PS02 - Without Regret (33 page)

“I thought you were getting clothes,” she said accusingly as she did her best not to look down and failed multiple times.

“And I did,” he said, deciding to keep his boxer briefs on while she was in the room. There really was no need in letting her

know just how much she was affecting him.

Then again it was going to be difficult to hide his reaction to her if she didn’t put something on soon.

“Here,” he said, grabbing one of the large white towels off the folded stack on the corner of the sink counter and held it out to

her, “put this on.”

She pushed the towel away as though it offended her when in reality it would probably protect her. He really needed to stop

thinking about having sex with her again. Not that he could really call what he’d done to her sex since he hadn’t gotten in a

single thrust, but he wanted to do it again, this time without the mortifying quick ending.

Having sex with her again was not a good idea. He didn’t need to know how good it would be to fuck her until neither one of

them could walk again. It would just make things worse. It was bad enough that the experience of being inside of her was

probably going to haunt him for the rest of his life. He didn’t need to add to his misery.

“I’d rather put on some clothes,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest as she glared at him. Did she not realize that she

was naked? he wondered as he looked her over.

“I’m sure you would, but until I’m ready to leave, your clothes are going to have to remain out of reach for now, Munchkin. So

be a good little girl and go eat and then go to bed. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow,”

he said, turning his back on her to turn the shower on and to hide the huge tent in his underwear.

After a short pause she sighed heavily and left the room.

He was a little shocked, but thankful that she’d left.

After tossing his underwear on the ever growing pile he carefully pulled the not-so-white gauze off his arm and sighed with

relief when he saw that the sutures had dissolved, leaving him with thick scabs. He tossed the gauze into the trash and stepped

into the tub and turned down the temperature of the water until he was forced to grit his teeth as ice cold water poured over

him. It took a few minutes before his dick went down, but when it did he sighed in relief.

One more day and this would all be over, he reminded himself.

Five minutes later he was washed, dried and dressed in a pair of clean underwear and jeans. He stepped out of the bathroom

and came to an abrupt halt when the first sob reached his ears.

His eyes shot over to the bed to find his little mate curled up on her side, facing away from him as her body shook with each

heartbreaking sob. She looked so small and helpless in that big bed, he thought as he took a step towards her, but stopped

himself.

He couldn’t allow himself to soften towards her. He couldn’t. This afternoon had already been a huge fuckup. Going to her now

would only make things worse, would confuse her and that wouldn’t be right or fair to her.

“Chris?” she sniffled softly.

“Yes?” he answered, wishing he could kick his own ass.

He should have just walked out and gave her an hour or two to calm down and fall asleep.

“Could you,” sniff, “hold me, please?”

“Munchkin, I don’t think that’s such a good-“

“Please, Chris? I’m so scared.”

He closed his eyes in resignation. He couldn’t leave her like this. It was his fault she was so afraid after all. The least he could

do was hold her until she fell asleep, he decided as he walked over to the bed and sat down, leaning his back against the bare

wall.

“C-could you lay down and hold me?” she asked softly.

Reluctantly he did exactly that. He lay down and opened his arms to her. She didn’t waste any time in rolling over and……..

Why the hell was she straddling his stomach? he thought idly as he registered the feel of her warm, wet pussy pressed against

his stomach and her big beautiful breasts dangling in his face. He should be pushing her off him, but he found that he didn’t

want to. Call him a selfish bastard, but he wanted her.

“Fuck it,” he muttered, just as he leaned up to take one rose colored nipple into his mouth.

“That should do it,” Izzy said, sitting up and yanking her breast away from him with a rather pleased expression.

Thanks to his lust hazed mind it took him a few seconds to register what she’d done and when he did he bucked her off.

“Well, as much as I’d love to say it was nice meeting you I really can’t,” she said, ignoring his violent struggles to free himself.

“Get me the fuck out of here!” he snapped as he reached down between the mattress, wincing when the handcuffs bit into his

wrists and he found the thick metal bed frame that she’d attached him to.

“Sorry,” she said with a careless shrug as she absently scratched just below her ear. “As much as I’d love to let you go so you

could continue to drag me god only knows where and treat me like dirt I’m going to have to pass.

Plus, I have a feeling I that I really wouldn’t like whatever it is that you and Eric have planned for me.”

“Give me the fucking key!” he snapped when she disappeared into the bathroom.

A minute later she stepped back into the room wearing his jeans and tee shirt. “Sorry, I can’t do that. But what I can do is tell

the nice man at the front desk not to disturb you, and,” she said, grinning hugely as she pulled his wallet out of his pants pocket,

“pay for another night so that you can enjoy that nice comfy bed and I can get the hell away from you.”

“I’ll find you,” he gritted out.

She merely shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

“There’s no maybes about it, Munchkin,” he said, straining to sit up, but couldn’t, “when I get my hands on you I’m going to

make you pay for every fucking minute that you leave me here. Then I’m going to ship your ass off to an island that you will

never fucking leave!” he bellowed.

Chapter 27

“W-what did you just say?” Isabella asked, praying that she’d heard him wrong.

“You heard me,” he bit out coldly as he yanked on his handcuffs again.

“I don’t want to go to an island,” she mumbled as she scratched her neck. She’d planned on picking up some aloe for the

scratches when she escaped, but that would be impossible now.

At least for a day or so.

