

She had to be wrong. Fang wouldn’t do that to her.

She had to know. Had to understand.

“So you all live here, just lazing about your days waiting for yourPapito come home and lavish his attention on you?”

Libby’s mouth pinched, obviously annoyed at Tessa’s sharp, derisive tone. What the hell did she expect? Giggles and acceptance? Fuck that!

“Oh, no. We aren’t like that—well, not all of us,” she replied, shooting a look at Stella who huffed. “I’m an attorney with my own practice downtown. Anise is an accountant. Lacy dances at Dangerous Curves, and Sipha owns Draped, that boutique on Lexington, near the adult sex shop. And Stella, well, Stella is Stella, and she’s earned a little R and R, so she is happy to let Papi take good care of her.”

Lacy shimmied in her seat, grinning. Puppy on crack. “He can take care of you too, you know. I mean, working with the LVFD can’t be easy. I imagine that the long hours and mediocre pay aren’t all that appealing.”

What? How did this woman know so much about her?

Turning accusing eyes on Fang, she growled. “I’m happy just where I am, doing what I love to do.”

Lacy clapped, her face brightening with a smile. “That’s amazing! I bet you have tons of stories about rescues and stuff you can share. I cannot wait to sit and chat with you one night—margaritas and brownies!” The woman fairly squealed in delight. And Tessa felt all the more anguished. These women actually thought she’d be okay with this? That she’d move right in, slotting herself in Fang’s life wherever he had time for her, and just going on her merry way like she hadn’t just been handed a fragmentation grenade with the pin pulled.

“Does he walk in the door, take his pick, and the rest of you just go on with your night, knowing he’s fucking someone else instead of you? No jealousy? No bitterness? You’re all cool being a sidepiece of a sidepiece?”

Stella sat forward, shooting arrows from her eyes. “Don’t fucking judge us, you don’t know anything about us or what we have here. Papi is good to us, taking time and care with each of us. He loves us in his own way, and he was honest and straight forward at the start. We are his exclusively, and in turn, he will provide for us, protect us, and pleasure us.”

‘Tessa,mi corazon—”

“No!” she shouted, jumping to her feet. Fang clenched his jaw, his dark eyes imploring, pleading. “You don’t get to call me that. Your heart? You don’t have a fucking heart if you honestly thought I would okay with this.”

He moved like a blur, grasping her arms in his grip, holding her in place so he could stare at her, his expression pained once more.

“After what we shared last night, all those months before, how you can you believe that I have no heart? This—” he looked around the table then back at her “—is my way of showing you that I care about you. I am sharing my life with you, my home. I want you to be part of this…my Hive.”

She snarled, “Your harem, you mean.”

“Fang is too much man for one woman, he needs each of us to appease his appetite,” Sipha finally plonked herself into the situation.

Wrenching herself from Fang’s hold, she laughed humorlessly, filling the room with sounds of discordance.

“He’s too much man for one woman?” she sneered, sniggering. “That’s bullshit. The truth is he isn’tman enoughto take on a woman like me.”

Thankful that she’d foregone a purse and instead carried her wallet and cell in her back pockets, she turned on her heel and marched toward the front door.

“Tessa! Come on. Come back. Give me a chance to explain!”

“Fuck that, and fuck you, Fang. You motherfucking asshole,” she cried out without stopping. Almost to the door, Fang grabbed her from behind, pulling her into his vice-like embrace. Her chest heaving with anger, pain, and unshed tears, she hadn’t the strength to push him off.

“You can’t leave, Tessa,” he pleaded. “You have to give me a chance to explain to you what it means to be mine. Just imagine what we could have together if you just let me have you.”

She sucked back a sob. Have her? Like a possession. Like a thing to stash with other things until he needed it. Needed her.

“I am such an idiot. I honestly thought I meant something to you—”

“You do,” he exclaimed, his hold tightening.

She shook her head, her burst of rage-fueled energy waning. She had to get out of there. Had to get away.

“If you cared anything about me, had spent a single second actually considering me, you never would have continued pursuing me. Not if this is what you had in mind.” She turned to look over her shoulder at him, pinning him with eyes so filled with pain, he gasped, his face turning white.

“I have never felt so utterly betrayed in my life.”

Fang opened his mouth to respond, but she jerked, pulling herself from his arms. Arms that, only the night before, brought her the greatest comfort.

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