Born of Fury

CHAPTER 16

“Can’t we stop yet?” Darice whined as he intentionally dragged his feet in the sand.

Again.

And again Sumi shook her head. Even though it was late and she was exhausted herself, she didn’t dare make camp right now. “We have to find someplace to sleep that’s not out in the open.”

“But I’m so tired.”

“We all are¸ Darice,” Thia snapped at him. “You’re not alone in the misery. Now shut up already. You’re only making it worse. For all of us.”

Sumi yawned as she forced herself to continue on. That set off a round with the kids, who quickly followed her example, and made her long for their fierce protector to lead them to safety.

“I wish Dancer was here.” Darice rubbed at his eyes. “He wouldn’t be so mean to me.”

Thia rolled her eyes. “Then why do you treat him so bad? Huh?”

“Because he makes me mad. I don’t understand why he can’t please my mom and make her accept him already.”

When Thia opened her mouth to respond, Sumi shushed them. “Do you hear that?” she whispered.

Both Thia and Darice looked up with pale faces.

“Engines,” they said in unison.

Sumi nodded. “We have to find cover. Run for the rocks.” It was next to nothing, but it was better than being out in the open. Illyse rushed ahead to crouch down.

Pulling out her blaster, Sumi prepared to defend them as best she could.

They’d barely reached the rocks when two airbees came into view. She held her breath, hoping the riders wouldn’t see them.

At first, she thought it was safe and they’d skim right by their location.

Until the airbees turned back.

Lining up the shot, Sumi was just about to fire on them when she recognized the black and brown Andarion desert clothes on the one rider. Hesitating, she looked through the scope to make sure she wasn’t imagining things.

She wasn’t. She’d know that massive, sexy male anywhere.

“Dancer,” she breathed, lowering her weapon. She motioned for Thia and Darice to stay hidden with Illyse so that she could make sure he wasn’t being forced to track them down. The rider with him could be anyone.

Friend or foe.

As soon as Dancer saw her, they landed the bikes.

Thank the gods he wasn’t hurt. Weak with relief, she hadn’t realized just how scared she’d been for him. How much his safety mattered to her.

Until he approached her with a stride that said he was out for her blood. This wasn’t the Andarion who’d been so protective over the last few days.

This was the warrior who’d stormed a League prison and killed everyone who tried to stop him from saving the people he’d come to protect.

“What have you done with them?” he demanded in a deep, terrifying growl.

His furious tone stunned her and she wasn’t quite sure what he was asking. “What? The kids?”

“Darice! Thia!” he shouted.

The moment they stood up, he ran straight to them and jerked them against his chest as if he’d been terrified for them. Her throat tightened at the sight of his protectiveness. He kissed each one on the head before he turned his angry glare back at her.

Why was he so furious? What had she done?

“What’s going on, Uncle?” Thia asked. “Is everything all right?”

The rage on his face was tangible as he made sure to keep himself between her and the kids. “It is now.” Hauk released them. He glanced over to Bastien, who was staring at Sumi as if viewing a ghost. “You two know each other?”

Sumi shook her head.

“Omira Hauk?” Bastien asked.

Hauk went cold. Those words definitely confirmed that Bastien knew Fain well enough to have seen the photo his brother kept of his ex-wife. And the panicked expression on Sumi’s face told him she wasn’t ignorant of that name, either.

Not by a long shot.

Just what the hell was going on?

Bastien scowled at Hauk. “What are you doing with your brother’s ex-wife?”

Blood fire shot through him with a ferocity so raw, he wasn’t sure how he kept from killing Sumi right where she stood. He’d put a lot of faith in a woman he barely knew.

And he was done with it.

Hauk gathered Thia and Darice and put them on the airbee he’d been riding. He locked gazes with Bastien. “Get them to the base. And you better not betray me.”

Bastien scowled as if offended he would even suggest it. “I would never.”

“Good. ’Cause that blonde, whose ass you’re ogling, happens to be the most precious and beloved daughter of Nemesis. And he has only one rule for dating her… don’t.”

The color washed straight out of Bastien’s face. “Your father’s Nemesis?” he asked Thia.

Thia sighed heavily. “On a good day, yes. On bad ones… let’s just say you never want to be on the same planet with him.”

Bastien locked gazes with Hauk. “Nothing, and I mean noth-thing, will happen to them.”

