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“You’re going to wear a footpath in the carpet,” she commented.
What was he going to do with her?
He’d already made up his mind to forgive her. He just wasn’t sure what things would look like from now on. How they could move forward.
He studied her. She looked terrible and guilt stirred. He shouldn’t have left her for so long.
“You shouldn’t be walking around in just my shirt.”
“You’ve never minded before!”
“I do when others can see you like this.”
“Doomy Gloomy has seen me in your shirt!”
“He doesn’t count.” He ran his hand over his face, taking a deep breath. Then he seemed to compose himself. “I’ve decided to forgive you.”
“Sorry?”
“Things will need to be a bit different moving forward. But I’m going to forgive you.”
Cat’s temper stirred. And instead of trying to put it out, she fed it. He’d walked out on her during an important conversation. Sure, he’d had to go deal with Starla, but she could have waited.
He’d gone all cold on her. Shut her out.
Yeah, it was her fault this had all started, but damn it, she was not going to let him get away with this. She wanted the real Alejandro. She wanted real emotion.
Not this robot.
“Oh yeah, well, maybe I don’t forgive you, buster!” She jumped up on the bed, tired of looking up at him.
His eyes widened. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
“Cat, get down from there before you hurt yourself.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“That’s your name! Or do you prefer Catarina?”
“No, I don’t.”
Yeah, she knew she was acting a bit irrationally. And before her talk with Reuben, she’d have been ecstatic that he was prepared to forgive her. But now she could see that they needed to clear the air completely.
He needed to see the real Cat.
“Why would you need to forgive me?” he asked.
“You shut me out! You wouldn’t listen. You left!”
“It’s been less than twenty-four hours since I left! I needed to get my head together.”
“Oh, so we get to do that? Then I’ll guess I’ll just leave. Go get my head on straight.” She jumped off the bed and winced as pain shot up her legs.
Ouchie.
“Cat!”
“Goodbye.”
Please stop me. Please stop me.
“Freeze!” he roared.
The sound was loud and filled with anger. But at least it was real. Even if her insides trembled slightly.
She hoped Reuben was right, and Alejandro really did care about her.
She turned to him. “What?”
“You are not leaving!”
“Why not? You can’t trust me, right? You’ve built a wall between us that I’m guessing you plan on keeping there. So why should I stay?”
“Because you belong to me!” he thundered, moving toward her. He backed her up against the wall.
Remember, this is what you want.
To push him.
But she needed to remember that a dragon could breathe fire. And that fire could burn.
She bumped into the wall behind her. He put his hands on the wall on either side of her head and ducked down to glare at her.
Yep, he was definitely breathing fire.
“You. Are. Mine. And once something is mine, I never let it go. You know that. I warned you. You’re going nowhere.”
“But I lied and deceived you. Can you get past that?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. Perhaps I need time.”
“I can give you time. I can prove myself, but I can’t handle you shutting me out, Alejandro. I have stuff to make up for . . . but you can’t punish me by freezing me out. I can’t deal with that.”
He breathed in and out. And her hope plummeted. He couldn’t do that. Couldn’t forgive her.
“But you agree you need to be punished?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Spank me. Do what you need to forgive me. But don’t keep me in a state of limbo. I won’t handle that.”
“I don’t want to harm you,” he told her, pulling back. “This is just what I do when someone deceives me.”
“Someone else deceived you? Elena?” she whispered. He’d refused to tell her much about the other woman who’d once held his heart.
He turned away from her. “I don’t want to talk about her.” Then he dropped his head forward with a groan. “Fuck. I get it now.”
She tentatively placed a hand on his back. “It’s all right if you’re not ready to talk about her. I understand how people from the past can affect your present. Even when they’re no longer with us, they’re still in our heads, influencing our actions.”
“Your Mama?” he asked. He moved over to the bed to sit. Then he crooked a finger at her, pointing at the spot next to him.
This was progress, right?
“Sort of. But there are others.” Like the Deity. “Nothing that happened between the two of us was a lie, Alejandro. My . . . my feelings for you are real. I set things up so that we’d meet because you were my last hope. All I had was your name and the hope that maybe my dad’s death would hold a clue about where Mama is, why she left.”
