But he kissed her instead. The feather light barely-there caress that was a knife to her soul. “I’m here if you need me. I’m not going anywhere. Ever.”
Every single cell inside of her body longed to lean into his arms and take him up on that promise, if only it was her choice. If only it was her life.
Her life.
He’d made her forget her team. Her sister. Her mission. He’d robbed her of her resolve, completely demolishing a life time of training and will. A cold hate slithered around her heart, its icy tendrils digging into her veins as the sharp sting of reality set in.
She wasn’t strong enough to stand up to the onslaught of desire that Merc’s touch instilled in her. She had to get away and the only way to ensure he stayed was to make him hate her as much as she hated herself for her weakness.
“Why would I ever need you?” She fought the tremble in her voice and straightened her shoulders. “Did you really think I could ever really be with you? I mean, you were a great distraction. Your big muscles and hot body helped me get over my little desert interlude, but we –” Nightshade pointed to him and then herself and arched her brow – “will never be a couple. I don’t date soldiers.”
Nightshade had to bite back the vomit threatening its way up her throat and lock her knees to keep from collapsing under the weight of Merc’s hurt expression.Please, please hateme.
“I don’t believe you, you know there’s more here. I took your virginity for Christ’s sake.” She heard the edge of emotion to his words and knew she hit a nerve.
Be strong for your team. Fight it.“I might have to take the General back, but at least his family has money.” Nightshade sucked in a burning breath and hammered the last rusty nail into place. “You don’t even have a family.”
His lips flattened and his pupils dilated into soulless pits of black emptiness.
Her stomach knotted so tight she almost bent forward.Suck it up, princess. You don’t get to have a happily ever after.
She started backing to the door, her numb hand somehow finding the door knob and fumbling to open it.
Merc advanced, his huge hands clenched into tight fists.
Nightshade pulled the only move she had left. She fled.
In a mad dash, not paying attention, she ran to the top of the stairs and down, knowing her only true safety from Merc at the moment lay in the crowded throng of people below.
She reached the bottom of the stairs without turning back and stopped dead in her tracks. General Rainier had seen her flight and blocked her path. He glanced up the stairs and then back at her, and took her hand in his. “Caroline, my dear, I hadn’t expected you to move on quite so quickly.”
Nightshade looked upstairs and flinched, seeing Merc standing there, breathtaking in his suit. In desperation, she hooked her arm through the General’s and tugged him into a nearby room, willing to touch a man she secretly despised to escape the man she loved.
