As much as it seared Naomi to give in to her jealousy, she couldn’t keep a lid on her emotions for long. They had only gone about five miles before she glanced over at him in the light of the dashboard.
“She was pretty. The girl back at the gas station.”
He shrugged. “Yeah. I guess so.”
“Is that why you went inside?” She tried to seem casual, unconcerned, but to her ears her voice sounded hollow.
He looked at her in question. “I told you, I went inside to pay.”
“I know what you told me, Asher.”
“Okay.” There was an edge of irritation in his level tone. “So, what are you asking?”
“Nothing. Forget it.”
She glanced out the window for a long while, knowing she really had no right to ask anything more. He didn’t owe her answers or explanations. God knew he didn’t owe her any apologies. After all, she’d gone willingly into his bed and he hadn’t promised her anything in return.
Still, it hurt to think of him being attracted to another woman. It more than hurt to think he might have taken that attraction even further—especially while she waited in his vehicle outside.
But dammit, she had to know.
When they had finally turned onto the bumpy dirt lane leading to the ranch, she couldn’t keep the words from tumbling out of her.
“Did you fuck her?”
He swung a hard look at her. “What? Jesus. Is that what you think?”
“Did you?”
“No.” He parked the truck, and took out the key, his jaw held tight.
The tendons in his neck were thick and taut like cables, the angled bones of his cheeks seeming more sharply hewn somehow, unearthly so. Even in the low light of the truck’s interior, she could see that theglyphson his arms and neck were dark and pulsating.
“I didn’t want sex from that woman, Naomi. I wanted her blood.”
Maybe she should have been relieved. She knew what he was. She understood he had to feed. But even these words carved her out. “That’s the real reason you went inside—to drink from her?”
“Yes.” A single word. No intonation in his cool, lethal voice.
She gave a stiff nod, then practically lunged for the door handle. She couldn’t get out of the vehicle fast enough, couldn’t get far enough away from him. She spilled out to the dusty ground and ran, not stopping until she reached the paddock fence where the horses stood.
Asher was right behind her. “What are you doing?”
“Go away, please.”
“Why are you so upset?”
She pivoted in the opposite direction of him and stormed another few feet. He seemed to materialize right in front of her. “Tell me, Naomi. Why does the thought of me feeding from another woman piss you off?”
She scoffed brittly. “Because I’m an idiot, apparently.”
He gave a tight shake of his head. “You know I’m Breed. You know it’s my nature—it’s a goddamn necessity—that I take a blood Host.”
“Yes, I know all of that,” she snapped, glaring up at his carefully schooled face. “I know what you are and what you need.”
His eyes flashed with tiny sparks of amber. “Then why are you so hell-bent on condemning me for it now?”
“Because I love you.” The admission rushed out of her. Once it was freed, she felt some of the weight lift from her breast. None of the pain ebbed, though. “I love you, Asher. And thinking about you being with another woman—drinking from someone—tears me up inside.”
