Daire sighed and ran his hands down her arms. “You donna’ know me very well if you think I’d let you fight a demon soldier to the death.”
Which was exactly why they couldn’t be together. She shook her head. “I’ve been training since birth, and you have to back off.” There had to be a way to explain it better. “I’m not some silly cheerleader following the knife-wielding villain into the forest.” That would make her too stupid to live. “I’ve waited and planned since my mate was murdered, and during that time, I had people investigating Ivan. I know everything about him.”
Daire shook his head. “When you sought refuge with your brother, why didn’t Ivan follow through on the betrothal?”
Ah ha. So the enforcer was finally listening to her. “After I mated Dane, Ivan was furious with Suri and took out several of our holdings in Canada and Greenland. Suri was a bad enemy to have, although no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get Ivan vulnerable and take him out.”
Daire smoothed hair from her face. “What about Zane? I mean, he’s well trained and deadly. In fact, I’ve met all three of your sons, and not one of them strikes me as the kind of man who’d let their father’s killer walk the earth.”
She swallowed, and heat flushed into her face. “Ah, well—”
“Cee Cee?”
She sighed. “I may have told them that Suri had their father’s murderer killed.”
Daire’s eyebrows rose. “You may have?”
“Yes.” She played with his T-shirt. “If I hadn’t, even as boys, they would’ve gone hunting the killer.” They would’ve been killed at that point.
“I understand.” Daire leaned into her, bringing the scent of man and rain. “What about now? Zane leads the entire demon nation.”
“And admit I lied to them for decades?” She shook her head and hair flew. Her stomach ached with the knowledge of how badly she’d already let them down. No more. “Absolutely not. Besides, all of my sons, as young as they are, have too much blood on their hands, and that’s on me. No more killing for any of them, I hope.” During the war, she’d been unable to protect them from fighting and killing. Now she could.
He quite expertly turned her motivation. “So you must understand the need to protect family and those you care about.”
Ah, shoot. “I don’t need protection from Ivan.” The asshat of a demon needed protection from her, damn it. “You need to see the real me, Daire, and not the pretty blond crippled woman.”
“You’re not crippled.” He brushed gentle knuckles across her cheekbone.
Sure, she was. “I’m a demon who can’t mind attack or teleport.” No illusions plagued her. “Which is why I’ve prepared for this for decades.” Why couldn’t he see what a threat she could be? Of course, that was part of her strategy with Ivan.
Daire cupped her chin. “I see the real you, Cee Cee, and I’m allowing you to help rob the bank. But you have to acknowledge that I’m not the type of guy who’d let his woman go fight hand-to-hand with another man. You wouldn’t want me to be, would you?”
His woman? “Whoa there, John Wayne.” She tried to scramble off his legs, her body humming. “I’m not your possession. Hell, I’m not your anything.”
He let her go. “We both know that’s not true.”
Tears threatened to prick her eyes, and she batted them back. “We are so over.” She was fucking tired of people seeing her as weak or damaged. For the briefest of seconds, she’d really thought Daire had seen the real her. The woman who could protect her family instead of the shell she’d been for so long. “Done.”
His eyes burned a devastating green through the small cabin. “If you really think that, then you’ve lost all touch with reality.”