“Good. Because if his daughter so much as stubs her toe on your watch, he will hunt you to the end of time, even if he has to come back from hell to do it.”

“I don’t take threats, Hauk. But this one… I consider a suggestion for my continued health and well-being. Thanks for the heads up.” Clearing his throat, he inclined his head at Thia and Darice. “Follow me.”

Hauk didn’t move until they were gone. Only then did he turn back to Sumi. The fear in her eyes choked him, but he was through being her pawn. Through buying into whatever game she was playing.

He wanted answers and he was going to get them. Even if he had to kill her to get to the truth.

Sumi couldn’t move as she saw the raw fury burning in those eerie Andarion eyes. He’s going to kill me. She knew it. She could feel it with every part of her being.

It was just like facing Avin all over again.

But she refused to cower. It just wasn’t in her. Ever defiant, she stood strong and waited for the coming storm his stance promised to bring.

Hauk paused in front of her. His massive size dwarfed her and made her feel small in comparison. “You are here to end me, aren’t you?”

Sumi swallowed hard against the lump in her throat. “I’m not here to kill you. I was never sent here for that.”

“Then why are you here? Really? Bastien told me he saw the transport you were in. The one that dropped you off so that you could reach my camp. You’re not on the run. If you weren’t sent here to kill me, then what do you want?”

Biting her lip, she blinked back tears as she saw the unadulterated hatred in his eyes. It shouldn’t matter to her that he felt that way toward her.

But it did. Much more than it should have. It was like being kicked straight in the gut. She couldn’t breathe as everything slammed into her. And she deeply regretted hurting him in any way.

Her thoughts whirling, she tried to decide what to say or do. What it would take to win back the trust that she’d shattered. Strange how her own life didn’t matter to her anymore. Honestly, she couldn’t remember the last time it had. Since the night she’d killed Avin while he was trying to murder her, there had been nothing left of it anyway. Just one unending nightmare in hell.

Maybe that was the way it should be. Maybe it was what she deserved for being so blind and stupid.

“Answer me!”

She jumped at the ferocity of his demand. “I know you hate me, Hauk. You have every right to. And I know you’re going to protect what you love. It’s what I’ve learned to expect from you.” She pulled the knife from her sleeve sheath.

He stiffened, but didn’t move as she approached him with it.

She flipped it in her hand and held it toward him, hilt first. “Take it.”

He didn’t budge. “Why?”

“So that you know I’m telling you the truth. Kyr sent me here with orders to gain intel on you. To find something that would tie you to The Sentella and, more importantly, to the prison break on Brinear.”

His eyes snapping fire, he took the knife from her hand.

“I found what he wanted,” Sumi continued. “My first day here.” She brushed at the tear that fled down her cheek. “It’s in your pocket. I put it there when I kissed you so that I wouldn’t be tempted to ever use it against you.”

Hauk scowled at what she was telling him. Was it true? Did he dare believe a single word from her lying lips? “I don’t understand.”

She drew a ragged breath and the bitter pain in those hazel eyes made him ache for her. Though why he should feel such for an assassin who’d come to ruin him, he had no idea.

“My Kalea is all that matters to me. She doesn’t deserve to grow up as a League soldier, in their brutal custody. Or worse, be trained as an assassin. You promised me you would save her. And I know Andarions stand by their oaths. Please don’t back out on that, no matter your feelings toward me. I can face whatever Kyr does to me as punishment over failing this mission, so long as I know she’ll be safe. I don’t trust Kyr to keep his word and release her. I can’t afford to be that stupid. But I do trust you, Dancer. I do.”

Hauk narrowed his gaze as he heard the heart in her words. She definitely wasn’t lying now.

And he would never see her innocent daughter harmed, but he had to know what she was talking about. “What evidence?”

She reached into his pocket and pulled out his small PD. Turning it on, she flipped to an old photo of him with his best friends. “Anyone who’s seen footage of the five of you fighting in Sentella battlesuits can tell by this who makes up their High Command. You really should delete it.”

He double-checked to make sure the file hadn’t been copied or forwarded.

It hadn’t.

“I don’t understand.”

