Without Regret (Pyte/Sentinel 2)

“Tell me where you are. I can help,” Logan said, sounding desperate, which shouldn’t be a surprise since most of his clients were pretty desperate if they had to call him, but this was different. This was Logan.

“Are you going to tell me what you need her for?”

“No.”

“Then I can’t help you. I’ll get back to you as soon as I have more information,” Kale said, ending the call just as Logan started to make promises they both knew Kale would never allow him to keep.

“Why the hell did I take this job?” he wondered as he caught a scent he hadn’t smelled in centuries. One that caused a growl to break free as he searched for the source and when he found it he had to struggle for the first time in centuries not to shift as he watched the little boy with short black hair and a ready smile cross the street in front of him as he held onto an elderly woman’s hand.

When the little boy waved to him and thanked him for letting him cross it took everything Kale had not to jump out of the car and rip the little boy’s throat out.

Chapter 23

“What did you just call me?”

“What part did you have a problem with? Being called a human or a whore?” Chris asked, knowing he was being an ass**le, but he really didn’t give a flying f**k at the moment.

He saw the punch coming a mile away and easily caught it before it made contact with his jaw. “You’re weak,” he said with open disgust as he shoved her hand away.

“And you’re a hypocrite,” she snapped, stunning him.

“How exactly am I a hypocrite?” he demanded.

“That kiss,” she practically hissed.

“What about it?” he said, wishing that he could stop thinking about it, but he couldn’t. The longer he stayed near her the more he wanted to take her into his arms and do it again and that disgusted him. He didn’t want a weak woman, never mind a woman like his mother.

“I’ve been kissed before,” she announced, making his hands clench into fists, “and I know the difference between a man who’s never kissed a woman before and one that’s been around the block a time or two and I know I wasn’t the first woman you’ve kissed.”

“So?” he asked, frowning.

“So?” she asked with an incredulous snort. “Where exactly do you get off kissing other women if you’re married?”

He glared at her as he answered. “I didn’t know about you when I kissed anyone and I haven’t touched another woman since I found out about you.”

“And exactly how many women were there before you found out about me?”

“What does that have to do with anything?” he asked, leaning back from her as she gave him that same damn look that Jill used when she thought she was right about something. It was actually kind of creepy.

“I don’t know, Mr. Double Standards, what do you think it has to do with?” she asked in a mocking tone that he didn’t appreciate one damn bit.

“You want to know how many woman I’ve been with?”

he asked, getting back in her face.

“Yes,” she said, trying to sound firm, but failing miserably. It pleased him that she didn’t want to hear about any of the women in his past anymore than he wanted to hear about the men.

“I lost count, but there were plenty.”

“And did you do more than kiss them?” she demanded, getting right in his face.

When he hesitated, she pounced. “So it’s okay for you to have sex with other women, but I can’t have sex with another man?” she asked on a snort of disgust.

“I didn’t have sex with any of them!”

“Why not?”

“For the same reason you shouldn’t have let some other guy f**k you, Sentinels can’t get sexually excited for anyone but their mates. You knew you didn’t want them, but you still f**ked them.”

She glared up at him as her bottom lip quivered. “I slept with them because it was my choice, Chris, My choice,” she stressed. “I don’t give a damn if you think you own me or what this little mark,” she said, gesturing to her navel, “means, but let me tell you what it doesn’t mean,” she said, shoving him away from her and he let her.

“-it doesn’t mean that you get to tell me what to do. It doesn’t mean you can treat me like a whore because I allowed two men I was in relationships with and cared about deeply touch me. Frankly, it’s none of your business. I’m not yours and you certainly aren’t mine. I don’t like you and I damn well don’t want you so you can back the hell off now, or better yet,” she said, reaching into the back seat and grabbed her backpack, “you can stay the hell out of my life.”

With that little announcement that pissed him off more than he ever thought possible, she climbed out of the car and slammed the door in his face. But she didn’t get far.

He was out of the car and had her pinned against it before she could storm off to god only knows where. He yanked her bag out of her hands and tossed it onto the roof of the car.

“Get the hell away from me, Chris,” she snapped, shoving against his chest, but he wasn’t going anywhere. Not until he cleared a few things up for her.

“You seem to be a little confused, Munchkin, so allow me to explain a few things to you,” he said, leaning down until they were practically nose to nose.

She tried to shove him back again, but he barely noticed. At the moment he was having a hell of a time not putting his fists through the window. He didn’t know what pissed him off more, knowing she’d been with two men or that she’d cared about them when she obviously didn’t like him.

For years he dreamed about her, thought about her and craved her by his side and to hear that she not only didn’t like him, but didn’t want him, pissed him off like nothing else. It seemed as though she liked every man but him. He knew it shouldn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, especially since he didn’t plan on keeping her, but it did. