Return of the Assassin (All the King's Men) (17 page)

Only she could say something like that to him and get away with it.

Feeling put in his place—and not liking how that felt one bit—Malek spun on his heel and marched past her. When she didn't immediately follow, he stopped, turned back, and said,
"Today, sweetheart." It pained him to talk to her that way, but treating her like shit was the only way he could maintain control.

She glared at him, and then issued Trevor a final glance. "I'll call you later.
Conan's
in a hurry."

"Be careful," Trevor said, reaching for her hand.

Before he could stop himself, Malek shot toward them, knocked Trevor's arm away, and shoved him backward as his mated male instincts overrode conscious thought. Conan indeed. "She'll be fine, asshole."

Gina huffed and glared at him, then spun and stalked down the hall.

Malek regarded Trevor then Sev, and then turned and followed her.

In front of him, Gina was a petite firecracker, her steps quick and strong. She was angry, and that was good. If she was angry, she would stay away from him, and the farther away she was, the better. Otherwise, he would claim her by morning.

* * *

Gina was a lit fuse with attitude. Admitting to God and everyone that she had been mated to Armand had boosted her confidence.
Hey world! I was mated to a bastard and lived to tell about it!
Damn. Talk about empowerment. Maybe she should have talked more openly about Armand before now.

Or perhaps it was her growing irritation with Malek that had her so fired up. The guy had her in knotted twists over whether he was coming or going. And lucky her. Now she was stuck with him. The crazy guy who claimed to be her mate but who seemed more likely to push her off the edge of a cliff and onto a bed of ten-foot razors. She sure had a way with the opposite sex, attracting what had to be the most undesirable males within the vampire race. Was this her lot in life? Was she to be the butt of every bad relationship joke known to man and vampires alike? Would she ever attract a
normal
male or forever be known as a jerk magnet?

"For God's sake, you're like a barbarian," she said. "I won't tolerate this shit from you." She tossed a look over her shoulder without slowing her gait. "You hear me?"

"Yeah, yeah. I hear you. Who can't?" He caught up to her, and they strode down the hall like pissed off assassins. They were both decked out in black, combat-ready gear. All they needed was Jason Statham and Sylvester Stallone, and they could be the cast for the next
Expendables
movie.

She ignored his verbal jab. "I've put up with enough shit from
males like you
, Malek. I won't have it, anymore. You don't have to like me, but you
will
respect me, or I'll lay your ass out. You got that? Don't think I won't. I—"

As she passed a heavy door on the right side of the hall, Malek latched onto her wrist and yanked her back around. "Slow down, Black Widow. You missed your turn."

She spun and flung his hand off her arm. "Don't touch me."

He opened the door and headed through. "No problem." The door began to hiss shut behind him.

She grabbed the handle and pushed the door open with such force it banged against the wall. Bastard. She glared at the back of his head before following him down a set of concrete stairs in a dimly lit stairwell. "And don't call me Black Widow." The door slammed shut behind her.

"Then don't call me Conan," he shot back.

"If the shoe fits!" She raced down the stairs behind him.

"Males like me, huh?" he said a moment later, referring back to her earlier comment.

"Yes,
males like you
."

His long, dark hair feathered off his face as he rounded the landing and took the next flight of stairs. "And what kind of male am I?"

She steamed after him. "An arrogant, barbaric asshole. One who thinks my only purpose in life is to take his shit and not fight back. Well, screw that. I've learned a thing or two over the years, and one thing I've learned is never to let a male like you make me feel like nothing. I'm not nothing, Malek." She slapped her palm on her chest to emphasize her point. "And I'll never allow you or anyone else make me feel like I am."

"I never said you were." He reached the bottom of the stairs, yanked open another door, and stormed out of the stairwell as if rushing to get away from her.

"You don't have to. Your actions speak for you, asshole."

He marched through the parking garage, barreling down an aisle of SUVs used by the AKM personnel. "What do you want from me, Gina? Huh? You want me to say I'm sorry? You want me to buy you flowers and treat you like you're something special? Huh? Is that it?" He wouldn't even look at her, keeping his gaze averted even as he tossed a glance over his shoulder at her.

"Eat me, Malek."

He bristled. "You would do well to stay out of my way, Gina, if you know what's good for you. Just stay out of my way or you'll get hurt."

Was he trying to scare her? If only he knew. After Armand, she was immune to being scared. Sure, because of Armand, she had lived in fear of mating again, but not because she was scared of males. Not at all. She was afraid of losing herself, of becoming just somebody's mate and no longer Gina. Of becoming a big, fat nobody.

"You don't scare me, Malek," she said, staying with him stride for stride. "I've been there, done that. I've lived in fear and have been through the hell that went with it. Be scared of you? After what I've been through? Please." She scoffed as Malek's steps became more labored and his hands clenched into fists. "You're nothing compared to what I've been through. I've been treated like nothing…abused…tortured…" When had tears sprouted in her eyes? She tried to blink them away as she glanced down at his fists. "So go ahead and hit me. It's nothing I haven't been through before. I mean, hell…my first mate's idea of intimacy was closer to rape than making love."

Malek whirled around and grabbed her arms. "I am not him. I would never…I couldn't…" He stared at her, and confusion marred his features. "I would treat you like a…" He trailed off with a frown, as if he didn't know what he was saying or couldn't believe he was saying it.

"Like a what?" She was at once curious and wary, but anger still surged like fire in her veins. "Like a whore?" She arched one eyebrow. "A toy to play with whenever you feel the urge?"

He scowled and exhaled sharply as if she had punched him in the gut. "No. Why would you think something like that?"

