She pressed her forehead to his chest, wishing she could wipe the memory from her mind, from her heart.
“I needed you.” The fingers gripping his shoulders curled into fists. “Years, Graeme. For years I worried, I cried, I searched for you.” Shudders tore through her body as aching, furious rage tore through her. “I needed you.” It was a snarl, a deep female rasp of overwhelming pain as she tore from him, memories and so many nights of unrelenting hunger to just see him. “Damn you, G. Damn you. I survived without you for the past thirteen years and I’ll survive without you now. Get the hell away from me.”
She felt as though she was going crazy now. Rage and hunger. The need to push him away, the need to hold to him so tight she was never without him ever again. The conflicting emotions were tearing her apart.
“You survived?” Catching her arm he swung her around again, his lips pulled back from his teeth in a grimace of anger. “Is that what you call it? Hiding? Pretending to be Claire Martinez? You took her personality as well as her identity and hid everything you were, every part of you, when you could have been who you were, who you were intended to be.”
Mockery shot through her. “Who was I intended to be, Graeme?” she questioned with such false sweetness she nearly gagged on it. “It seems only you know that answer. What did you think you created when you shot that shit inside me with those therapies? Did you justify it each time I screamed and cried and then lay wasted for days begging you to let me die?” she screamed that question at him. A question she hadn’t even known tormented her until that moment. “What was I supposed to be, G?”
Tears filled her eyes. She hated that. Hated the weakness and the emotions that tore her apart each time she remembered that she had been his experiment.
His experiment.
“You were supposed to live,” he growled furiously, gripping her arms and hauling her back to his chest, glaring down at her as the pupils of his eyes became obliterated by the green. “You had to live and there was only one way to ensure that, with Breed DNA. There was no other way to wipe that fucking disease out of your body and I wasn’t going to let you die. You were mine.”
“I was your experiment,” she cried out. “You said it yourself, you never loved me.” A sob tore from her throat, knowing that wound had never healed. “Do you know what you did to me that night? Do you have any idea what you did when you told me that?”
“Do you have any idea what it did to me?” Before she could answer him, before she could do more than recognize the animalistic rasp of pain in his voice as his lips suddenly covered hers.
Hard. Possessive.
His tongue pushed past her lips, determined and hungry and spilling the most alluring hint of spice. That hint of taste captivated her, left her wanting more and had her lips closing around his tongue, some primal impulse demanding she draw on it, to pull more of that elusive taste into her senses. Moaning, clutching at his shoulders once again, Cat reveled in the pleasure, losing herself in it.
She should be fighting him and she knew it. She should be fighting this overwhelming need, and she couldn’t, had no desire to now that she was being consumed by his kiss. All she could do was hold on to him, hold him to her and relish in the fact that he was here now. That the lost, agonized part of her soul found solace.
When his head jerked back, his lips pulling from hers, Cat could only stare up at him, dazed and uncertain. Blinking in shock at the abrupt withdrawal it took a moment to realize what had disturbed the chaotic hunger he’d unleashed on her. The Wolf Breed scent was vaguely familiar though she couldn’t quite place it until he spoke.
“Sorry, Graeme,” the Breed cleared his throat uncomfortably. “We have a situation at the estate. Alpha Reever asked that you be found immediately.”
Cat moved to turn and face the Breed, uncomfortable with her back turned to him.
“Don’t.” Graeme held her still with a growl as his hand jerked out and returned with the robe discarded on the back of the patio chair.
Staring up at him she let him help her into it, remaining silent as she pulled the front edges together and belted them snugly.
The disturbance was for the best, she thought. No good could come of the trust she wanted so desperately to give him, or the emotions burning in her chest. He’d already betrayed her once, he would betray her again.
“This isn’t over,” he warned her as she stepped away from him. “Don’t imagine it is.”
Cat could only shake her head. “It was over a long time ago, you just refuse to accept it.”
Without turning to face the Breed that came for Graeme, Cat escaped back into the house and the realization that nothing would ever be easy, or simple, where Graeme was concerned. And what was left of her heart had no escape from the destruction he’d wreak in it.
? CHAPTER 6 ?