Lover Awakened (Black Dagger Brotherhood #3)(74)

The temptation to submit to him was strong. But then she pictured herself never being allowed out of the house again. Which was something he was damn well capable of doing to her.

“Will you rescind the sehclusion request?”

“We’ll talk about it when you’re sleeping in your own bed again.”

Bella gripped the phone. “That means no, doesn’t it?” There was a pause. “Hello? Rehvenge?”

“I just want you home.”

“Yes or no, Rehv. Tell me now.”

“Our mother can’t live through something like this again.”

“And you think I can?” she shot back. “Excuse me, but mahmen wasn’t the one who ended up with a lesser’s name carved into her stomach!”

The instant the words left her mouth, she cursed. Yeah, that kind of happy little detail was really going to bring him around. Way to negotiate.

“Rehvenge—”

His voice went utterly cold. “I want you home.”

“I’ve just been in captivity, I’m not volunteering for jail.”

“And just what are you going to do about it?”

“Keep pushing me around and you’ll find out.”

She ended the call and slammed the cordless unit down on the bedside table. Goddamn him!

On a crazy impulse, she grabbed the receiver and spun around, ready to hurl it across the room.

“Zsadist!” She fumbled with the phone, catching it, holding it against her chest.

Standing silently next to the door, Zsadist was wearing running shorts and no shirt…and for some absurd reason she noticed that he didn’t have shoes on either.

“Throw it if you want,” he said.

“No. I…ah…no.” She turned away and put the thing back on its little stand, taking two tries to get it in right.

Before she faced Zsadist again, she thought of him crouched over that lesser, beating it to death…. But then she remembered him bringing her things from her house…and taking her there…and letting her have his vein though he’d cracked wide-open at the invasion. As she pivoted around toward him, she was tangled in the net of him, caught between the kindness and the cruelty.

He broke the silence. “I don’t want you running half-cocked into the night because of what your brother’s up to. And don’t tell me that isn’t what you’re thinking.”

Damn, he was smart. “But you know what he wants to do to me.”

“Yeah.”

“And by law the Brotherhood will have to give me up, so I can’t stay here. You think I like the only option I’ve got?”

Except where would she go?

“What’s so bad about heading home?”

She glared at him. “Yeah, I really want to be treated like an incompetent, like a child, like…an object my brother owns. That works for me. Totally.”

Zsadist ran a hand over his skull trim. The movement flexed his biceps so they squeezed up thick. “Makes sense to get families under one roof. It’s a dangerous time for civilians.”

Oh, man… The last thing she needed right now was him agreeing with her brother.

“Dangerous time for lessers, too,” she muttered. “Going by what you did to that one tonight.”

Zsadist’s eyes narrowed. “If you want me to apologize for that, I won’t.”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” she snapped. “You don’t apologize for anything.”

He shook his head slowly. “You want to pick a fight with someone, you’re talking to the wrong male, Bella. I won’t go there with you.”

“Why not? You excel at being pissed off.”

The silence that followed made her want to scream at him. She was going after his anger, something he gave freely to all comers, and she couldn’t figure out why the hell he was showing self-control when it came to her.

He cocked an eyebrow, as if he knew what she was thinking.

“Ah, hell,” she breathed. “I’m just needling you, aren’t I? Sorry.”

He shrugged. “Rock and a hard place makes anyone crazy. Don’t sweat it.”

She sat down on the bed. The idea of running off alone was ludicrous, but she refused to live under Rehvenge’s control.

“You got any suggestions?” she asked softly. When she raised her eyes, Zsadist was looking at the floor.

He was so self-contained leaning back against the wall like that. With his long, lean body, he looked like a flesh-colored crack in the plaster, a fissure that had opened up in the very structure of the room.

“Give me five minutes,” he said. He walked out, still shirtless.

Bella let herself fall back on the mattress, thinking that five minutes wasn’t going to help the situation. What she needed was a different brother waiting for her at home.

Dear, sweet Scribe Virgin… Getting away from the lessers should have made things better. Instead, her life still seemed totally out of her control.

Granted, she could pick her own shampoo now, though.

She lifted her head. Through the bathroom door she saw the shower and imagined herself standing under a rush of hot water. That would be good. Relaxing. Refreshing. Plus she could cry out her frustration without embarrassment there.

She got up, went into the bath, and cranked on the water. The sound of the rush hitting the marble was soothing, and so was the warm spray as she got under it. She didn’t end up crying. Just hung her head and let the water run down her body.