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One more stop. At an exclusive dress designer who whisked her right in, measured her, hemmed and hawed and cackled gleefully as Mercury chose several dresses for her. Because she refused. She was horrified. Outraged at the price. And the sheer beauty of the party gowns he chose.
“Thanksgiving, several Christmas parties and New Year’s,” he told her. “You’ll be attending with me.”
“My job is almost finished,” she informed him, striving for a calm she didn’t feel as they stepped from the boutique.
Mercury came to a hard stop and glared down at her.
“Would you go back now?” he demanded then. “Would you leave me, Ria?”
She paused, staring back at him silently. He could come to South Africa with her, but she knew the same thing he did. Leo’s pride was already established, the hierarchy formed, just as it was here. There was no place for him there, whereas here . . .
She shook her head slowly. No, there was no returning ever again to what she was. And she couldn’t leave Mercury. She had proved that the night before. Dane had offered her escape, and she had refused it.
“No,” she finally whispered. “Not yet.”
“Not ever.” His voice hardened.
“Not yet.” Not until he asked her to. Not until he could no longer deny the pull Alaiya would have on him.
And then, she was terribly afraid, there would be no place to escape the pain.
“You love me, Ria.” He stared into her eyes. “I can smell it pouring from you, reaching around me, inside me. You can’t deny it.”
“I don’t deny it,” she admitted.
“But you regret it?” Anger flared in his eyes.
And she had to shake her head. No, she wouldn’t regret it. She would die from it, walk in sorrow when it was over, but she wouldn’t regret it.
“I don’t regret what I walk into with my eyes open,” she finally told him. “But I don’t have to like it. And when you realize the mistake you made, what you’ve done to both of us, Mercury, I have a very bad feeling you might regret it.”
> She walked ahead of him again, and Mercury let the smile tug at his lips as he watched her move. She owned the clothes she was wearing. Not just physically, but he could also see that her attitude, her demeanor were cracking.
He had to clench his teeth as he watched her walk, though. Those jeans hugged her ass like nobody’s business, and that light black leather jacket called attention to her hips and slender thighs. She was a wet dream walking, and if he didn’t get inside her, he was going to go crazy.
He checked his watch and grimaced. The small green indicator on it informed him of Jonas’s need for contact. Not imperative; it wasn’t an emergency, but he needed to finish up here soon and get her back to Sanctuary.
Mating was taking time. Time he didn’t want to give up, to catch a traitorous bastard that he just might have to kill for interfering in his plans this way.
Shaking his head at the thought, he followed his woman, watching her mood, casting silent snarls at the men that ate her with their eyes. But pride filled him at the looks she was getting.
All that gorgeous, thick hair flowed down her back, her hips swayed, her ass bunched deliciously, and every man who saw her wanted her. He had a woman to be proud of, not just because she moved like sex itself, but because she was smart, honorable and loved him enough that she had tried to let him go.
Silly woman. She had no idea that he had no intention of ever escaping her delicate hold.
“One more stop,” he announced as he caught up with her.
She sighed as though put out. As though the thought of one more shop was abhorrent. But he’d seen her eyes while they shopped, watched her try to hide her mounting excitement, her pleasure in the clothes and her inability to deny them.
If she truly didn’t want them, she would have let him make a dozen scenes and watched each one coolly. But she did want them, maybe almost as much as she wanted him.
The stop surprised Ria. The shop exclusively carried apparel suited to riding motorcycles, in any season of the year. Mercury bought boots, leather pants, gloves and a jacket that made his eyes heat when he held them up to her and all but growled the order for her to try them on.
And Ria had to admit she loved them. Perhaps too much.
As they flew back to Sanctuary, she couldn’t help but wonder if she would have a chance to use them. And when they stepped through the entrance of the mansion, she couldn’t help the spike of anger that shot through her.
Alaiya stood on the other side of the foyer, leaning against the wall, watching as they entered. Her multihued tawny gold hair feathered around her face in attractive, designed disarray. Her hazel brown eyes narrowed, sweeping over Ria’s new clothes with a sneer.
