Each night, she’d sit with Reaper around the fire he’d built, or in a hotel room, wherever they stayed, depending on what they did. Rarely did they enjoy a quiet night in front of the television. She didn’t know what was worse. Sitting near the fire while he was laughing and joking with his friends, or sitting together watching movies.
Of course, she never went to him for sex or for anything. There was no reason to. She heard the women they brought back with them.
One night, she heard a lot of laughing and partying after she had gone to bed. Reaper had yet to return and as she pulled back the curtain to look outside, she saw the men having sex with the woman.
The woman in question was loving it. She was smiling, riding one man, as she worked two others with her hands.
She looked, trying to catch sight of Reaper but not seeing him.
Where could he be?
She … didn’t like waiting around for him to come to bed, especially if he’d been drinking. It often made her worried he’d attack her, like some men could do.
She wasn’t going to think of Preacher because he didn’t attack her, not really. He’d been drunk that first time they were together.
Shaking the doubt from her mind, she sat down on the edge of the bed. The knot in her stomach tightened even more. She couldn’t handle the thought of not knowing where he was, and so, she quickly pulled up a pair of jeans and a shirt. She left her hotel room and looked out toward the crowd. No one paid her any special attention.
Ignoring them, she quickly walked around toward the back of the hotel.
This hotel didn’t have a lot of clientele and so the owner had given them the reins of the place. Reaper had paid him a great deal of money to leave for the next couple of days. She wouldn’t give herself the luxury of thinking they were sticking around for longer than that.
Tucking her hair behind her ear, she saw Reaper sitting beside an empty pool. The owner had said they didn’t fill it because it cost too much to keep clean.
What made her pause wasn’t that Reaper on his own, but he was alone, with a book. A small light was perched on the table beside him, and she saw he’d pulled it from one of the hotel rooms with an extension cord.
She smiled.
“You do realize you could have run and no one would have been the wiser until morning,” Reaper said, startling her. He hadn’t even looked up.
“How did you know it was me?”
“I’ve got a sixth sense for these kinds of things.” He pressed down the corner page of the book, and she winced.
“You could get a bookmark.”
“Bookmarks fall out.”
“Yeah, well, that’s not exactly a good way of treating a book.”
“Are we really going to talk about how I treat a book to know where I last read, or are we going to talk about why you’re standing here talking to me and not running?” he asked.
“I don’t want to talk about any of that.”
“Right,” he said. He put the book down, leaning back in his sun lounger and watching at her. He looked so calm and relaxed.
“How come you’re not enjoying the party?” she asked. “All of the guys are, and the women.”
Reaper smiled. “Do I detect a hint of jealousy?”
“Why would I be jealous? I’ve got nothing to be jealous about.” She gritted her teeth, hating how she sounded.
Was she lying?
Even to herself?
Was she jealous?
It made no sense.
What did she have to be jealous about?
Reaper breathed in. “I don’t know. You’re a smart woman, Robin. I’ll let you figure it out.”
“You’re talking in riddles, and you’re doing it on purpose. Stop it.”
His smile widened. “You want me to be blunt, I can be blunt. You have the perfect opportunity to run. You know from past experiences, I don’t hurt you, not anymore. I simply bring you back and chain you up until you know the score. Tonight, you had the opportunity to run. I even gave you a chance to. Instead, my men are partying. Fucking that woman from one orgasm into another. She’s probably lapping up the attention and is loving having each of those men. You come here. You come to find me, and you can’t even accept the reason why.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. She went to turn away from him and to go back to the hotel room.
“You were jealous because you thought I was enjoying her.”
She heard the lounger move and she turned to look at him. He’d gotten to his feet, and her heart started to race as he advanced toward her.
“You thought because I’m no longer taking you, against your will, I’ll add that little detail so you don’t feel so bad. You thought I’d be with this woman.”