No, I would never be the woman in the drawing. But the picture was beautiful, and I wanted to keep it for my own selfish reasons.
Roman walked back over and handed me my bottoms. He leaned against his desk, watching me put it on. “Isabella,” he said softly. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
He paused for a long moment. “For giving the hospital a try.” His words were sincere, like he thought I had obeyed him for once in my entire life. “I’m really glad that you like it more than you thought you would.”
I pressed my lips together, my heart suddenly hurting. Staring into eyes filled with so much passion and at a smile that shattered my heart into a million pieces, I hated myself for going behind his back, for going to meet Ryker tonight, for giving up on this.
Whatever we were.
Chapter 18
Roman
She stared at me with the most beautiful eyes that I had ever seen; they glimmered under the moonlight that flooded in through my office windows. And that smile. Moon Goddess, her smile got me every time.
But, instead of one of her over-joyous or flirty smiles I had come to know and love, her smile was filled with sadness, and I didn’t know why. Maybe she didn’t like the hospital as much as I thought she did. Sure, I didn’t expect her to love it. But this morning when I visited her, she seemed to get along with everyone quite well.
The way she walked around the hospital reminded me of Mom, so caring, so nurturing. She’d make a perfect Luna someday. Yes, I hated going back to the last place I saw Mom, but Isabella made it so much easier.
She parted her plump lips and pushed past me. “I have to go.”
I wanted to pull her back, to keep her here with me, to show her all of my drawings of her. Though she didn’t like the first one, she was just hurt. If she saw the other ones, if she saw each one that I had drawn each night, she would love them. She looked so strong in them, just as she was.
Instead of pulling her back, I watched her leave and sighed through my nose. I couldn’t wait until she turned eighteen. Every day was pure torture now that I didn’t see her. And every night was pure torture, killing rogues in the woods near her house and knowing that she would be safer with me in my packhouse.
“Rogue spotted at the border,”a guard said through my mindlink.
I clenched my jaw, inhaling her lingering scent.“Kill him,”I ordered. There would be more tonight, like every night. I just needed them to stay away long enough for Isabella and her family to get home safely.
After clearing my head, I walked out of my office. Vanessa was waiting in the kitchen for me. “What’re you up to?” she asked, brow raised.
“That’s none of your business.”
“You were with Isabella.”
I arched a brow at her. “Like I said, ‘That’s none of your business.’”
She placed a hand on her hip. “Why were you with her?”
I growled. Did she not hear a word that I just said? She had no place to ask about my Isabella. She was in no place to ask questions. “What’s your obsession with her?”
She crossed her arms over her chest, jaw clenched, huffed, and walked out of the house. That woman was crazy. Absolutely crazy.
I grabbed a spare shirt from my bedroom, tossed it over my shoulder, listened to my guards speak through the mindlink about the growing number of rogues outside the borders, and walked out of the house.
“Five spotted to the North,” another guard said through the link.
There were so fucking many of them.
“Three to the West.”
“Two more to the West.”
I frowned at Isabella. This was more proof. Proof that I made the right decision—keeping Isabella as a nurse. No matter how much it hurt me. Dad couldn’t protect Mom, but I would protect Isabella.
Her gaze caught mine.“Guard the forest,”I said through the link.“No rogues get within fifty feet of the property until everyone gets home.”
