“That’s not the way it is, Mica,” he began to protest.
She lifted her hand sharply, palm outward. She didn’t want to hear his excuses. She didn’t need them.
“I have things to do. Thank you so much for relieving the pain though. It was becoming a bit of an irritation. And do forgive me for that lack of discretion in the emotion department. I won’t let it happen again. You can leave now, Navarro. I’ll let you know the next time I need you to perform.”
She was so glad Cassie wasn’t here. If the other girl ever learned she had said anything so corny, then Mica would never live it down.
And on top of it, she had just asked her mate to forgive her for promising him her heart. Before she knew it, she would be promising him his freedom if she could give it to him.
It was killing her though. The pain was driving a wedge so sharp and deep inside her soul that she swore she could feel herself splitting apart inside.
“A bit of an irritation was it?” he murmured. “I don’t think I meant to simply scratch your itch, Amaya.”
She almost shivered at the rough quality of his tone. It wasn’t a growl, but the rumble was a distinct warning.
Her teeth clenched until her jaw hurt. It was a warning to stop whatever she was doing to irritate the animal, to awaken it inside him. She could feel it, like a premonition, an instinct, and it demanded she submit to him. A demand and a submission as primal as the genetics that went into his creation.
“A bit of an irritation,” she agreed as she rose from the bed and grabbed her robe. “And if you’ll excuse me now, I believe I have things to do.”
She could feel adrenaline racing, surging through her. That primal demand for her submission was just pissing her off. Where the hell did he get the nerve to demand she not love him, to demand that she not be a true mate to him, while inside it felt as though she were still dying for his touch?
Her pu**y was still heated, still aching. She felt as though her flesh was desperate for his touch. Not so much a sexual touch, but a touch. A stroke.
She wanted that touch so desperately she knew that if she didn’t get the hell away from him, she was going to end up begging for it. To keep that from happening she pushed herself from the bed, her movements jerky, the emotions tearing through her threatening what little control over revealing them she had left .
“Where do you think you’re going?” He caught her wrist, his look domineering and so sexy in its arrogance that she sincerely wished she could find a defense against it.
Whether he was pissing her off, breaking her heart or making her scream out in need, he still had the power to make her want to laugh with him, to hold him, to feel his arms around her.
“I have a few things to do,” she told him. “And spending twenty-four-seven here in my suite isn’t exactly my idea of a fun time to be had.” Especially when he was so rarely there with her.
“You appeared to be enjoying it enough,” he stated, that dangerous calm intensifying.
The look of wounded male pride that flashed for the barest second in those deep black eyes had the feminine side of her almost giving in with a weakening gentle amusement.
“Of course I was enjoying it.” She shrugged, refusing to let her heart break just yet, or the softening that threatened to fill her, free. Damn him, he wasn’t going to get by that easily, that quickly.
Not yet.
She didn’t have time to deal with a broken heart and she didn’t have time to deal with a confrontational Breed either. Especially her mate. Breed males could be very unpredictable while in mating heat, or if they believed their mates were in danger. If they were mated that was. She was beginning to wonder if Navarro was even her mate, despite the signs he showed of it.
Pulling her wrist from his grip, she shot him a dark glare. He had no idea what he was doing. No idea that the feelings, the need for emotional vengeance was about to tear them apart.
“What the hell are you up to, Mica?” He rose from where he sat on the bed, his dark face savagely intense as he glared at her, naked, powerful.
“Doing something besides sitting here alone and waiting on you?” she suggested with mocking sweetness.
Damn him. She should hate him. She really should. He shouldn’t be able to do this to her, to make her so crazy for him that she could barely breathe just minutes after him telling her that she shouldn’t love him. Where was the fairness in this?
And double damn him, he was still hard.
She cast an irritated glance at the fully erect flesh he was currently covering as he pulled his jeans over his powerful legs and buttoned and zipped them with arrogant confidence. And not once did he take his eyes from her, staring at her as though with the silent command in his eyes he could will her to do whatever he wished.
Oh boy, he better rethink that idea. He’d known her long enough to know that simply wasn’t going to happen.
Besides, she really did have things to do today.
She’d decided to find out exactly what was going on with her life. Why was she mated when her mate wasn’t? And what had Josiah been after as he stood outside her door calling her by endearments he had never used with her before?