He didn’t answer, and after a few moments of wrestling with myself—did Iwantthe temptation of looking at him?—I gave in and peeked back at Brakkor.
His dark gaze looked different than Friday night, and it took me a moment to realize there was a spark of green in the center of each eye. Must be the bright sunshine. He was frowning at me, so I frowned back.
“You look good enough to eat, Kitten.”
My eyes widened at his words; it wasn’t any better than walking down the street and having some guy catcall me. But with Brakkor, I could see his intensity, see that he was thinking about that night in the hotel.
The night thathewanted to be only once. That he was claiming otherwise now was just another case of a guy trying to manipulate me into having sex again. Brakkor had made it clear he only wanted one thing from me, and I’d be a fool to believe differently now, just because I was here and we were both horny.
And I was done with being a fool.
I wheeled about and marched toward the parking lot.
“Joss! Shit, Jocelyn!” He hurried after me.
When I reached my car, I wrapped my anger around me and swung on him. “What?”
“I’m sorry.” When he realized what he said, he winced, rocked back on his heels, and dragged his hand through his hair. “Fuck, that was weak. I mean…” Shaking his head, he crossed his arms and stared at a point over my head. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
Which part? “You suck at apologies.”
I sensed his surprise when he dropped his gaze briefly to me. His lips twitched, and he looked back over my head. “Yeah, I do. But you made your opinion of me clear, and I was a dick to bring up…you know.”
I was blushing, wasn’t I? My anger was slowly leaking away as I fiddled with the handle to the sedan’s door. “I don’t dislike you, Brakkor, I just…”
His nostrils flared. Without looking at me, and with a hard voice, he prompted, “You just what?”
Sighing, I yanked open the door. “You were very clear what you wanted from me. We had an agreement.” I slid into the sedan. “I don’t want to be hurt again.” The murmured confession slipped free as I pulled the door closed.
From the way his gaze dropped to mine through the window, I knew he heard it, and cursed myself.
My fingers fumbled for my keys, which I’d left in the cupholder. Yep, my car was old enough to need real-lifekeys. Took me two tries to insert them, and I gripped the wheel, staring straight ahead, as I turned them, praying the engine would catch on the first or second try.
The engine, apparently, wasn’t feeling particularly generous today, because it did jack shit. Didn’t rumble, didn’t turn over, nothing. I glanced at the key, tried three or four more times, and dropped my forehead to the steering wheel with a groan as I admitted the truth.
My car had finally—finally—died on me, and had chosen the most humiliating time to do so. Brakkor was standingoutside my window, still watching me. I had three hours until sunset and four hours until the last ferry of the day, and I was stranded on the remote edge of Eastshore Isle.
Chapter Eight
Brakkor
I feltlike I might die.
Dramatic, much?
But it was the truth. Jocelyn was walking out on me again, and Ihadto stand there and watch it. I wouldn’t have believed it was possible, but this sucked even more than knowing that she snuck away from that hotel room weeks ago.
My claws dug into my biceps when I curled my fingers, keeping them locked in place instead of reaching for her.
Don’t go.
Sounded weak as fuck, yeah? Well, I was beginning to think that maybe Ineededto sound weak, tokeep my female?—
Whoa, she’s not yours. She’s just a hookup, someone you haven’t gotten out of your system. Maybe if you’d been the one to walk away, you wouldn’t be feeling this way.
That was probably it.
My chest itched again—hells, my entirebodyitched! And myKteerhowled against my chest, feeling as if I were a caged animal pacing behind bars, growling at my captor. At Jocelyn?
