Rhianna shook herhead. “You look so pissed off and angry. You think ofClaire as yours and yet you let her walk away. I know your reasoning. You thinkyou’re doing some macho man thing, keeping her safe. You’re not. You’re hurtingher and yourself.”
“She doesn’t loveme,” he said.
“Then you’re afool and an idiot, which seems to be the going rate for men these days.” Sheshrugged. “Oh, well, I guess my time here is done.”
He watched herwalk away.
“Oh, and,Gabriel,” she said.
He turned to lookat her. “I will encourage her to find someone else. What you did was an asshole move.”
His sister lefthim alone.
What he’d done wasthe right thing. Claire wasn’t fit to be part of his world. She made him weakand he couldn’t allow himself to be weak. Lucas was just the first one. He hadno doubt men had already seen how he felt about her. Her life was probablyalready in danger.
“Fuck!” He threwhis glass of whiskey across the hall, watching it smash and cascade down inrivulets. He could handle this.
Claire wasn’t his.
Rhianna had letthe beast out of the box. He couldn’t stop thinking about another man touchingher, wanting her. She was a beautiful woman with an amazing laugh. A kind heart. Everything about her was the opposite of him.
He thought abouther with the glass in her hair and the way she snuggled up against him when shelet her guard down. How scared she was of horror movies and always hid behindthe pillow just so Rhianna could watch them.
This woman had beenpart of his life for a long fucking time, and hehadn’t seen it before, but he did now. “Fuck.”
He sat down on hissofa and pulled out his cell phone. As he clicked on his pictures, a couplewere there. Some were of Claire pulling faces at him, but there were a few shedidn’t know about. The ones he’d taken after he’d fuckedher into oblivion and she’d fallen asleep in his arms.
He’d wanted tosavor the moment. There were no tits or compromising images, just sweet ones.The way her hand was placed over his heart, holding him.
Did she even realizeshe held his heart in the palm of her hand?
Last night, he’dhated himself for what he’d done, but he’d done it to protect her. People weregoing to come after him. He lived on danger and the fear of death. Being king,it was what made him, him.
There was nobacking out once you lived in this role. He turned his cell phone off andstared across the room, thinking about her. Once he gave it time, she wouldcome to mean nothing to him.
He rubbed at histemples, hoping the headache would dissipate soon. Claire had gotten under hisskin, and the real truth was he didn’t want her to leave, not ever.
****
Two weeks later
Time was supposedto heal all wounds.
For Claire, shewas finding that love was one of those pesky wounds no one told her about andhow impossible it was to stop the pain. She kept on going. Living day by day.
She went to work.There was a car always available for her to go to work, and she was drivenback. The guy who’d been tailing her was one of Gabriel’s men. She’d been ableto avoid Rhianna for the past two weeks, making excuses about the apartment,her work, being tired, but tonight, she had decided to just allow her friendover.
“This is a niceplace,” Rhianna said, entering.
“Don’t sound sosurprised.”
“You got yourthings out of storage?”
“Yeah, it was allin my name, so it wasn’t too hard to do. You don’t mind, do you?”
“You look likeyou’ve lost weight.”
“I will take thatlittle observation as a compliment.”
“You can affordfood, right?”
“Rhianna, you’re mybest friend, but that doesn’t mean I can’t slap you.”
“I know. I know,but look, I mean, come on.” Rhianna grabbed her hands. “Have you been missingmy brother?”
She shook herhead. “Nope.” The lie fell easy from her lips. A lot of things were easy to donow. “I told you, I’ve been busy.” She’d been crying every single night. It waskind of nice her broken heart and ice cream addiction actually made her looklike she lost weight. “We’re not supposed to be talking about him, remember?This is for us. We’re going to have some drinks.”
Rhianna shook herhead. “We’re not.”
“We’re not?”
“Nope. We’re goingout to party.”
Claire groaned andshook her head. “No. This is my first night off in two weeks. I want to watch amovie, and not a soppy romance one either. One of your horror ones, hopefullywhere the guy’s penis gets chopped off, and then we’re going to drink lots ofwine.”
“Are youpregnant?”
“What? No. Iwouldn’t drink wine.”
“Well, I say we’regoing out. I have a feeling you’re moping and that just won’t do. I won’taccept it.” Her friend started to pull her along even as she begged to be leftalone. Again, her friend wasn’t taking no for an answer. “I’ve got the perfectdress.”
“And I bet youeven know where to go?”
“I do. Come on.It’ll be fun. If you don’t have any fun, I promise you for the next ten nightsoff you have, I will be there and we will watch all of the horror movies in theworld.”
“You promise?”
“Yes. I promise.”
“Fine. Fine.” Shegot to her feet. “I’ll go and change.”
“Don’t even thinkabout it. You’ve got to give this a real chance, you know that, right? Or ourdeal is off the table.”
She groaned. “Youand your brother with all of your deals. I hate you.”
“I know, and youlove me.” Rhianna kissed her cheek. “We’re going to be just fine.” Her friendforced her into the bedroom and she sat on the bed as Rhianna came back holdingtwo garments in zipped-up protective wrapping.
She frowned. “Youalready planned us going out. It wouldn’t have mattered how I looked.”
“You’re my bestfriend. You’ve been avoiding me. It’s now my duty to take care of you and thatis exactly what I’m going to do.”
Rhianna kept onstaring at her. “This one.” She threw the other to the floor.
She unzipped itand Claire groaned.
