He couldn't go through that again, and he'd guarded the words, "I love you," with the ferocity of a lion protecting his pride. Andrea knew how he felt about love, and damn her for striking at him with a weapon every bit as dangerous and painful as a stake.
Roaring in agony and fury, he broke away from Andrea, surprising himself at the speed with which he came to his feet. Wide, glazed eyes blinked in confusion even as she slapped a palm over her throat. Blood seeped from between her fingers, and shit, he was a dumbass. A newbie vampire dumbass who must look utterly ridiculous, standing in a cell with a raging hard-on making a tent in his cargos.
Quickly, he seized her upper arms, yanked her to her feet, and swiped his tongue over the punctures he'd made, another instinctive move. And then he stepped away, but the cell was far too small to allow enough distance between them. An entire ocean of distance wouldn't be enough. Not when he still wanted her so badly it hurt, which was exactly what he'd been trying to avoid.
"Dammit, Andrea." He rammed his hands through his hair, needing to do something with them before he grabbed her again and this time, refused to let go. "I told you--"
"Yeah, you told me." Her hands formed fists at her sides, and her face was flushed from her climax -- and from anger. "Told me you never wanted to fall in love again, because it hurts too much when it ends. You told me when we first fell into my bed that our relationship could go nowhere except between the sheets. But it went a lot further than that, and you know it. It's time to stop skirting the issue and pretending that we only have strong feelings for each other."
Fuck. He flicked his tongue over one fang, a new habit he'd developed. Because he was a vampire. Which she seemed to be forgetting, even though two seconds ago he'd been at her throat and sucking her lifeblood out of her. How the hell could she act as though it hadn't happened? As though she'd forgotten what he'd become? For every second of every hour, until Gabrielle turned into a slavering beast, he'd been well aware of the fact that she had been bitten by a werewolf.
And yet, he'd been careless. Sloppy. Although it was Aegis policy to kill any human who had been bitten or scratched by a were-beast, he'd let his love for her cloud his judgment. He'd heard rumors of humans who were immune to the infection, and on the off chance that Gabrielle was one of those rare people, he'd restrained her until night fell, bringing the curse of the full moon with it. Worse, he'd not wanted to hurt her, so he'd kept her restraints loose. When she'd turned, she got free and killed five of their colleagues before Kaden had put a silver killing bolt through her chest.
The pain, the guilt, had mired him in misery until Andrea showed up in Portland a year ago, a transfer from the Phoenix cell. She'd been like a whirlwind, sucking him into her life with her dry humor, take-no-prisoners attitude, and intense energy, which was exactly what he needed after four years of loneliness and one-night stands.
"Well?" Andrea prompted, and he realized he'd been lost in his thoughts, which was not the place he wanted to be.
Not that their reality, where they were locked in a dungeon, was much better.
Way to feel sorry for yourself. God, he was a moron. If growing up with two blind parents had taught him anything, it was that self-pity was a pathetic waste of time.
"Well, what?" he snapped, residual lust giving him the sharp edge he needed to do what he must. "You do realize that I'm a vampire, right? And you're a vampire slayer. Whatever relationship you think we had is over. The man you claim to love is gone, so you have two choices. You can stake me like a good little Guardian, or you can join forces with me to make an escape. But either way, there is no more us."
Crimson splotches mottled Andrea's cheeks, but he didn't need to see her fury to know she was bubbling over with it. His enhanced senses picked up her anger as a scent that was so bitter he could taste it on his tongue.
"You son of a bitch." Like a well-trained warrior, she didn't give away her next move, which was to snap up the stake.
He could have stopped her; his reflexes were twice as fast as they had been. But in truth, he was curious to see what she'd do.
And when she came at him, he had his answer.
Chapter Five
Damn him!
Crazed with hurt and anger, Andrea launched herself at Kaden, her stake aimed right at his cold heart. Effortlessly, as though she were nothing but a minor annoyance, he blocked her with one upraised arm. Humiliation aside, she was glad he'd done it. Oh, she wanted to hurt him, but she'd planned to check up at the last moment, not really wanting to kill him, and clearly, he didn't want to die. Or, probably more accurately, he didn't want her to be the one to have to kill him. Not after the trauma he'd suffered when he'd had to put down his fiancee.
Yes, his words had put a fissure in her heart, but she wasn't stupid -- he was trying to piss her off, to chase her away in order to save them both a lot of pain. She was sorry she'd told him she loved him, but she wasn't sorry for how she felt. She'd dated before Kaden, but she'd never fallen in love, hadn't known how good it could feel.