Page 58 of A Touch of Crimson
“You shouldn’t have left,” he said with the arrogance she was beginning to adore. “That said, it’s best that you did. Something’s come up. It’ll be a day or two before I can get to you. Elijah will join you until then. Don’t ditch him again.”
Even across the cellular waves and despite his steady tone, which gave nothing away, she knew he was troubled. She could feel it. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”
“I’m…” His voice trailed off. “No. I’m not okay.”
Her spine straightened. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m not in a place where it would be safe to discuss it.” He exhaled audibly. “I wish I could speak freely. There are things I want to get off my chest that only you would understand.”
“Adrian.” She leaned forward, prepared to tell the driver to turn around. “I’ll come back if you need me.”
“Always,” he said, so simply, as if it wasn’t deeply profound that a being of his power was reliant on her for anything. “But not now. You’ll be safest at Angels’ Point.”
“Actually…” Lindsay found herself hesitating to put the necessary distance between them. It didn’t seem like the time—not while he needed her. But she couldn’t lie to him or hold off the inevitable, either. Whatever it was they had between them, it was based on revealing sides of themselves they exposed to no one else. “I’m on my way to the Belladonna. I’m going to stay there until I can find a place of my own. You said I’d be safe with Gadara.”
There was a short pause. “Keep Elijah with you at all times. Stay in the hotel as much as possible and don’t hunt.”
“I won’t. I know we need to discuss the logistics first.” She’d need his help to take down the vamps who had killed her mother. As reckless as she could be at times, she didn’t have a death wish, and she didn’t want to inadvertently endanger Adrian by crossing a line or breaking a rule she wasn’t aware of.
“When you left Vegas, were you leaving me as well?”
Her stomach tightened. “I felt like I had to. I…want you. If it were just sexual, I’d be okay. But the more I’m with you, the more I like you. I’m not as good at fighting those kinds of feelings. I can’t say no to you, and we both need me to.”
The silence stretched out this time. Long enough that Lindsay feared she’d lost him. “Adrian?”
“I’m here. You just…surprised me. Your decision to leave in order to protect me is unexpected.”
“I’m not worth falling over,” she muttered. “I promise you that.”
“I disagree.” Although his tone didn’t alter, she sensed a change in him. “I like you, too, Lindsay. You fascinate me. For someone of my years, that’s a rare gift. I intended to let you go if you agreed to stop hunting. But I’ve changed my mind. We’ll pick this up when I get back and reach a compromise.”
Lindsay’s brow arched. Adrian compromising on anything wasn’t something she pictured easily. He always seemed to end up getting what he wanted. He was a favored son, this warrior angel with his bloodstained wings. And he captivated her completely.
“I have to thank you,” she said, “for calling my dad. He would’ve worried himself sick.”
“It was my pleasure.”
“It means a lot to me that you thought of it.”
“I can’t help but think of you,” he said in a low, intimate tone. “I haven’t been able to stop since we met.”
God…she felt the same way. They were in such deep shit with each other. “Whatever you have to do, please be careful.”
“Don’t worry, neshama. Nothing can stop me from finishing what we started today.”
“Are you ever going to tell me what you’re calling me?”
“Ask me again,” he purred, “the next time I’m inside you.”
Shivering against a sudden flare of sexual heat, Lindsay said a hasty goodbye and ended the call.
She knew she’d done the right thing by leaving, but that didn’t stop her from regretting it. Especially now that she knew he needed her with him to listen and offer support.
Damn it…she had to get a grip and think, but her lungs were constricted by a ferocious pressure to return to him. Although her mind knew the most reasonable and selfless course was to stay away, a driving need inside her demanded she go back and take him. Claim him. Make him irrevocably hers. The rapacious urge was so intense that it frightened her.
She’d never had trouble holding to her decisions, but with Adrian, it felt like she was battling with herself…with a high risk of losing. He was a glorious being, proud and dangerously beautiful. His sole purpose was hunting the very creatures she hated and wished dead. If she destroyed him, if she derailed the work he did—which was so important to her—she’d destroy herself. But knowing the consequences didn’t seem to quiet the furiously whispering devil on her shoulder.
Committing to her decision took more willpower than should’ve been needed.
