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Lifting her hand from his chest he gripped her fingers, moving them quickly to the heavy weight of the arousal contained behind the zipper of his jeans.
A gasp of shock, of arousal, left her lips as he curled her fingers around the evidence of his erection.
“That’s physical,” he snarled. “So fucking physical it’s tormented the hell out of me for five years. When you gave me your blood without the serum needed with the transfusion, you began this, Cat. You set this in motion, though I warned you not to.”
“You were dying.” The memory of that night was another nightmare, another reason not to trust him.
“Death was preferable to the Mating Heat, damn you.”
His hands gripped her shoulders, giving her a hard shake as he glared down at her. “You were fucking twelve. When I awoke I was crazed with pain and the knowledge that if I stayed with you, I could end up becoming more of a monster than those I helped you escape from.”
Anger flashed through her. Lifting her head until they were nose to nose, she sneered back at him. “Then perhaps you should have been more careful in who you chose to become your own personal little experiment. Or chose the genetics you forced inside my body more wisely.”
He had created her. If he didn’t like who and what she was, then it was his own damned fault now, wasn’t it?
His eyes narrowed on her, the amber flakes burning brighter in his gaze.
“Cat . . .” The warning growl only offended her further.
“Get off me.” She pushed at his shoulders, determined to escape the pleasure, the warmth she felt at his touch. “Get off me now, Graeme. No means no, and I’m telling you now I don’t want you.”
He jumped away from her, the low, feral snarl that accompanied his action causing her to move quickly across the bed to jump from it and face him from the opposite side.
“You want me,” he accused her furiously, his brows lowering heavily over the jade green glitter of his eyes. “I can smell the scent of your arousal and it deepens each time I touch you. You’re my mate. Mine, Cat.”
“I’m no mate of yours,” she denied with a disgusted curl of her lip. “I may enjoy playing a few of your games, and I may be forced for the time being to accept your protection, but I don’t owe you jack for it. You owe me, Graeme, and you owe me dearly.”
She would never forget each instance that he owed her for either. They were burned in her brain. Lacerated into her soul with scars of such betrayal that at times, she’d hated him for each and every one of them.
“I owe you?” The dangerous rasp of his voice didn’t affect her in the least. “And how do you imagine, my little tigress, that I owe you?”
“Think about it, Graeme,” she bit out, her voice tight and filled with years’ worth of resentment. “Why would a tigress renounce her alpha? And trust me, I renounced you years ago. Use those superior senses Dr. Foster claimed you had, big boy. Because that mark you left on me has been gone far longer than you can even imagine.”
The mark he’d left on her was the same he’d left on Judd, Honor and, over the years, several other Bengal Breeds. It was a primal, mental mark, one he hadn’t believed could be wiped away. Especially by his mate, by the tigress he’d ensured existed inside her.
But she was right. Allowing his Breed senses to reach out to her, to search for the bond he’d assumed was still there, he was shocked to realize there was only the faintest remnant of it left. A part of it he doubted she even knew was still there.
The knowledge rocked him to the core. He felt off balance, stunned by the weakness of a bond he’d been certain couldn’t be destroyed.
“You destroyed that bond,” she accused him then, her voice soft, the bitterness grating. “You destroyed what you created, Graeme. I might have had the potential to be your mate, but like the alpha bond, it doesn’t exist now. Nothing exists now but my need to see the only part of you that I still feel some fondness for survive. Strangely enough, it’s not the part of you that I know as Graeme that I even give a damn about. It’s that part of you the world knows as Gideon that concerns me. His survival is tied to yours, though, it seems, so I guess I’m stuck with that part as well. Stuck with it. Not mated to it. So why not leave me in peace to get what little sleep I can until I have to deal with a crazy Lion Breed as well in the morning.”
Years of heartache, of nightmares that had tormented her vulnerable heart, and the loss of her only friend, had shattered her slowly over the years, over and over again. She’d never had a chance to heal, a chance even to catch her breath before she’d had to deal with another blow.
All she’d ever wanted was to belong somewhere, to someone. To be a part of something besides her own aching loneliness. And even now, he refused to share enough of himself to allow her to feel secure in belonging to him again.
“What are you waiting for?” she cried out painfully as he stood, eyes narrowed, simply staring at her. “Do you think glaring at me is going to replace that bond? That you can intimidate me into it?”
A mocking laugh fell from her lips. “You did come to find me because I was your mate. You came for vengeance and I was just stupid enough to lead the way, wasn’t I?”
His arms crossed slowly over his chest, the powerful stance only enraging her further.
“You enjoy lying to yourself, don’t you, Cat?” he suggested, the superior amusement he displayed insulting.
“Not nearly as much as you do,” she retorted furiously. “Now, why don’t you leave, please. I simply can’t deal with you anymore. I refuse to deal with you. Get the hell out of here and don’t come back before I leave myself.”
She had few options. The only assurance she had of protection would also endanger the one person she had no intention of revealing to either Jonas or Graeme.
“I’ll go for now.” His arms dropped from his chest. “I’ll be back in the morning when Jonas arrives. And we will finish this conversation then.”
