Was there some unwritten rule she was unaware of when it came to orgasming? Had she done something so unforgivable as to cause him to jump from her before he even finished his release and rush to the shower?
She lifted her fingers to her lips to still the threat of trembling. She was not going to cry over him here, in front of other Breeds who would no doubt tell him. Breeds who would laugh with him over the stupid little human who couldn’t hold her emotions back.
That must have been what it was.
As her release had whipped through her, she remembered fighting to hold back the words she knew he wouldn’t want to hear. Had he somehow sensed how deeply she was coming to love him without her saying the words?
Shame burned inside her, blazed through her cheeks and burned a path straight to her soul. And she knew the Breeds in the elevator could smell it.
Who else would know once the elevator came to a stop in the lobby?
God, she hoped the journalists were gone. She couldn’t bear to be seen like this.
The elevator slid to a stop, the subtle ping announcing the end of the ride sounding as the doors slid open.
She moved quickly from it, striding across the lobby with what she hoped wasn’t obvious hurry. If she was lucky, very very lucky, then no one would even notice her.
...
There was no missing the smell of pain that agonizing, Lawe thought as he and Diane watched the elevator doors slide open. They had stepped to the bank of elevators less than a minute after the enforcer had contacted him with the strangely worded request that he meet him there.
He and Diane watched as Gypsy McQuade stepped from the doors the second they slid open, her shoulders shaking as she held her dress to her br**sts and moved quickly for the lobby exit.
“Sir.” The Wolf Breed, Dagger, stepped forward, a hard frown on his face. “Commander Breaker didn’t notify security of his mate, and it seems she’s in some distress.”
There was a heavy tone of irate disapproval in the Breed’s voice. One Lawe couldn’t blame him for.
“It seems Commander Breaker neglected to inform me as well,” Lawe muttered as Gypsy rushed past the doorman and moved to the side of the entrance, and the shadows she was no doubt attempting to hide within as he turned to Diane. “I was wrong. The mating scent is like a damned red flag now.”
“Of pain,” Dagger growled.
“Damn him,” Diane whispered beside him.
Lawe could only shake his head, reaching back to rub at his neck and send a small prayer heavenward. Rule was determined to destroy himself and his little mate, it seemed.
“Go,” Diane urged him. “You have all that freaky Breed sense going on, you’ll know what to do and say far better than I will.”
“You could come with me,” he urged her gently.
“Go,” she waved him away. “I’ll just want to convince her to go with me and kick his ass. That’s not what she needs. Don’t worry, I’ll wait right here for you.”
Bending his head, he brushed a quick kiss to her lips before following Gypsy, waving the doorman back as he moved for his phone where it lay on the small counter just outside the doors. No doubt, his first instinct was to contact Jonas Wyatt. Lawe really didn’t think Rule needed Jonas poking his nose into this right now.
Gypsy stood to the side of the entrance, just out of sight of those inside, huddled in the shadows.
Pausing, Lawe breathed out heavily before stepping to her, watching as she quickly shifted to hide the fact that her dress was still partially unzipped. Shrugging his jacket from his shoulders, he gently laid it across hers, pulling the edges together in the front.
She looked up then, her pretty dark green eyes bright with unshed tears.
“Tell me,” he said softly, his voice filled with an understanding he feared would never be enough for whatever Rule had done to this young woman. “What stupidity has my brother acted on this time?” Barely brushing the soft flesh beneath her jaw, he urged her to glance up at him as he smiled back at her gently. “I believe the scientists may have dropped him on his head one time too many when he was a babe.”
She didn’t smile back at him. “No stupidity,” she whispered instead. “He’s just a man.”
“A Breed,” he corrected her, thinking it an oversight.
She shook her head slowly, her eyes dazed with confusion and such aching hurt that it tightened his chest.
“No,” she denied, her voice thickening as she swallowed. “He’s just a man.”