Page 40 of The Alpha's Gamble
“So what you’re telling me,” he said, his voice a low rumble, “is that you took the hundred dollars I left you and used it to cheat. Here, at my casino. And then, once you’d collected your ill-gotten gains—”
“Card-counting isnotillegal—”
“—you tried to leave!” he went on, raising his voice enough to run right over my protest. “Am I going to find a bottle of Scotch older than I am on your tab next?”
“I wouldn’t even appreciate a bottle of fifty-year-old Scotch,” I retorted, my voice coming out as sulky and bitchy as the words.
Declan’s mouth dropped open, and he stared at me for a full three seconds. “Fifty-year-old—you little—how the fuck old do you think I am? You know what? Don’t fucking answer that. Turn left and walk. And keep your goddamn mouth shut on the way.”
The little bubbling flare of satisfaction at having needled him for once made me willing to comply, and so I turned left and started to walk.
The flash of his eyes and his looming presence didn’t hurt, either. I didn’t really think he’d shove me up against a wall and…do something right here in full view of his clientele, but you never knew.
Declan’s hand landed on my elbow as he fell into step beside me, muscular fingers gripping not quite tight enough to bruise. Clearly he wasn’t taking any chances on whether I might try to bolt.
I wouldn’t, though. Not now that I was safe from whoever I had after me.
My feet stopped moving like someone had flipped my off switch, and I came to a sudden halt, Declan’s grip tugging me enough to make me stumble but not start up again. Horrified, I stared straight ahead, unseeing, caught around the throat by the force of that unwelcome realization.
I felt safe.
With Declan.
Becauseof Declan.
What the fuck had he done to me when he knotted and bit me? We hadn’t bonded. That I knew for sure.
But he’d obviously done something to me. Changed me. Fucked me in the head. No way did Declan’s presence make mesafe, from anything—least of all from him, the blackmailing bastard.
And yet all signs pointed to my body and my unconscious mind disagreeing completely. My heart rate had dropped. The incipient panic had cleared away like fog under the sun.
“Blake, you with me?”
Declan’s irritable tone snapped me out of my fugue.
“Yeah, I’m coming,” I muttered, and forced my legs to start moving again, helped along by his impatient hand on my arm.
Fuck. It felt like walking through pudding, and my head had gone so light I wondered if I needed to tie it down to keep it from floating away.
“Not yet,” he said out of the corner of his mouth, pulling me along the side of the building to what I saw was another of those discreet employee side doors. “But you will be in about fifteen minutes.”
Shit, shit, fuck. Declan meant to take me upstairs and…I couldn’t. Not now. Not after the morning I’d had, and afterthis. If he knotted me and held me in his arms, and gods forbid bit me too, the chances of my saying something stupid and pathetic and unintentional went to at least one-to-two odds, probably better.
Well, mathematically better. Worse in every other possible way.
“I didn’t think you were the type for afternoon delight,” I said, flailing for an argument that might change his mind. “I mean, don’t you have work to do?”
“You’re assuming I’m going to be delighted.” My teeth clenched together tightly enough to give me an aching jaw. Fucker. That had to be payback for the Scotch thing. He went on with, “I’ve already been at work for seven hours. I’ve worked more today than you have in your entire life. I think I’m owed a lunch break.” He tipped his head down toward me and whispered, teeth bared, “I’m going to eatyou, Blake.”
The fuck did that…I couldn’t bring myself to ask. I didn’t want to know. I’d be finding out anyway. The biting? Was that what he meant? Had to be. Unless he’d added cannibalism to his extensive list of flaws. At this point, it wouldn’t shock me too much.
Except that apparently I felt toosafewith him to worry about it much.
Ugh.
I chose not to answer him, because any reaction would only be giving him what he wanted.
We entered the employee door in mutual silence as Declan swiped a badge he pulled from his pocket, and then he led me along another gray, fluorescent-lit hallway just like the one outside my holding cell or the one where Walter had attacked me.
