Now I was curious. “I wonder how old the oldest study they have is—it’s fascinating.” I was avoiding asking the obvious questions. The hard ones that I knew could take him away fromme.
The silence stretched as he pulled out each individual vial and then read a small card in the bottom of the box. “How did your brother even get access tothis?”
I shrugged. “He can pretty much get access to anything if you ask himnicely.”
“Your brother is a dangerous man,” he said, finally placing the last bottle in line with the otherten.
I didn’t bother responding to that since he knew first-hand how Jake could be. “Are you going to take it?” I finally asked. One of us neededto.
He leaned down so his eyes were level with the medication. “I’m not entirely sure. I’d like to discuss it with the doctor first, just in case. What if there are side effects Jake didn’t mention or knowabout?”
Neither of us voiced the other question.What if your brother is just trying to killme?
“And in the meantime, while you figure thisout?”
He glanced up at me over the vials. “In the meantime, I think I should stay away fromyou.”
Even knowing what he was going to say, it still hurt. Like a sledgehammer to the sternum. I wished I were the kind of woman who threw a fit about what she wanted. The kind who would use any and all means to make him stay. But that wasn’t me. I refused to convince a man to stay with me, even if I wanted himto.
Instead, I grabbed my cup and a slice of bacon, and slid off the stool. When I reached my bedroom door, I turned back. “You do what you have todo.”
I entered and threw myself on the chair by the window so I could think about the situation. Thinking Gray would take his things and leave, I didn’t expect him to enter the room a few minutes later. “Are youokay?”
I didn’t want to look at him right now, especially with the scent of him clinging to every inch of my skin. “I’mfine.”
He sat on the bed facing me. “I’ve been around a few years. I know the look and tone of a woman who is definitely notfine.”
Finally, I met his eyes. “I’m not going to ask you to stay with me. I want you to, and I think we would have a lot of fun together. But you’ve made up your mind about how you want to proceed. I’m not going to be able to change it, so why should Itry?”
He blinked. Maybe he didn’t expect me to be so honest. Most men I’d spent time with in my lifedidn’t.
“And what would you have me do? Endangeryou?”
“How is a week from now, a month from now, any different from what we did last night? And what we were just doing in my kitchen, or over the last week? Is it different now because you know your mind is deteriorating, or is it different because I’m notSibyl?”
I blinked rapidly and took in a big breath of air. I hadn’t expected quite that much truth to comeout.
“Is that your fear? That I’m pushing you away since you play no factor in my journey to rectify my sins? You think I don’t care about you now that I know you’re nother?”
I didn’t answer and instead stared out the window. If I looked at him, I knew I’d climb out of the chair and go tohim.
“You should know; I knew you were nothing like her from the first day you told me off in the square.” He dropped to his knees in the carpet and shuffled forward until he could put his hands on my legs. “She was meek, and you’re strong. She was giving only to receive, whereas you give because it’s the only way you know how to be. She was a child, and you are a woman. Even if my mind couldn’t visibly see the differences, I know very well you are not her. And she could never live up to you. Not the other wayaround.”
Damn. What did I say to that? I met his eyes, and there was a sincerity there that reached inside my chest and broke down every single wall I’d ever created to keep people out. The bastard kept doing that. Tearing into my heart and my memories and the way I saw theworld.
“I only want to protect you,” he said, before laying his face, cheek down, on my curled upcalves.
I ran my fingers through his silky soft hair. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’ll wait and see, because I want to be withyou.”
He lifted his head, and I shifted my hand to the side of his face. “Why would you do that? You don’t know how long it might take for me to becomestable.”
“Because I want you. And if this is the only way I can have you, so beit.”
“I think I could fall in love with you, IsobelVale.”
I sat my coffee mug on wide window sill and leaned down to press my lips to his gently. Then pulled back enough to meet his eyes. “I know you could. Why wouldn’tyou?”
He growled, an actual growl, before sliding his arms under me, lifting me up, and throwing me on my bed. Before I could right myself, he crawled between my open thighs. “I want to hear you say it,” hesaid.
