Unforgiven (The Forbidden Bond 2) (23 page)

“I will,” she whispered.

“Over my dead and rotting corpse, Stevens!” Griffin interjected.

“That can be arranged,” Reilly snarled. Tessa had never seen this aggressive side of him. It was sexy as hell.

“Are you challenging me?” Griffin’s tone sounded as if he relished the chance to fight.

“If that’s what it takes to get you away from my girl.”

“Your girl?” Griffin roared.

“That’s right. She’s my girl. She hasn’t been your mate for years. You left her to die, twice. Now she belongs to a man who will give her what she needs.” He smirked at Griffin. “
Everything
she needs.”

In a couple of long strides Griffin was in Reilly’s face, but Reilly didn’t budge.

“If you every touch her again…”

“What will you do? Will you sneak into my home and impersonate me? Will you force yourself on a woman that has repeatedly denied you?” Reilly hissed coolly, disgust dripping from every word.

“She is my mate! Mine! I love her!” Griffin was losing his shit big time.

Reilly remained calm in the face of this snarling madman.

“You don’t love her enough to be with her. You never did,” Reilly looked Tessa in the eye while she struggling into a pair of pants.

“You don’t love her as much as I do, Griffin.”

Oh shit!

Tessa tried to get around Griffin and get between them, but it was too late. The two men flew at each other.

****

Brandi shuffled around Greyson’s kitchen silently hunting up the ingredients for vinaigrette to go with the salad she had just finished preparing for their lunch. Every once in a while she would catch Greyson eyeing her suspiciously from the stove where he was expertly cooking them both a steak that could feed a small village. As usual, she would eat about a quarter of her steak and he would polish it off for her. Brandi knew he wondered about her lack of conversation but really, what else was there for her to say? She had spent the last two days in his home trying to talk to him about his life, trying to figure out what made him the man he was to no avail.

Greyson was about to head out on another mission down south. That was the only detail she could get out of him. He would only say they had a situation down south that required the rather forceful influence of his Wrath team. She tried to accept his assurance that it was a confidential matter he wasn’t permitted to discuss, but she knew there was more to it than that. She had become friends with several women on the Enclave and they always knew where their men were going and had vague details of their missions. Brandi was always surprised at how much Karrie knew about the comings and goings of her father who was a Wrath leader and her two older brothers who were both Wrath guards, like Greyson.

Greyson refused to talk to her about anything to do with his work or his past. She knew that he came from an Enclave in California, but she didn’t know where he was born or anything about his family. She knew he had gone to medical school and had become a trauma surgeon, serving in Vietnam, only because of the work he did on her after she had been shot. He hadn’t even told her that tidbit. Greyson had confided it to her father, who relayed it to her in passing conversation. Griffin had a great respect for Greyson, partly because he had saved Brandi’s life and partly because he had volunteered to use his knowledge in service of others. Greyson continued to use the combat skills he had learned in the U.S. military, and since then as a warrior, to serve his people. Brandi suspected that was the only reason her father accepted her relationship with a man so much older than herself.

Brandi assumedthat the fifty-three year age difference between them was the source of most of the problem. Greyson was either trying to protect her from the ugliness of life or he just didn’t think a person her age could relate to the life he had lived. It really was unfair considering Greyson worked side by side with men who weren’t more than five to ten years her senior. She had to find a way to break through the barrier Greyson had built between them. What she really needed was to find a way to erase Derek from her memory. When she and Derek were together they talked. He shared things with her Brandi was sure he had never told another living soul. He made her feel trusted and wanted for more than just her body. The fact that she had this secret from Greyson was eating at her and she wondered what secrets Greyson was keeping from her. Who was he confiding in, if not her?

Every time she tried to have serious conversion with Greyson, he would distract her with sex. They had a relationship of convenience in her opinion. They were nothing but available, warm bodies, ready to use each other for sex, but never really letting the other get too close.

“If you don’t want a real relationship, tell me now.” Brandi heard herself say through the fog of her thoughts. She paced to the other end of the kitchen.

