“Why were you sent to face him?” she at last demanded. “Surely there were others more capable?”
His pride was ridiculously pricked by her abrupt question. Did she feel as if he had somehow failed her?
“More capable?”
“I presume that vampires can be as different from one another as humans are. There must have been another who would not have been so reluctant to face Tristan.”
He frowned at her perception, for the first time actually pondering the reason he had been called before the Great Council. It was true that there were those who would have been quite anxious to punish the renegades. Some far more talented in the arts of battle than he.
“I do not know,” he slowly confessed. “At the time I was told I had been chosen I presumed that it was because I was intelligent and always logical. Now ...”
“What is it?”
A niggling unease settled in the pit of his stomach. He knew that he must be overlooking something. Some vague sense that there was more to this than he could put his finger upon.
“It does not make sense,” he muttered in annoyance for his uncommon stupidity. “As you say, there were others that surely would have been far more capable of facing Tristan.”
Her expression abruptly melted as she gazed deep into his eyes. “Whatever the reason, I owe them a debt of gratitude. I would not have desired anyone but you to protect me.”
Gideon readily allowed himself to be distracted, and slipping the dagger beneath his coat he firmly returned his arms about her delicious form.
“No one else will ever be allowed to protect you. You belong to me.”
She arched her brows at his deliberately arrogant tone. “Belong?”
He breathed in her warm scent. “Can you not feel it deep within you?”
Her eyes briefly closed before they opened to regard him with shimmering love.
“Yes.”
Gideon gave a low groan as he pressed his lips to her forehead. The last three days had been the longest in his life as he waited for her to come to him. He’d wanted so desperately to force his way into her home where he could prove to her that his emotions were no different than any other gentleman’s. And that he would devote his life to making her happy.
Only the knowledge that he might very well force her even farther from him had kept him away.
“I thought I had driven you away when I confessed the truth.”
“It was difficult to accept,” she admitted.
“Yes, I know.”
She heaved a faint sigh. “I wanted to convince myself that you were mad and that my feelings for you had been those for a gentleman who did not exist.”
“But you came to me tonight.”
“I realized that there was no one else that I could trust,” she said simply.
He pulled back to study her pale features. It was past time for honesty between the two of them.
“Because of your secrets?” he demanded gently.
“In part. I thought ...” She gave a wry smile. “Rather, I hoped that you would not turn from me in disgust when you learned my true identity.”
He gave an impatient click of his tongue, still amazed that she would think for a moment that he could care about such a trivial matter.
“I would never turn from you,” he assured her. “Certainly not because your mother was not of noble blood. Such things mean nothing to me.”
Her eyes darkened with sudden emotion. “That is only a measure of why I came to you tonight.”
“Tell me why, Simone,” he urged.
“Because I could no longer deny that I had fallen in love with you.”
Sweet, heated pleasure rushed through Gideon as he allowed her words to sink deep within him. He never thought to feel this way, nor to depend upon another to bring him such happiness.
“Oh, my sweet, you fill my heart with joy,” he groaned softly.
Shifting awkwardly on the hard floor to place her arms around his neck she offered him a wry smile.
“I can think of more comfortable surroundings to continue this conversation.”
Gideon gave a rueful chuckle. He had been so enwrapped in Simone he had nearly forgotten the dreadful brewery.
“True enough.” Rising to his feet he carefully helped her to stand, assuring himself that she was not still suffering from her ordeal before slipping her arm through his own and leading her toward the door. Watching her carefully he did not miss her grimace as they moved through the flickering shadows. “What is it?” he demanded in concern.
“That horrible smell.”
