“Mike will have the car ready tomorrow morning. If you can just hide until then, we should be okay,” she told him, her mind already running through everything that would need to be done. A bag would have to be found and enough of her things packed to last her a week. She doubted she’d be gone that long, but?—
Don’t,she firmly instructed herself. Her throat spasmed hard, threatening tears.Don’t, Shiya. There isn’t time.
Alashiya couldn’t bear to look at him, so she hustled into the living room, intent on finding some clothing to replace what he’d torn. She’d walked back to the house in the tattered remains of her slip. There was no way she could focus on what would need to bedone if she continued to wear the reminder of the best moment of her entire life.
“Shiya—”
“I don’t think he’ll have it ready first thing tomorrow, but we should leave at dawn anyway, just to be safe. You can stay in the woods and I’ll pick you up once I have the car.” She yanked at the neatly folded bundles of clothing in her dresser, unseeing, barely even feeling the fabric under her fingers. Fear made it almost impossible to draw a complete breath in.
“He needs to change the oil,” she chattered, blindly selecting a soft summer dress from the bottom of the pile. “It’s— it’s an old car, so?—”
A large purple hand closed over hers, easing her death grip on the dress. “Alashiya,” Taevas rumbled against her back, “stop this. Look at me.”
It should’ve been easy. An hour ago she’d been impaled on his cock, demanding he come inside her as she stared unblinkingly into his eyes, desperate to memorize every minute shift in his expression. But now all she wanted to do was run again.
Not because she regretted it. Not because she felt awkward or shy.
She wanted to run because it’d beenspectacular.More than anything she could’ve dreamed of, better than every fantasy.
A sense of impending doom had driven off her inhibitions and propelled her to ask for things she never would’ve otherwise. It heightened her pleasure, but when the sweat cooled and reality crept in, it made her stomach churn with nausea.
That was it,she couldn’t help but think.My one chance. I took it and now it’s done.
Because Taevas had to leave. Sergei was clearly the one hunting him, and even if he wasn’t, Taevas had to get back to his people as soon as possible, or else the gods knew what would happen.
Once he was back where he belonged, this thing between them would end — one way or another. Alashiya had gottencaught up in the fantasy they’d woven together, but it was dispelled the moment she looked at Debbie’s tablet.
There was no place for her in his world, no matter what he said. They had nothing in common save for a coincidence. Nothing held them together, except perhaps his gratitude for what she’d done for him and her desperation to keep him.
Neither of those things were the foundation of a lasting relationship.
Alashiya swallowed again. It was getting harder. She hadn’t even lost him yet. Her thighs were still sticky with his release and his scent lingered on her skin. He was behind her, his hand covering her own, and yet it already felt as though she’d lost him.
Grief was a jagged piece of glass in her throat.I don’t want to be alone again.
It’d been tolerable when it was all she’d ever known, but now… Now the idea of facing the rest of her life without him was like walking into a jail cell of her own making.
She didn’twantto go a day without hearing his bossy voice. She didn’twantto dream of Adon anymore. She didn’twantto wake up to every tiny sound in the night, afraid that the worst had finally come to pass.
With Taevas, for the first time in her life, she hadn’t been afraid. She’d been prepared to step outside the carefully crafted walls of her castle not simply because he asked, but because she finally felt like shecould.
But that had been its own kind of fantasy. The reality was always that he would return to his people. Or worse. Sergei was definitely worse.
It was one thing for him to leave. It was another for someone to hurt him. Alashiya was sliced to ribbons at the thought of him not being a part of her life, but the threat that Sergei posed, the memories of what he looked like the night he crashed into her barn, the pain he still suffered… Intolerable.
All of those thoughts hammered her as she came down from the high of their coupling. Adrenaline coursed through her,giving her a frenetic energy that had no outlet. She didn’t even realize she was trembling until Taevas wrapped his arms around her middle and drew her into his chest. A low, comforting rumble passed through him and into her, immediately easing some of the bone-shattering tension coiling her muscles.
“Be calm,metsalill,”he commanded. Taevas pressed his lips into the curve of her shoulder and let out a long breath. “There is no need to panic. We will bathe, then we will pack your things and make our plan.”
Alashiya gripped his forearms. “Sergei said he was coming back. We can’t stay here. Taevas, he has men with him. Men who aren’tright.What if you get hurt again?”
“Then I will be hurt defending what is most precious to me. There is nothing more honorable than that.” He turned her slowly until they were facing one another. Still, she couldn’t quite look at him, afraid that if she did, she’d burst into tears.
Taevas brushed her cheek with his thumb, wordlessly asking for her to look up. She couldn’t. Instead, she stared at his collar bones, her vision blurring with tears she tried so hard to fight off.
“Why won’t look at me,metsalill?”he rasped. “Are you embarrassed by what we did? Ashamed? Angry?”
An astonished breath escaped her. “What? No.No.Never. That was the best moment of my entire life. It waseverythingto me. I’m…” She fought to keep her voice level, to not let him hear how upset she was, but it was impossible to conceal. “I’m afraid, Taevas.”
