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“Where the fuck did they even find you? Are you some kind of—weaponthat they built to take me out?”
“I don’t understand.”
“The fucking scent. And the face. The tits, and these outrageous things you keep saying, like I haven’t been thinking of putting my knot so deep inside you, you’ll feel in it in your throat?—”
A chime interrupts us. A beat later, the automatic doors swish open.
I half expect his brother to walk in, or maybe the head of his guard. Instead, a slight Omega man of average height takes a few steps inside the chambers. From my cage made of Gabriel’s arms, I scan his curly hair and thin lips, unable to place him. “Sir,” he says, “something happened.”
With a deep, displeased breath, Gabriel straightens to his full height. He doesn’t look away from me as he adjusts the ridge of his cock through his combat suit, then asks, “What?”
I feel cold. Empty. As if rudely awakened in the middle of a particularly good dream.
“The drainage system.” The man glances at me. I’ve experienced disapproval before, but I now know what it’s like to be held in absolute contempt. “South wing.”
“Shit. I’ll be right there.” He runs a hand through his hair, stares me down for a few moments, as if trying to figure out what to do with me, and then simply orders, “Stay.”
I pout. “What if I want to take a night stroll around the military quarters?”
“You will be killed on sight, that’s what.”
I glance at the beast who seems on the verge of taking a nap while lounging at his feet. “Will your…guard cat be here to ensure my continued presence?”
“I told you—she does whatever she wants.”
Alex yawns in response, then begins to lick her paw as her master leaves the room.
“Gabriel,” I call when he’s at the entrance. I was, at least to a degree, responsible for his most recent erection. I think we’re on a first-name basis.
But I still don’t know what it is that prompts me to say, “Tomorrow, when Lennart comes to collect me…if you send me back to him untouched, all this theater will have been in vain.”
He smiles, predator-like. “In that case, maybe I won’t send you back at all.”
My stomach flips. I watch Gabriel cross the threshold with Alex in tow, and tell myself that I’m relieved to be left alone.
Chapter10
THE PROBLEM
Gabriel
Ivar meets me on our way to the south wing, a cautious, bracing expression on his face. “How bad was it?”
I shrug, struggling to shift my focus from what happened back in my room.Her words echo through my brain.Is this the part where I take off my dress?Reckless. And foolish. And much more fuckable than I could have imagined.That, I might be able to forgive. The fact that she made me laugh…I’m going to make her suffer for that.
“Come on,” my brother continues. “It can’t have been that terrible. I’ve seen her holos.”
“The holos don’t—” I shake my head, still fuzzy from her lingering scent. “I saw her holos, too. It’s not the same.”
“Still. She can’t bethatugly.”
“She’s not ugly at all.”
“Then what… Oh.” For once, he seems at a loss for words.
I press my lips together and nod, finding that I have nothing to add either.
“Well,” he says at last, “that’s not new. You’ve been with lots of beautiful women.”
