Bane's Choice (Vampire Motorcycle Club #1) - Alyssa Day Page 0,71

be sure. She promised she’s coming back. You need to trust her or you’ll lose her. And you know you can’t travel through Shadow during the day, so don’t even try it.”

With that, she pushed past him and left the garage. “I’m going to bed. Call me if you need—no, you know what? Just don’t call me. I don’t need this merde.” She stalked off, calling him creative names in the French slang of three centuries before.

Bane watched her go, all but vibrating with rage and terror. A hand clasped his shoulder from behind.

“Now, there, son, your sister’s right. You just have to trust the Doc. She’s a woman of her word, I can tell, if a bit sad. You going off half-cocked and acting like a raging bull isn’t going to help her trust you any, right?”

Bane briefly closed his eyes while Mr. C walked around to face him, trying to let himself believe. Trying to understand why it felt like his world was ending.

“Thank you,” he finally said, and then he felt worse when the man’s shoulders almost imperceptibly relaxed, as if he’d been afraid Bane would hurt him.

Tommy smiled, but his face was still pale. Maybe Bane really had frightened him. A wave of shame washed over him. “I’m sorry. My…emotions are in a roil from this woman, and I don’t understand why, but I’d never harm you. I’d never survive Mary Jo’s wrath if I did.”

“That’s the truth. More scary a woman you’ll never meet—human, vampire, or werewolf.” He patted Bane’s arm. “I told the doctor our story, and she said the saddest thing. She said her life has been such that she doesn’t believe in love at all.”

Bane stared at him, unable to speak a single word.

“Terrible thing, that. Maybe you can help change her mind.” With that, he winked and trudged off, undoubtedly to join his wife and plan more skinny-dipping adventures or something equally likely to make Luke’s head explode.

Bane’s lips twitched. That had been quite the night. Maybe if—

The doorbell rang, and Bane flashed through the house faster than thought. If some unlucky salesman stood at the door, he might not live to see another day.

He put a hand on the doorknob, and Mrs. C came rushing down the hall.

“Don’t you do that! It’s three o’clock in the afternoon. You’ll get far worse than a sunburn, for sure.”

But it might be Ryan.

He growled at his housekeeper, who flapped a dishtowel at him.

“Oh, hush.” She moved in front of him and opened the door, but he didn’t wait to see, because he already knew. He could feel her heartbeat. It was Ryan.

Ryan.

Ryan had come back to him. She stood, silhouetted by the sun, as if an angel had come to visit. An angel with long, dark waves of hair, wearing a simple red dress.

His angel.

He reached out and yanked her into his arms, barely noticing the sun burning his exposed hands. Her bags and boxes went flying, except for one she clutched tightly that made clinking noises. He buried his face in her hair and tightened his arms around her until she made a protesting noise.

“I’m glad to see you, too, but you’re cracking my ribs, Bane.”

He breathed her in—her scent first calming him and then wrapping itself around his nerve endings and seducing him into fantasies of silken skin and passion—and then finally opened his eyes to see that the front door was closed and Mrs. C was nowhere to be seen.

“I can’t breathe, either,” he confessed, staring into the blue eyes that seemed to see directly into his soul. Touching the lips that he dreamed of touching his body in so many ways. “You came back to me.”

She smiled “I told you I would. I said you could trust me.”

But he couldn’t. Couldn’t trust that she’d come back to him again. Couldn’t trust that he’d survive it if she betrayed him.

Didn’t know how to control the waves of relief and gratitude and terror for what might have been—she could have been harmed, she could have run away, she could have been in a car accident. Humans were so fragile.

“Please don’t leave me again,” he commanded, using his Voice, even though he knew it didn’t work with her. Tightening his arms around her again. “I can’t bear it.”

She sighed. “And here we are back at this, again. You can’t keep me prisoner, Bane. We can’t be…friends, if you treat me this way.”

“Of course, I can keep you prisoner. And I want to