After this, I’m going to trim my long hair, do my toes, and eat something fattening. I’ve already downed two protein drinks. Not enough to fill the void inside me. For that, I need ice cream and cookies. I need a good cry. I need time to heal. Most of all, I need sleep. I need to gather my strength to face what’s happened to my life.
I step out of the shower to find Gabrio leaning against the inside of the bathroom door.
“Shit! You scared me.” I snap a towel from the rack to cover my naked body. I know he saw a good portion of me earlier, but that doesn’t mean he gets a free look whenever he likes.
“That was not my intent.”
“Okay. But you did. Why are you in here?”
“You did not enjoy it.” His nostrils flare.
“What?”
“You did not enjoy our fucking.” He sounds agitated.
Seriously? This is what’s on his mind? I just gave myself to him. I just married his king. I watched my ex-boyfriend die in the most gruesome kind of way. I witnessed my first love threaten to eat me after crawling around inside my body. He also declared he would never stop protecting me.
“The last thing on my mind is an orgasm, so don’t worry about it.” I swipe another towel from the rack and wrap it around my wet hair.
“But it is something I cannot allow.”
I look up, trying not to laugh. “You? You cannot allow me to go without an orgasm?”
“I agreed to consummate for Alwar. Do you think he would bed you and leave you like that? It is worse than the No One fate.”
I blink. “If you’re trying to tell me that you failed him and your duty because I didn’t come, then that’s between you and him. I’m done. I did my part.” I reach for the door handle, but Gabrio stops me, gripping my wrist.
“I am asking you for this one favor, Lake. I will die soon, and this is not how I intended to end three hundred years of life.”
Wow with the guilt trip, buddy. “Gabrio, come on. I’m telling you I don’t care. Okay? It’s fine. Really. I dated Dave for two years, and it wasn’t exactly perfect.” He probably only made me come a handful of times. And why am I thinking about this right now? Poor Dave hasn’t even been dead one hour.
“Thus he deserved his fate. I buried him, by the way. Under a very nice large tree with split branches and letters carved into the trunk.”
Dammit, no. That was my favorite tree. It’s a big one that I climbed a hundred times as a child. “I appreciate you taking care of him. It was very nice of you. And don’t take that as an insult. We’re here in my world. Thank yous are allowed.”
“What would you like to do with his blue wagon? I assume you do not want his people coming to look for it—could start a war with his kingdom.”
Gabrio has no idea how much Dave would’ve appreciated being spoken about like that. Like someone an entire kingdom would fight over.
“I know a place to hide his car. I’ll do it tomorrow. After I sleep.” There’s a gully off Old Rebel Road. Over the years, lots of people have driven off the cliff, and they don’t bother retrieving the cars. Too dangerous. Too steep.
“I will sleep with you. I will correct my mistake.”
He’s out of his mind. His beautiful, one-track mind. “No. Absolutely not.”
I reach for the door handle, but again he doesn’t move out of my way.
“Gabrio, please? I just want to eat, lie down, and try to forget this nightmare. Even if it’s for a handful of hours.”
“There. You see. It was a nightmare. I cannot have this,” he says as if it’s not up for debate.
“I was talking about all the other stuff—being taken by the Blood King. Allowing him to almost kill me. Losing Bard. Watching Dave die. It’s too much.” Especially on top of losing Grandma Rain a few months ago. Forget about all the lying and deceit, discovering that my mother died fighting someone in the Blood Battle, or that my dad died trying to stop her. Then there’s the fact I discovered an entire world of monsters at our doorstep, just waiting to come for us.
Gabrio stares, and I hate that I know what it means. It’s the same way Bard used to look at me when he wanted to say something but held back.
“What?” I snap.
“I have never been with a woman like you, Lake. So brave. So beautiful,” he says softly and strokes my bare arm. “You deserve to be shown respect. In and outside the bed. It shames me that I failed at one of those. Let me take my time with you.”