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“But you think it. You’ve shared your opinion often enough.”
“I’m sorry, but what universe are you living in? I think I may have said twice that you should think about it. That’s all. Just think about it and I’ve never brought it up again.”
He frowned. “You’re right and I’ll concede that.” But he rose suddenly. “I’ll get us some beers and I’ll try to calm down. But you’re really pissing me off tonight and I had all this stuff planned.”
“What stuff?”
“Just forget it. Forget I said anything.”
She watched Yolen wend his way through tall tables, stools, and chatting customers. The bar had an industrial feel with exposed ductwork and lamps that hung suspended from the twenty foot ceiling. Old, beat-up Bergisson license plates, along with some from their neighboring U.S. access point of Louisiana, covered the red brick wall behind a long glossy wood bar.
She felt guilty as she always did when she made a push. Yolen wasn’t a bad boyfriend. Far from it. And he always made their Friday nights together special. That he might have had something arranged for later, for just the two of them would have been exactly his speed and she appreciated the effort he made.
But her heart ached at the serious gap between what she had with him and what she needed. She also knew it wasn’t entirely his fault because for some reason, in recent weeks, she’d developed deep and at times almost painful longings to be so much closer to him, to share her life more fully with him.
She even carried around a strange weight in her chest, especially heavy on Friday nights before she fed him. Though she’d dated a lot of vampires, Yolen was the first one who had ever pierced her throat, a profoundly intimate act. And she loved him fiercely like air to her lungs.
She put a hand to her chest and rubbed. And there it was the weight and the ache.
But she couldn’t continue like this. Her feelings of desperation were tearing her apart. Unless he made more room for her in his life, she had to let him go, had to move on.
* * * * * * * * *
Yolen shook off the anger that radiated through his brain, making his biceps flex and release. He hated fighting with Brianna. But more importantly, he didn’t like her efforts to push him into something he truly disagreed with. He had his world set up very carefully to ensure that those he cared about stayed safe, yet somehow she refused to understand that.
But the thought of breaking up, of never seeing her again, tore a hole in his chest. He loved Brianna, more than he could say. The sex was amazing, she made him laugh, and they shared a lot of things in common, especially their love of Cameron, Bergisson Realm’s largest city.
He was also sorry he’d have to miss her exhibition, but it couldn’t be helped. He worked one of Cameron’s toughest crime districts, six nights a week, until dawn, keeping their city safe. He spent his hours investigating every murder within his jurisdiction and usually once a night helped the Bergisson Vampire Guard battle Invictus wraith-pairs.
Yet apparently all that wasn’t good enough for Brianna.
As he moved toward the bar, he worked to set aside his frustration. This storm would blow over soon enough, hopefully after a couple of beers. In the meantime, he greeted friends, shook a few hands, clapped some shoulders, and felt at least some of his aggravation drift away.
When he reached the bar, he glanced back at her. With any other woman, this kind of conversation would have obliterated his interest and the relationship would have disintegrated in a very short period of time. But in the year he’d dated Brianna, she’d gotten under his skin like no other woman he’d ever known.
It helped that she was beautiful. She had a sexy, almost willowy appearance with graceful fingers, a long, elegant throat that appealed to his vampire nature, and a way of moving that reminded him of the wind. Her light blue eyes, fringed with dark lashes, flashed lightning at times, and at others, when he was looking down at her, appeared like bottomless pools into which he could get completely lost.
Her long blond hair curled just at the tips and right now she wore it pushed back behind her left ear. She wore a trio of thin gold rings just below the sexy, fae ear-point. More than once he’d used his tongue along those rings to work her up.
His whole body heated up at the thought.
At the same time, he felt damn uneasy. He didn’t want to let Brianna go. For one thing, she got him. She never bitched about his temper or even flinched when he expressed a contrary opinion. Instead, she’d give him that straight-on look of hers until he finally apologized for being a Neanderthal and rephrased his statement.
He just didn’t understand why she couldn’t see how perfect their current arrangement was. They had the best Friday night dates of any couple he knew, and he saw to that.
He contributed.
In fact, tonight he’d planned on doing something he’d never done before, and for him this was a big concession. For the first time ever, he intended to take her back to his house.
He never brought women to his riverside home. But he knew Brianna needed more and he’d worked with his housekeeper to make tonight special. He’d timed things to have champagne ready in an iced bucket, flowers in a vase, rose petals on the carpet, lots of candles lighting the place in a glow. He’d even stacked up a fire on the hearth, ready to be lit when he brought her home. And he’d done this because he cared about her.
He just didn’t understand why she’d suddenly become so demanding? If he thought back to the time when things had shifted, he recalled that a tough battling situation one night had forced his mastyr calling to surge. He’d been sick as a dog afterwards, having tamped his calling down. He hated the surges, but having faced off against two wraith-pairs, and almost dying, had brought the flow of power rising, begging to be fully embraced. Fortunately, Mastyr Ethan had shown up, the ruler of Bergisson and the most powerful vampire in their realm. He’d taken both pairs out in less than a minute.
But after that surge, things with Brianna had grown strained. Yes, he could date the moment from exactly that point.
He just didn’t know why and to give her credit, she really hadn’t picked at him about accepting his calling and rising to mastyr status. That was all on him.
* * * * * * * * *