Her plan had been to spend the day, before he left for God only knew how long, trying to get closer to Greyson. They needed to bond on more than a physical level, but he wouldn’t give an inch. Just like always Greyson held himself away from her. It did nothing but reinforce her belief that he saw her as nothing more than a kid, good for nothing but a piece of ass. Greyson froze and turned to look at her in confusion.

“Where exactly did that come from, Pixie?”

“It came from your give-a-shit attitude. You have no interest in my life and refuse to tell me anything about yours. It comes from the feeling that our “relationship” is nothing more than a sexual outlet for a man who’s too busy to put any effort into a relationship with someone he really wants to be with!” Brandi began her unrehearsed and completely unthinking speech calmly and ended it yelling like a fish-wife.

While Brandi was screeching at him, Greyson seemed to be growing. He put his tongs down and turned off the flame under his pan. He turned and took a few aggressive steps toward her before he stopped. Greyson stood with his legs spread in a defensive stance, his arms crossed over his broad chest and his normally jewel green eyes glistened an obsidian black. He was pissed. Brandi was sure he had actually gotten bigger and she could well imagine the fear he must inspire in the enemies of the vampire nation. But she refused to back down or say anything to placate him. They would have this out today, before he left town again.

“I’m not a child in need of your protection, Grey. I’m a woman in need of a relationship built on a foundation sturdier than just sexual attraction.”

The breath froze in Brandi’s lungs while she waited for Greyson to reply. She cared deeply for him but it wasn’t enough. It certainly hadn’t been enough to keep Derek from taking up residence in an unknown corner of her heart. A corner that seemed to be reserved for people who could get her killed or worse, disowned from the family she loved. They may be crazy but they were her family and she loved them all. Grey needed to help her pull Derek out of that corner and banish him... She needed him to give her just a fraction of himself. The fact that she had learned more about Derek, the real Derek, not the guy he pretended to be in order to protect his mother, in the few times he had stolen her away from the world, than she had learned about Greyson in the months they had spent together, was a bruise on her heart. If Greyson wouldn’t let her love him, if he wouldn’t love her back, they were doomed. It was over before it could start.

Finally Greyson came to life, crossing the room to stand over her. They faced off like enemies but all she wanted was to wrap her arms around his waist and hold him, clinging to his strength until he understood how badly she wanted to be with him.

“I treat you like child when you behave like one, Brandi.”

Greyson spoke in a calm tone that belied the tension in his body and the black of his angry eyes. The fact that he had called her Brandi instead of Pixie or Nymph was also telling. Brandi felt as if Greyson had slapped her with his harsh statement. He thought she acted like a child?

“It’s just like a child to expect to be given what you aren’t willing to return. Our relationship is purely sexual because that’s the only time you’re ever honest with me.”

“I have never lied…” She was outraged. Greyson cut her off.

“Haven’t you though? I have no idea who you are, Brandi. The only time I ever get a glimpse of the strong woman lurking behind the insecure mask you wear every day is when we are making love.” Greyson looked deeply into her eyes, trying to find the woman he spoke of hiding there. Brandi tried to talk over him but he shushed her.

“You said your piece without meinterrupting. Now you will act like an adult and listen to me,” he snapped.

Brandi sputtered for a moment before swallowing her protest.

“You want me to confide all my deep, dark secrets? You want to know how I came to be the man standing before you. I’m sorry but I can’t give that much trust to a woman who hasn’t earned it, a woman who doesn’t trust me enough to let me see who she really is inside.” Greyson turned and strode a few paces away from her before returning to pluck at the strap of her designer tank top. It had cost more than one should spend on an entire outfit including the shoes.

“You think I don’t know this is a costume?” He looked down at the bejeweled peep-toe pumps that adorned her perfectly pedicured feet. The bubblegum pink polish on her toes stared back up at her in accusation.