Her hazel green eyes glistened with unshed tears. “As I said, I can’t afford to trust Kyr. I know better. I’ve seen the cruelty he’s capable of. What he relishes doing to others. He has no honor or decency. No love of anyone. And I’m not really sure I can trust you, but between the two of you, you seem the more honorable. I know how important family is to you. That you respect it and your oath, above all. Even when you shouldn’t. Even when it’s harmful to you.” She swallowed hard. “Kill me if you must, if it’ll make you feel better about your family’s safety, but please save my little girl. She shouldn’t have to pay for my mistakes.”

Hauk wanted to hate her. He did. But for the first time, he understood Keris’s insane addiction to drugs. That need to have the one thing you knew was lethal to your entire being. To put your life on the line to have one second of pleasure.

Sumi was his addiction. And he was willing to die to possess her.

Growling in his throat, he knew he should kill her where she stood. It would be the smartest thing to do. Yet he respected any mother who would offer up her own life to protect her child.

Anyone who could be that altruistic wasn’t a monster. Like she said, Kyr wouldn’t hesitate to cut his own family’s throats if he thought it would advance his career.

Or make him feel better.

She still had a soul, and those damn tears weakened him even more as they fell unimpeded down her cheeks. They made him feel like an ass for accusing her and making her sad. So what if she’d done it?

For some insane reason, none of that mattered.

And she was terrified of him now. There was no missing the fear in those hazel eyes as she stood bravely in front of him. Toe-to-toe. Waiting for her death at his hands.

Before he could stop himself, he offered the knife back to her.

She refused to take it. “There’s something else you need to know about me.”

His gut tightened even more at her dire tone. This he couldn’t wait to hear. “What?”

“I’m Omira’s younger sister.”

His jaw went slack. Though to be honest, he’d suspected as much. Still, suspecting and hearing it confirmed were two vastly different things.

“Is that why you withheld your name when I asked?”

She nodded. “I knew you would hate me for it. And it’s why Kyr assigned this to me. He knew I hated your brother, and thought my presence might unnerve you enough that you’d make a mistake he could use against you.”

Now that he hadn’t suspected from her. No one hated Fain. Not really. Even when he beat someone’s ass, they eventually ended up liking him. “Why the hell would you hate my brother?”

“For what he did to my sister.”

His scowled at her. What Fain had done to Omira? Really? Was Sumi insane?

She had to be…

“What? Let the bitch live when he should have ripped her throat out?”

She shoved at him, but it didn’t budge him. And that pissed her off. “Don’t you dare insult my sister!”

He held his hands up in surrender as he continued to stare at her with total stupefaction. “You and I obviously have two very different sides of this story. What do you think happened to their marriage?”

“Omira freaked out when she learned she was pregnant, and left him. She couldn’t handle the fear of having a hybrid baby and being responsible for the hatred that would follow it all of its life.”

Before he could stop himself, he laughed out loud at the most ridiculous lie he’d ever heard concocted. “Is that what she told you?”

“Yes,” she said between clenched teeth.

He couldn’t believe what a lying whore Omira had been. It disgusted him that she would tell such a myth to her family. “Do you know what Fain’s wedding present was for your sister?”

She shook her head.

“He was sterilized.”

Sumi froze at the last thing she’d expected to come out of his mouth. No. It wasn’t possible. She couldn’t breathe as she heard those three little words that carried a heavy significance. “What?”

“Yeah,” Dancer said bitterly. “He knew going into the marriage how terrified she was of being pregnant by him. So, for her, he had a vasectomy before they ever slept together.”

Her head spun over this little nugget. Omira had never said a word about that to her. “Are you sure?”

“Positive. I was the one who went with him for the surgery and I did my best to talk him out of it. He refused. The last thing he wanted was to hurt her. In any way. He told me that he didn’t care about kids. That they could adopt later if she changed her mind.”

No, no, no. None of this made sense. Dancer was wrong. He had to be.

There was no way Fain was sterile.

“But she was pregnant when she returned.”

“Yeah,” he breathed. “She was. By a human Fain almost beat to death when he came home early and found them in his bed together.” Bitterness and hatred flared in his eyes. “Fain gave up his name. His family. His military rank and future. His fertility. And Omira paid him back by betraying him in a way no one should ever know.”

Sumi sat down hard on the cold ground as those words hit her harder than a physical blow. Over and over, she played the events of Omira’s return in her mind. Strangely, what Hauk said made sense.

Complete sense.

It explained why Omira had been so terrified. Why she’d locked herself in her room and had refused to come out for days. A month later, Omira had aborted the baby and told her that Fain had wanted the child while she didn’t. That he would kill her if he learned what she’d done.