She’d have to hide out and avoid any place with a camera or small crowds for a while. Right now her best bet was large

crowds and anonymity. She’d have to travel at night to make it harder for anyone to spot her, but she could do it. She couldn’t

touch her credit cards now, but thankfully there was enough money in Chris’

wallet that she should be able to hole up somewhere for a week or two while she transferred some of her money into a new

online bank account and had the debit cards expressed to her. She could do this, she could”That’s not your choice to make,

Munchkin. Your life as you know it is over. Right now you need to be a good little girl and uncuff me so that I can protect you,”

he said harshly as he yanked on his cuffs again.

“I don’t need you to protect me. I can take care of myself,” she snapped as she reached down and grabbed her pants as they

started to fall.

She did not appreciate it when he started to laugh at her.

“I can,” she stressed.

“Puhlease, Munchkin. You wouldn’t last an hour without my help now.”

“Wow, I couldn’t? That’s funny, because somehow I survived the last twenty-seven years without your help,” she snapped as

headed for the door only to come to stop at his next words.

“You didn’t have demons, vampires and shifters after you before. But you do now. If you walk out that door, Munchkin, I won’t

be there to protect you. Look outside,” he said conversationally. “The sun has gone down and it’s the night after the full moon.

Every shifter that knows of your existence is going to be on the hunt for you along with every vampire that wants to please its

Master. You leave right now and you’re going to have a nasty surprise.”

“Then again if you go out during the day without me you’ll have to worry about minions, demons and shifters looking for you.

There will be nowhere for you to hide, Munchkin. You don’t have the skills or the resources to survive on your own.”

“That’s not true,” she mumbled weakly as his words sank in.

“You leave and you’ll either be dead by morning because someone got a little overzealous or you’ll end up a Master’s pet.

Then again you might just killed in crossfire as they fight over you. If you’re lucky you’ll only be tortured and used for your

skills.”

“You’re saying that I don’t have many choices,” she said quietly, realizing that he was right. She didn’t know how to fight

never mind fight what was out there waiting for her.

“You walk out that door and you’re as good as dead or you release me and I can protect you and get you safely to an island

where no one will ever find you and you can live a full life and be productive,” he said, sounding calmer. “All you have to do

is let me go, Munchkin, and I can protect you.”

“And be a prisoner?” she asked, wondering where the hell the upside was.

“It’s better than being dead. Then again if you don’t do whatever they want you to do you’ll probably wish that you were,” he

bit out coldly as he yanked uselessly on his cuffs.

She shook her head. “This can’t be it. There has to be another choice. Why can’t I stay in this country? I heard someone talk

about a compound. Why can’t I stay there and work?”

For a moment he didn’t say anything, but she didn’t miss the way his expression became guarded. “Oh my god, that is an option,

isn’t it? But you don’t want me to stay. You’re the one who wants me to go away,” she said, knowing it was the truth as the

words tumbled out of her mouth.

“You’re weak, Munchkin,” he said harshly. “If anyone ever gets their hands on you-“

“You’re afraid that I’ll talk about something. Something you don’t want anyone to know about,” she concluded, cutting him off.

When he didn’t answer her she knew she was on the right track. She leaned back against the wall as she racked her brain for an

answer. What could be so damn important that he’d be willing to sacrifice her happiness and freedom for?

The answer hit her hard.

His family, or rather one person in particular “You’re doing this to me to keep your brother safe, aren’t you?” she asked,

feeling sick to her stomach. Not because he would do anything to keep his brother safe.

If she had someone that she loved more than her own life she would do the same, but the fact that he thought she would

sacrifice a little boy to save her own ass hurt.

“I’m doing this to keep them all safe.”

“You don’t need to send me away. I would never-“

“Don’t tell me you wouldn’t talk because we both know that you’d spill everything within the first fucking minute anyone

threatened you,” he yelled.

“Oh, really?” she snapped, stepping closer to the bed so that she could glare down at him. “You know me so well, huh?”

“I know that the first time your comfort was threatened you spilled your fucking guts,” he said with disgust.

“And what exactly did I spill, Chris?” she demanded.

“You gave up information about your program and your password!”

She rolled her eyes. “Whipdee fucking doo, Chris.”

His eyes narrowed dangerously on her as he gave his cuffs another hard tug.

“Let me explain to you why none of that mattered. First off, that password only paused my program, but the program is still

running in the background. You should also know that the password I gave you was a onetime deal, Tattletale will never obey

it again. Know that at any point I can go and activate that program again from anywhere so try not to piss me off,” she said,

enjoying the look of shock on his face.

“Secondly, who cares if you know what my program does. You don’t have it, do you? You have no idea where it is and you

will never find it,” she said, rubbing it in.

She was about to walk away when she decided to impart one more piece of information just to piss him off. “You should

probably know that Tattletale has already hit your system and if I wanted to I could sell your little group down the river

whenever I felt like it so keep that in mind the next time you threaten to lock me up on an island.”

“You’re bluffing,” Chris bit out, but he didn’t look too sure. Good. Let him squirm, she thought as she headed for the door.

“Enjoy your freedom while it lasts, Munchkin, because the minute I get out of this your ass belongs to me!”

*********

“Shit,” Kale muttered when he picked up Logan’s lingering scent. Of course the bastard was in town, he thought inwardly

cursing his dumb luck.

Logan’s interference was the last goddamn thing he needed, especially right now. For the first time in centuries he was

considering breaking his word on a contract. Normally he was focused and allowed nothing to come between him and his job,

but today…..

Today he was sitting in a bar, sipping a piss warm beer and contemplating killing a little boy, a boy he couldn’t allow a Master

to get his hands on or allow to reach true immortality, instead of hunting down one Isabella McGuire. He had a good idea

where she was and where she was headed, but he couldn’t make himself leave.