Tall, Dark & Heartless (Pyte/Sentinel #3)(101)

Once was more than enough.

"No, you wouldn't have!" she snapped, moving to shove him away, but he refused to move. "You made it clear that I didn't mean anything to you when you walked away from me, Caine, so why the hell would I go to you?"

"Didn't care?" he repeated in hoarse voice. "I never stopped caring about you, Danni. As hard I tried I couldn't."

"Then why did you leave me all alone?" she cried out, her eyes watering with fresh tears and she didn't care. Let him see her as weak. She didn't give a damn, because after this she was walking away and he could go f-

"Because if I didn't I would have killed you, Danni," he said, momentarily stunning her into silence. She couldn't even work her mouth enough to ask him to clear that little announcement up and she desperately wanted to know why.

"Your blood, Danni," he said simply as he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I couldn't ignore it any longer, sweetheart. I had to shove you away or-"

"Risk draining me," she finished for him, her voice hollow as she registered what he was saying. It didn't take her long to figure it out thanks to her upbringing. "How long?"

Thankfully he understood what she meant. "Since the moment you walked into the hallway and started bossing me around," he said, chuckling softly as he pressed another kiss against her forehead. "It got worse as you aged until it became too much to ignore."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, wondering how close he'd come. Probably very close if he had to push her away, she realized. Then a thought occurred to her. "You pushed me away because you cared about me?" she asked, trying not to get her hopes up.

"God, yes," he said, kissing her temple.

All these years she thought he hated her, grew bored with her when in reality he was only trying to protect her. It was sweet, really.

He let out a strangled shout of pain as she stomped down on his instep. "You bastard!" she snapped, shoving him down and when he moved to get up she slammed her foot down on his chest and shoved him back down.

"I could have protected myself!" she snapped, barely resisting the urge to kick him in the ass. "I didn't need you to play the martyr. If you had just told me, we could have figured out something together. You didn't need to break my heart, you jerk!"

"How exactly would you have done that, huh?" he asked as he grabbed her by the ankle and gave it a good pull and a slight twist that had her releasing another one of those embarrassing squeaks as she lost her balance and fell down. Thankfully, Caine caught her and quickly positioned her to straddle his stomach.

A piece of sheet separated them, but she could still feel heat radiating off of him and welcomed it. It was a chilly summer morning and this damn sheet wasn't doing much to keep her warm. Then again, the anger surging through her body was doing a pretty good job of boiling her blood.

"How were you going to handle a Pyte in full bloodlust? Pushing you away was the only way to keep you safe, Danni," he snapped as he sat up and wrapped his arms around her, keeping her right where she was when all she wanted to do was push him back to the ground and walk away, because god help her, but the man was-

Right.

She'd still been a kid when he shoved her away and there was no way she would have been able to handle him. If he wanted to kill her, he would have been able to and nothing and no one would have been able to stop him. Well, that wasn't entirely true. Someone could have shot him in the head or heart, but she would have probably been dead by the time they managed to get off a few rounds.

"Why didn't the Council punish me?" she asked, needing a change of topic before she completely lost it.

"It doesn't matter," he whispered as he pulled her against him, but she wasn't having it. There was something else that he wasn't telling her and she wanted to know what that something was.

She released her hold on the sheet so that she could reach up and cup his face. "Tell me, Caine."

For a moment he just stared into her eyes and she was afraid that she was going to have to kick his ass to get her answer when he looked away, clenching his jaw tightly before he sighed heavily and looked back at her.

"I took care of it."

"Took care of it.....," she repeated back slowly, wondering how exactly he took care of an order for execution.

"I took a punishment and a warning," he admitted with a shrug like it was no big deal, but she wasn't buying it. The council rarely changed their minds about something as serious as executing a human.

"What did they do to you?" she asked him.

When he didn't answer her, she leaned forward and brushed her lips against his. "Please tell me what they did, Caine."

"There's no point, Danni. Just let it go," he said against her lips.

"No," she said stubbornly as she pulled back. "I want to know what happened, Caine, and I want to know about this warning they gave you and why no one approached me."

"It's cold out here and they'll be returning soon. We should go inside," he said, moving to shift her off his lap so that he could stand up, but she wasn't having it. He was going to answer her damn questions or freeze his balls off, it was his choice.

She wrapped her legs around his waist and held on tightly knowing that it would be impossible for him to get up with her like this. "You're not-hey!"