That had made sense to her at the time. But not Omira’s continued fear after their divorce.

But this…

This answered a lot of questions Sumi had always had about it. And Dancer was right. It was a wonder Fain hadn’t hunted her down for what she’d done to him.

Sumi would have.

She covered her lips with her hand as the true horror and tragedy of it all racked her. “How could she do that to him?”

“You’re her sister. Ask her.”

She looked up at him as tears fell down her cheeks. “I can’t. She killed herself.”

Hauk froze as those ragged words left her throat. He winced for all of them. Sumi, Omira, and Fain, who would be devastated by this news. Even though Omira had ripped out Fain’s heart, he still loved her. Deeply. Still kept her ring and photo close at all times. He’d never gotten over her or her betrayal.

Before Hauk even realized what he was doing, he sank down and pulled Sumi into his arms. “I’m sorry, Sumi. I didn’t know.”

Sumi tried to hold back her sobs – as she’d done her whole life. But for some reason, they poured out of her and she couldn’t stop them. Clinging to Hauk, she let her fear and grief run from the darkest corners of her soul where she kept them tightly leashed.

“I have no one in this world, Dancer. No one. I’ve been alone for so long. Omira and Fain were the only family I ever had. Fain promised he wouldn’t leave me and he did. He never came back or called. He just left. And Omira was selfish, and a bitch at times. But she was all I had and she wasn’t supposed to leave me, either. What is so wrong with me that no one wants to stay with me?”

Hauk clenched his eyes tight as he hated himself for insulting her sister to her. He had no right.

Well, he did. But he regretted hurting Sumi more.

“Shh, kahrya mia,” he whispered while he rocked her. “You’re not alone. There’s nothing wrong with you.”

She shook her head in denial. “P-please just promise me that you’ll save my Kalea. I don’t want her to grow up alone, like I did. To become what I am. She deserves so much better than this life.”

He pressed his cheek against hers. “I swear on the blood of my ancestors that I will get her out of League custody and to a home where she’s loved.”

That made her cry even harder.

Shit. What did I do?

What was he supposed to do?

Andarion women didn’t cry. Ever. They cursed. They insulted. They clawed. They attacked. That was what he was used to – covering his crotch, and letting them have at it until they were spent.

But this…

He was completely at a loss as to how to deal with her tears. Worse was the pain they wrung inside him. He hurt for her. Literally. “Sumi, please. I don’t know what to do to make this better.”

She buried her hands in his hair and tightened her hold on him as she continued to sob as if the world was ending.

If that wasn’t uncomfortable enough, his body was well aware of the fact that he held an incredibly beautiful woman in a most intimate embrace. That her hair smelled as sweet as spring flowers and that her breath fell against his neck, raising chills all over him.

His breathing ragged, he felt a burning hunger the likes of which he’d never known before. Gods, it was excruciating.

You’re pledged.

Yeah, but that bitch didn’t want him. Even if Dariana stood by her promise to see their unification met – which he seriously doubted – she had no intention of ever sharing a bed with him. She’d told him as much. Don’t even look at me. You make my flesh crawl, you hideous freak!

And that had been one of his better encounters with Dariana. But Sumi didn’t look at him like he was disgusting. He saw nothing but warmth and kindness in her eyes. Acceptance.

The kind he’d dreamed of having his whole life.

This is not the time for this. The woman’s crying and upset.

But his body refused to listen. It was why Andarions didn’t touch each other. Why they didn’t dare. Because with that innocuous touch came a hunger so intense, it was hard to walk away from it.

Even when they knew they should.

Sumi looked up as she heard the change in Dancer’s breathing. As she felt him swelling against her hip. The fervent hunger in his eyes seared her and it ignited the part of her that was already falling in love with the last being she could be with.

But neither her body nor her heart paid attention to her brain. How could they? Yes, he could be aggravating and terrifying, yet he was always gentle and concerned. Caring. And he would die to protect what he loved. He wasn’t threatened by her abilities. He appreciated even her strange bossy quirks.

How could any woman not fall for such a male?

Wanting him with a desperation that bordered on madness, she lifted her lips to his and kissed him with all the emotions that were at war inside her.

He fisted his hands in her poncho as he pressed her tight to his chest and deepened their kiss. Heat poured through her. Unable to let him go, she slowly undid his shirt until she could touch that wealth of hard muscled flesh that was scarred by a past that made her own seem tepid.