"Experience," she said with a flippant sneer. "You are my mate, after all. Right? And from the looks of it, you'll be just like my first mate. All
heart.
" She practically spat the bite of sarcasm at him. "Maybe I should—"

Before she could finish her thought, Malek pushed her against a concrete column. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down as if he struggled to hold back a torrent of pain, emotion, and obscenities. Ominous shadows darkened his eyes, which glistened with what appeared to be tears of his own, and he winced as his gaze met hers.

"I am…not…your mate." Every word strained out of his throat as if he fought himself not to say them. "Why…would you think that?"

Was he serious?

"Just stop! Stop playing games with me. It's cruel." She pushed against his hold, but he pressed her back, not letting her go.

"What are you talking about?" He frowned and gasped, and his nostrils flared as if from exertion.

"You mated me. Stop denying it."

"No…I…no…" He looked confused and guilty, as if he'd hoped no one would notice that the cat was already out of the bag.

"I heard you, Malek!" she screamed at him. Her frustration finally found an outlet. "In my cell! You thought I was asleep, but I was awake! AWAKE!" She tried to shove him back again, but he held fast. "You told me you mated me! Damn you!" She swung a fist at his arm but couldn't connect with the hold he had on her.

His brow furrowed and made the shadows around his eyes grow even darker as he looked down. "No…I…" His voice sounded small, tormented.

"Yes! Damn you! Yes, I heard you!" She broke down in earnest, trying hard not to cry, but unable to stop the shudder of a restrained sob that quaked her shoulders. There was so much pain…so much emotion to wade through.

Time stretched, and Malek kept his head bowed, his body tight. What was wrong with him? Why was he acting this way and denying the truth? Why wouldn't he say anything?

She glanced up at the blinking fluorescent light overhead, begging for her tears to stop. The situation was humiliating enough without her crying like a sissy girl.

Malek's voice was so quiet when he finally spoke that she almost couldn't hear him. "You weren't supposed to hear." His hold loosened, but now she was too spent to break away.

"Well, I did." She brought her gaze back down from the ceiling and wiped her fingers across her cheeks as she sniffed.

He took a pained step back and lifted his gaze to hers. Raw emotion roiled in the brown depths of his eyes with such ferocity it took her breath away. Something had shifted inside him in the last few seconds. He began to take another backward step, but as his breath hitched, he changed direction and surged forward, wrapped one arm around her waist, and pulled her to him.

"Oh God, what have I done? What have I done?" He buried his face against her shoulder.

Against every instinct that urged her to refuse him, she sank into the warmth of his body and breathed deeply for the first time in what felt like weeks. Without full awareness of her reaction to him, she slid her arms around his back and held on as if she would die without him. He was life. Her life. And every thread of her existence reached to bind her to him. It was as if a door had opened and she was being pulled through into his arms, unable to resist.

What was happening to her?

And why did she suddenly need Malek so damn much?

* * *

Malek choked back his emotion.

Somewhere between Micah's office and the thick concrete column he held Gina against, Malek's reserve had broken. Just that quickly, Gina had skinned him, cleaned him, and thrown him on the grill, making short work of all that remained of his denial that she was his mate.

In a blink, she had disarmed him. Only a mate held such power over a male.

Had it been Gina's ruthless verbal assault all the way down the stairs that had finally broken through his walls? Or the mention of her former mate and what he had done to her, which sparked Malek's need to protect her? Had it been her confession that she had heard his proclamation in her cell weeks ago? Or was it the simple truth that she was, in fact, his mate? And, as such, she had tremendous power over him?

How about all of the above?

What torment had she suffered at the hands of that half-Dacian bastard she had been mated to before? What had he done to her? And how had she survived? He pulled back, and his gaze ranged her face. Such beauty, such fire. She stole his breath, and he swayed from her heady scent. He would treat her like a queen. His queen. And he would revere and bow to her command every day, tend to her needs, care for her, and protect her with his life if he had to.

What was happening to him? He couldn't move, couldn't breathe. In her bewitching way, Gina drew him in. She was a blossom, and he was the honeybee eager for her nectar.

But what he had said that day in her cell was still true. He wasn't worthy of her. She deserved more than he could give. As much as he wanted to be her everything, he knew he couldn't.

His resolve waned. He could no longer deny how much he wanted Gina, but he still couldn't have her. It would be unfair to claim her when he still clung to a ghost. Carmen still held him in the past. Carmen still possessed half his heart, which meant he couldn't give all of himself to Gina. And she deserved all of him, not merely a part.

Sacrifice replaced anger. Compassion replaced aggression. Gina had already suffered enough pain at the hands of another, and all Malek could offer her was more of the same. With his heart in two places, he would always pull her to him then push her away, just as he had done from the moment he saw her in Micah's office. She would be a Ping-Pong ball. Back and forth, back and forth. He would constantly fight himself to reconcile the two halves of his heart into one, and that wasn't fair to her. To try and make a life with her under such circumstances—to cheat her out of a full life with someone else who could give her his
whole
heart and not just half—would be selfish. Not only that, it was degrading and disrespectful to her.

What was happening between them could never be. He simply couldn't let her into his heart. Not because he no longer wanted to. Because, damn him, he did. But how do you let someone into your heart when half of it still lies with another?

In a blink, the reality slammed him with a pain more brutal than what he'd suffered so far, because this pain came with clarity of mind, body, and soul. He would always cause Gina pain. It was inevitable. Even if he claimed her as his mate, he would always hurt her. Why? Because a part of him—the part still attached to Carmen—would always drive Gina away.