Addict (Hunter #2)(37)

I wasn’t going to be able to lie to the king this time. I stared up at the man I’d been engaged to and wondered if we would be on opposite sides in the coming war.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said under his breath. A servant approached. “I’m going to need a privacy room. Which one is available?”

The servant pulled out a set of keys and handed one to the lieutenant. Gray dismissed him and pulled me along. I supposed this was the part of the evening when he yelled at me. It was a recurring theme with the men in my life. I seriously needed some more girlfriends.

Gray slammed the door shut and immediately put a finger to his mouth. He let his eyes move around the room to let me know we were being listened to and potentially watched. “Get undressed, sweetheart.”

I stared at him, my eyes wide. I wasn’t willing to f*ck him to cover up my presence here. I might be stupid, but I wasn’t throwing away everything I had with Marcus so Gray could look good on camera.

Gray’s mouth firmed stubbornly. He never did like to have his authority questioned. “We’ll take a shower before we start.”

He wanted to talk where we couldn’t be heard. I frowned and gave him a no-funny-business look as I unhooked my bra. Gray’s eyes were dark as he shrugged out of his shirt. The tattoo on his chest had been added to. The dragon seemed longer than it had a couple of months ago.

I happily got out of the shoes and was immediately reminded of how big Gray was. He towered over me. Marcus was a comfortable four or five inches taller than me. We were evenly matched when I wore heels. Gray had a foot on me and at least a hundred pounds. I always felt delicate and feminine around him. I averted my eyes as he got out of his pants and tossed them on the bed.

“Get out of the clothes, Kelsey,” Gray whispered directly into my ear. “They’re watching. They have eyes and ears everywhere, but they won’t be able to hear us in the shower. I promise it’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”

Gray walked into the bathroom, leaving me with a view of his spectacular backside. I reluctantly pushed the thong off. It hadn’t been all that good at covering me up, anyway. I rolled the thigh highs down and followed Gray into the bathroom.

Nudity doesn’t bother me. Not at all. Marcus would say it’s the wolf part of me. If Gray Sloane had been anyone else, I wouldn’t have the insane urge to cover up. My body was what it was—a tool to be used. Except it had been a way to express something with Sloane. For the first time in my life, I’d made love with a man and it had been beautiful and meaningful. We’d learned each other through kisses and touches, long nights spent wrapped in each other’s arms. He’d played my body like a finely tuned instrument.

Gray was already in the huge shower when I walked in. I watched his big body as he stood under the spray. Every inch of the man was muscled, from his broad shoulders to his strong legs. His back was to me, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t know I was there. His hand moved to his side, to the tattoo that now covered most of the left half of his torso. His head was down, as though he dreaded the coming conversation as much as I did.

“Does it still bug you? That dragon, I mean?” I opened the stall door and walked inside. He turned those nearly purple eyes on me, and I saw the wealth of pain there.

He frowned and his voice was way quieter than mine had been. “I haven’t felt it since the last time I saw you. It hasn’t moved. It hasn’t heated my skin. It’s been dead on me until the minute you walked into the door tonight. Now, it’s practically vibrating.”

I lowered my voice, following his lead. “It’s grown.”

“It does that sometimes. I don’t know exactly why. It grew, but I didn’t feel it. Well, not moving. I did feel something from it. It was overwhelming at times.”

“What does a tattoo feel, Gray?”

His stare nearly bore through me. “Loneliness. It was lonely without you, and now it’s trying to peel off my skin to get to you. Why did you come back?”

“My training in Italy was done.” I shivered because he was taking up all the hot water. I couldn’t help but stare at him. Grayson Sloane was a thing of beauty. “The king agreed to three months alone with Marcus, and then we had to come back.”

“Is it true?”

“Which part?” I had to ask because there were a lot of things about my new life that Gray wouldn’t like.

“Are you the Nex Apparatus?” The question ground out of his mouth like it was hard for him to even say the words.

I nodded slightly. He grimaced before slapping his hand against the marbled wall. I waited to see if he was going to put a fist through it. Things had a way of getting destroyed when Gray got angry.

“I should have taken you,” Gray swore. “I should have picked you up and shot my way out.”

“I wouldn’t have gone with you.” I wasn’t sure that I was telling him the truth. I had been pretty desperate that day. Even knowing how he’d lied to me, I might have followed him.

“Of course not. I’m so sorry, Kelsey. I wish you weren’t mixed up in all this. I thought Vorenus would protect you. I thought he would keep you out of this. It’s the only reason I was able to walk away. It seems to me he simply took what he wanted without considering what was best for you.”

“He didn’t have a choice.” I defended my lover. “Donovan wasn’t going to let me lounge around Europe. Marcus cares about me. He’s doing his best with what he’s got.”