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“I know. And it has nothing to do with Eva. I’m just making my point. I thought I was ready to settle down with her, but I never had the chance. And, before you think I’m looking at you like a back-up plan, it’s not like that. Before you, Tab, I decided that I was done with love. Done with women. As soon as I killed Rafe, I was heading toward ash anyway, so why bother?
“But that was before you,” Adam added. “You whirled into my life and got under my skin more than any woman I’ve ever met before in my life. I wanted you the first night we met. I told you that. I wanted you—all of you—the night my bloodlust took me over and I bit you. And I wanted you the night you invited me into your bed. There’s never been a time I haven’t wanted you.”
Tabby patted the empty space next to her. “Then why are you still over there while I’m over here?”
“Because, even though I’d do absolutely anything to get inside you again, I… that would be too fucking selfish of me. I’ve been selfish a long time.” The sound he let out was part sardonic laugh, part scoff of disbelief. “Who knew falling in love for real this time would finally fix that?”
“Falling in— Adam…” The humor in her tone drained away as easily as the color from her face. Eyes wide with surprise as she suddenly paled, she blinked once. Twice. Then said shaking, “What do you mean?”
One look at her face and Adam decided that, the next time he saw Colt, he was going to slug the shifter in the chest.
Don’t ignore the bond, he said.
Communicate, he said.
Be honest, he said.
Horseshit.
“I love you, Tabby.” Might as well throw it all out there. “Is it too soon? Hell if I know. But someway, somehow, I’ve begun to bond with you. I… and I don’t know if you’re going to like hearing this or not, but… you’re my betrothed.”
She blinked again.
He nodded.
Tabby stood up from the bed. She was completely naked but, for the first time since he’d been intimate with her, her bare body was the last thing on his mind.
But not hers. With a muttered curse, she crossed the room, scooping up her strewn clothes as she went. He didn’t stop her. He couldn’t. He just watched with a frown as she dashed past him into the attached bedroom.
She came back out a few minutes later, completely dressed.
“Tabby—”
“I’ll be right back.”
“But—”
“Not now, Adam. I… I’ll be right back.”
He followed her as she all but sprinted toward the front door, purposely hanging in the hall where the sunlight in the living room couldn’t touch him. He didn’t return to the bedroom; he wasn’t sure he physically could push himself back over the threshold.
Instead, he sank on the floor. His back against the wall, he buried his face in his hands, marveling over the fact that his confession had Tabby forgetting that this was her apartment.
Well. That could have definitely gone better.
21
Tabby never would’ve thought that she was a coward before this afternoon.
By the time she was twelve, she could track a Nightwalker blindfolded. By sixteen, she’d already racked up her first fifty kills. The vamps were her specialty. As a descendent from the Van Helsing line, her family focused more on murderous Nightwalkers, though she had faced off against powerful witches, feral shifters, poltergeists, and, on one very notable occasion, a super ticked off angel. She never flinched, she rarely backed down, and if she retreated, it was because her individual Tabby Code was all about living another day.
But that was the thing. Adam Wright might be a recently turned Nightwalker, but it wasn’t his Para state that had Tabby making her excuses and making her escape. It was his honesty and his heartfelt emotion that scared the absolute shit out of her.
He loved her.
Holy shit.
He loved her.
