I rushed into the elevator and frantically pressed the close button before I broke.What felt like a thousand heartbeats later, the elevator doors slid shut as my vision blurred and the tears crashed down.
CHAPTERTWELVE
DARIUS
The elevator doors slid shut while I gaped in pure shock.
Bria was gone.She’d disappeared behind them, barely holding it together as she appeared to fight tears.That look of pain on her face burned me, searing onto my brain.
And me?I stood there like an idiot, still staring.Wondering.Confused.
What happened?
A tightness burned in my chest.
My dragon snarled, clawing inside, desperate to get out.Follow her.
No…not yet.I couldn’t react on instinct, despite everything urging me to race after her.Not until I figured out what the hell had just happened.I hated seeing her like that—so troubled, so distressed.
Fix it,my dragon roared.
Yes.I agreed with him there.But I couldn’t fix anything without knowing the reason why she was so hurt.Everything had been so perfect between us.So magical.We’d spent the last two nights in my bed together, both reluctant to leave it during the day.Which left the question—what had I done to ruin it?
“Excuse me,” a man said as a group stepped beside me, waiting for the elevator.
I stepped back, disoriented, as I blinked around me.My legs took me back toward the bar as if functioning without me.
A man said my name.I turned and blinked as I focused on Cedric, now standing near our table with his brows furrowed.
“Darius, are you all right?”
No, I was far from all right.I was losing Bria…
Disbelief twisted around my ribs as panic began to simmer.Losing my wife had nearly destroyed me.I’d vowed not to love again.
Losing Bria…
My true mate.
I gulped.A dull blade twisted, piercing deeper with each ragged breath.No, I’d never recover if I lost her.I couldn’t, wouldn’t…
Think!I fast-forwarded through the past few days, zooming through the first night I’d met her in the Celestial Lounge and I’d made her an offer.
The shock cracked.I think I figured it out.She thought I was still pretending, that everything had been part of an act.
Dumbass.My dragon snorted.I told you to claim her as ours!
I winced.Maybe he was right.But everything between us had grown hard and fast, merely over days, and I didn’t want to go all caveman on her and declare she was mine, when that was certain to scare her away.
Which I’d ended up doing anyway.Why?By continuing to pursue this partnership, even after I’d gotten what I’d wanted with Cedric agreeing to look over my proposal after the holidays.Even he had told me not to focus on business while on the cruise, to celebrate with my loved ones, and I couldn’t let my need for control and growing my empire get the best of me.
It was all my fault.She thought it was all just a game and that I was using her.No wonder she ran away from me.
“The proposal’s off the table,” I said flatly, voice hollow.
Cedric recoiled, his eyes wide with surprise.“Excuse me?”
I shook my head and spread my hands to the side.“All of it, done.”I seethed, my dragon’s fury piercing through.“It’s not worth it.”My voice cracked.
