Still fired up, Adair stepped up and took an empty seat across from Bennett in the living area. “Oh no, you should all stay. Who knows what deviance I’ll consider if left unsupervised?”
Letting out a long exhale, Blayk parked on the couch between Ryan and Vann and rested his elbows on his knees. The team slowly lowered back to sit. Blayk looked from Bennett to Adair, landing his gaze back on Bennett again. “You have no reason to trust me, but you do her. She’s exactly the woman you knew yesterday. And she’s the reason I am alive today. What has she told you of her husband?”
“Not much.” Bennett chewed his cheek, not letting on what he was thinking. Adair wanted to smack him upside the head. Or crawl onto his lap and tell him what an idiot he was.
Curling into the seat and scooting closer to Adair, Lana said, “He was abusive.”
Adair didn’t say anything.
Blayk nodded. “He was a pathetic excuse for a human. I tried to stand up for Adair when he… proved how brutally insecure he was. He took my defense of her to mean that she and I were lovers. I managed to get her out of there, eventually, but it took time to arrange. I tracked down her brother and met him on the road to Inverness. Her injuries too severe from his latest outrage, she was dying in my arms. Thinking her dead, I left her with her brother and returned home, refusing to let Richerd get away with it. Foolishly, I’d hoped the clan would stand against him. My mistake.”
Swallowing a salty knot that had wedged in the back of her throat, Adair murmured, “As soon as I recovered, Logan and I went back for Blayk.”
Vann’s expression was dark, knowing already when he asked, “And your husband?”
She nodded. “I took care of my husband, my first human victim, while Logan saw to Blayk, who was in no better shape than I had been. As he had with me, Logan changed him to save his life.”
Bennett’s posture eased, but Adair knew they were far from returning to the fragile safe space they had found together.
Blayk must have seen it too. Tone sharp as his canine teeth, his gaze bore into Bennett. “You don’t deserve to be in the same room as her. One misleading moment–my idea, to be able to speak in private to a woman I have known centuries longer than you have–and you’re accusing her of exactly the deceit her husband did. She and I haveneverbeen more than friends. And, despite my many mistakes since Calloway returned, she has accepted me. You can treat her with respect, or you and I can finish what we started in Seattle.”
Voice full of gravel, Bennett looked to Adair. That damn salty knot sunk deep into her belly and pushed against her lungs at his weary look. He murmured, “Can we talk? Alone?”
She managed a nod and rose to her feet. A hesitance to her step that she knew he wouldn’t miss, she pushed her shoulders back and powered down the hall to the back of the yacht, while he followed close behind.
He kept his distance, but she could feel him and couldn’t help but wish he’d reach for her, but she’d sock him if he tried. The cool night air washed over her as she opened the door and stepped outside. She inhaled every molecule of the salty breeze before sitting at the edge of a lounge chair under the light of the moon. She nodded for Bennett to sit on the other.
He dropped into the opposite chair and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. Inches from touching her, he rubbed his hands over his face. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“You were dead set on believing that I was exactly what you had been taught.”
He scooted closer and trailed his fingertips over her forearms, gently, hesitantly, seeming to need the connections as much as she did. “It was more a matter of not trusting myself, more than you. Fuck, that sounds like a feeble excuse. As I’ve said before, I am a thickheaded idiot.”
The corner of her mouth twitched. “As you have proven many times over.”
“Please. Accept my apologies. When I walked into that room and found you smiling in the midst of Calloway’s followers? While I could sense my father alive but fresh from the fight nearby? You stood beside the guy that brought this curse on me, and I could smell you all over each other. I… not to make excuses, but I guess I’ve been waiting for you to break my heart again.”
“You are a hopeless romantic. Emphasis on the wordhopeless.”
“Never said I was good at this stuff. Hell, there’s a reason Quinn dumped me. And that I haven’t been able to maintain a steady relationship for long.” He laughed mirthlessly under his breath. “Fuck, no wonder my dad enjoys lecturing me about women. Perhaps I should have listened.”
Teasing her fingertips across his hands, she said, “You are not the first one to mistake Blayk and I for lovers. Even Calloway went on a killing rampage once, after he’d found us living it up one wild night in Rome.”
“But you’ve really never–”
“No. Seriously, he’s as much a brother to me as Logan. And if you ever even imply–”
“Hell no,” he laughed, his shoulders relaxing. “You scare me too much.” He tugged her across and pulled her onto his lap. Under the hem of her shirt, he traced his thumbs over her skin.
Tipping her head to the sky, she let out a long breath before easing in to straddle him, keeping out of reach when he tried to kiss her. “Not half as much as you scare me.” Locked onto his gaze, searching, she murmured, “I’m sorry too. I’m overwhelmed by you. Like a confused magnet, torn between north and south, I sabotage and do my utmost to push you away while I try to put you under the thrall you hold me in.”
Reaching to kiss her again, he smiled when she taunted him. “We are a hell of a pair.”
Tugging her tighter against him, he took her mouth with his. And she let him. Igniting on impact, she wrapped her hands around his broad shoulders, holding him close.
Rhythmic waves lapped against the hull. Wind rushed through her hair, whipping the strands to form a curtain around them. With every kiss, every breath shared, she felt his apology, his longing for more. Hating how easy it was to drive them apart, so many times, she rested her hand on his cheek as she kissed him softly, tenderly, needing him to understand her. Hoping to understand him.
Easing her shirt over her head, he trailed his lips over her collarbone, pressing an open-mouthed kiss over the curve of her breast. Silently urging him on, she leaned into him.