Hauk gasped as he felt her warm hands on his skin. He shivered at the sensation of finally being touched by someone who wasn’t trying to hurt or kill him. And when she moved from his lips to his throat to lave his skin, he thought he’d lose complete control of himself and come immediately. His entire being simmered with heat.

Even better, she didn’t recoil in revulsion of his scars. Her lips didn’t curl from disgust. There was nothing in her eyes but desire and hunger. She didn’t see him as unworthy or lacking.

She saw him.

No female had ever given him such a gift. In her arms, he felt worthy and whole. There was no judgement. No bitter past that made her hate him. It was just the two of them.

And she wanted him.

Throwing his head back, he roared as unimaginable pleasure consumed him.

Sumi hesitated at a sound the likes of which she’d never heard before. It was a wild, primal cry that quickly reminded her he wasn’t human.

Something driven home when he looked at her and she realized his eyes were now completely red. The color of blood. More than that, they glowed in the darkness.

Was he still him or did Andarions morph into something else whenever they had sex?

“Dancer?”

He answered her with a tender, sweet kiss that belied the ferocity of that cry. Rising up on his knees, he held her against him with an ease that was even more terrifying than those glowing eyes. Yet his touch remained gentle. He left her lips so that he could nuzzle his face against the crook of her neck. Ever so tenderly, he scraped his fangs against her collarbone.

“Touch me, Sumi, please,” he whispered in ragged need before he ran his tongue over her ear.

She wasn’t sure what he meant until he led her hand to the bulge in his pants.

Hauk ground his teeth as she cupped and squeezed him in her tiny, delicate hand. All his life, he’d wondered what it would be like to have a female touch him intimately like this.

Now he finally knew.

It was sweeter than any dream he’d dared allow himself. Unlike his callused hand, hers was gentle and questing. It gave him nothing but bliss. And when she dipped her soft hand into his pants to touch his cock, he had to fight to hold himself back as he panted with desire for her. For a full minute, he couldn’t see straight as she boldly stroked him and made him even harder. His body was both hot and cold. Fevered and chilled. He’d never known anything like this before. Every part of him was alive and far more sensitive than normal.

It was similar to what he felt in a good fight, and yet so much more intense.

So much sweeter.

Sumi smiled at the look on his face as he watched her while she ran her hand from the tip of his cock down the length of it to cup him in her hand. “I think you like this.”

Biting his lip, he nodded bashfully. He lifted his head and pinned her with a needful stare that wrenched her heart. But not nearly as much as the next words out of his mouth. “Will you grant me the honor of touching you?”

It was only then she realized that he had yet to move his arms from around her body. She’d forgotten what Thia had told her about Andarions. That they had to be granted the right to touch their partners.

“I’m all yours, Dancer. I grant you full rights to my body.”

Still, he hesitated as if a part of him was afraid she’d change her mind. Smiling, she pulled her poncho off and opened her shirt for him. Then she took his hand in hers and led it to her breast.

Hauk swallowed at how incredibly soft her skin was. How flawless. Amazed, he skimmed his fingers over the paleness of her large, full breast until he brushed his hand against her taut nipple. His throat went instantly dry. Dying for a taste, he dipped his head hesitantly, waiting for her to stab him for it, or slap him.

But she didn’t. Instead, she cupped his cheeks in her gentle hands as he suckled the sweetness of her skin and breathed her scent in. Wanting to bathe in that precious scent, he nuzzled his face between her breasts while her hands played in his hair.

In the back of his mind was his common sense that told him he would pay for this with his life. But honestly, he didn’t care.

He would die anyway, from something, eventually. And he could think of no better reason for it than being with Sumi.

Just once, he wanted to lie with someone who didn’t look at him like he was a piece of shit. Someone whose touch was loving and sweet. Kind. Gentle.

If he had to die to have it, so be it. It was worth it.

No, she was worth it.

When he brushed his goatee over her nipple, she jumped and laughed.

“It tickles,” she said, smiling at him. She ran her fingers along the arch of his brow.

Closing his eyes, he savored her touch before he reclaimed her mouth for another kiss. Sumi nipped at his lips then she pulled back and stood in front of him. He wasn’t sure what to expect until she toed off her boots then slowly undid her pants.