“I spent quite a bit of time in your home when I was caring for you. I saw the pictures in the family room and in your father’s office. I saw all the trophies you won for every sport imaginable. I read the diplomas and awards of honor and excellence hanging on the walls.” Greyson paused to touch her cheek and once again search her eyes. Brandi was stunned to silence. She couldn’t have argued with him if she had wanted to.

“That is the woman I was looking forward to getting know. I haven’t seen her since the day you left your sick bed. Do you think I haven’t heard people talk about how much you’ve changed? Your old friends wonder why you’ve forsaken them and your new friends are glad you finally stepped out into society because trying to be friends with your sister was too much damn work. Everyone wants to be associated with the mighty House of Vaughn, even if it is only through the lowly imitation of the legend that is Samantha Vaughn.” He shook his head as if ashamed of her.

“You see, people don’t mind talking in front of me because they believe I’m just another warrior there to protect the best and brightest. Why else would you lower yourself to being in my presence? But you never really made it known to your society circle that we are together did you, Brandi?” Greyson spoke quietly.

Brandi’s eyes burned with unshed tears. Greyson’s words, bouncing around in her head, continued to sting her. She had believed that people really liked New Brandi. She had believed that she had finally stepped out of Sam’s shadow. Greyson must have seen the pain in her posture and continually blinking eyes. She was trying to hold back the tide. His eyes had bled back to a beautiful emerald. He looked sad, disheartened. He seemed to deflate and his tone became gentle and pleading.

“I haven’t shared myself with you because we haven’t even been introduced yet. I’ve been waiting for you, hoping that one day soon you would trust me enough to let me in. I know you’re in there somewhere, hiding from the world but I don’t know why. I need you to uphold your end of this relationship because I refuse to carry it for both of us. Until you grow up and learn to love yourself, to not be a slave to what you think others expect of you, I can’t give you more than we have now. I need a woman who wants to be my equal partner, not a debutant, not a girl that plays dress-up every day of her life.” Greyson held her by the shoulders. His eyes beseeched Brandi to see the truth of his words, to understand his point of view, and she did.

Brandi just stared up at him. All this time she had believed he was holding back because he didn’t want anything serious with one so young. In actuality, it hadn’t been her age but her own false behavior that had held him away from her. She needed time to think, time to regroup. The piteous expression on Greyson’s face was more than she could handle. She refused to stand before him and cry like the little girl he accused her of being. Without another word Brandi turned to leave, picking up her purse on the way to the door.

“Don’t go, Pixie. Please stay and we can work this out like adults,” Greyson called to her.

It was another slap. He thought she was running like a frightened child. Maybe she was.

THIRTEEN

“That unfaithful bastard!” Sarah fumed.

 Did Griffin really think all of his recent mental construction would shield his infidelity? He could build all the walls he liked but nothing would hide his uncontrolled lust for that filthy home wrecking human slut! Sarah refused to sleep with him until he purged his unfortunate and embarrassing past from their lives, but that did not give him permission to go elsewhere. It was a punishment Griffin needed to suffer through in order to teach him to make the right decisions, but it didn’t seem to affect him at all.

It made her sick knowing she had birthed the children of a male that had lain down with humans before her. Apparently, very recently before her, given the closeness of his children’s ages. She had known when they bonded he didn’t want her, nor did she want him. Being the male of the species he was allowed to wander the streets and live as he wished. He had lived and hunted and screwed to his heart’s content while she was hidden away from the world waiting for him to decide he’d sewn enough wild oats. She was home schooled and was only allow to feed on the donors her family provided because she was being preserved for the future Councilmen, the only son of the mighty Lloyd and Adele Vaughn. Sarah had been raised from birth to be his perfect mate.

By the time Griffin finally came to claim her, Sarah was twenty-two and she hated him. But that was all supposed to change after the bonding. They would bond and all would be right in the world. He would forget all the other women before her and she would forgive him for dragging his feet. It hadn’t worked out that way. Their bond had always been shaky at best, but they got along and the resentment did fade. He took excellent care of her and always made her feel loved, but it wasn’t enough. There was always a shadow in the back of his mind, a place she couldn’t reach that he guarded and somehow cherished.