He couldn’t breathe as she slid them down her legs, baring herself completely to him. She was even more beautiful than he’d imagined.

Every part of her.

Sumi smiled at the famished look on his face as he stared up at her. He still hadn’t moved. It was as if he feared doing anything to offend her.

Cupping his face, she straddled his legs and sat down on his lap. Then ever so slowly, she removed his shirt before she pressed herself flush to his chest.

He ran his hands down her back until he cupped her buttocks. His fingers dipped and probed, making her even hotter and wetter. Unable to stand it, she opened his pants wider and slid herself onto him.

Hauk shook all over as she sheathed him fully with her body, all the way to his hilt. Then ever so slowly, she began to ride him while she stared down into his eyes with a fevered passion that matched his own. He sucked his breath in sharply as the most unimaginable pleasure racked his entire being. All the times he’d tried to imagine this…

Yeah, he was an idiot. No wonder the guys had all laughed at him whenever he’d downplayed the pleasures of sex.

They were right. For this, he’d forgo anything.

Everything.

There was nothing he wouldn’t do for the mere touch of Sumi’s hand against his skin.

Even die.

Right then, she could ask him for the entire universe and he’d gladly give it to her. Damn it. He was hers and he knew it with every part of his being. She owned him. Completely.

And he would have it no other way.

Sumi couldn’t get over the color of Dancer’s eyes as he watched her make love to him. This was something her sister had never told her about Andarions. And it thrilled her that she was the first one who’d done this to Dancer.

No other female had ever touched this part of him. No one had made his eyes glow. And as she rode him, she noticed something else different about Andarion males. He was growing larger inside her.

“Dancer?”

He bit his lip before he answered. “It’s all right, Sumi. We do that.”

“Get bigger?”

He nodded. “I won’t hurt you.”

It definitely didn’t hurt. Rather, it was incredible. He lifted his hips and drove himself even deeper into her body as he quickened their strokes. Breathless, she cupped his face in her hands and kissed him.

In a white-hot blinding wave of pleasure, she came. Crying out, she panted as she reveled in the warmth of him inside her body and surrounding her.

Hauk watched as Sumi bit her lip and spasmed around him. A beautiful smile lit her entire face. She licked her lips and continued to ride him with the sweetest of rhythms.

Gods, it felt so good.

Relieved he’d pleased her, he finally let go and surrendered himself to his own release. He shook all over from the ferocity of it. Never had he felt the likes of this. It just didn’t compare to what he’d known on his own.

His jaw quivering, he laid his head between her lush, pale breasts. Weak and spent, he cradled her against him.

“That was incredible,” she breathed in his ear.

He smiled. “Yes, you were.”

Sumi watched as his eyes slowly faded back to their normal color. “Did you know your eyes glow red when you’re aroused?”

He pulled back with a frown – as if her words greatly concerned him. “What?”

She nodded. “They were as red as they could be the entire time you made love to me. Is that normal?”

“I guess… you broke me.”

She made a face at him. “I broke you?”

“Maybe?”

Sumi rolled her eyes at his uncertainty. “Do all Andarion males do that?”

He snorted at her question. “I don’t know. I’ve never slept with a male.”

She playfully tugged at his hair. “You know what I mean. Don’t Andarions talk about it? Have Andarion porn videos and such?”

Tracing the line of her lips, he shook his head. “We’re not human, Sumi. Sex is a very sacred thing for us. It’s a sharing of ourselves. Whenever you engage in it, you run the risk of combining bloodlines. We don’t undertake that lightly. Our ancestry defines us. Binds us. While there are Andarions who rut like animals, they’re scorned by the rest of us. And are usually blocked from unification.”

“And yet you slept with me. Why?”

He sighed heavily. “I don’t know.”

Offended to the core of her being, she gasped. “You don’t know? What do you mean, you don’t know?”

Hauk hissed as she rose up from him and practically tore the skin off the most delicate part of his body. “Ow!”

She broke off into a language he didn’t know as she yanked her clothes back on.

He reached to her. “Sumi…”

She jerked out of his reach. “Don’t you dare take that tone to me now! How dare you!”

Rising to his feet, he pulled her to a stop. “Don’t be angry at me. Do you not understand what I just did?”

She raked him with a scathing glare. “Yeah. You just acted like a typical man!”

“No, mia. To lie with you, I’ve condemned myself to death.”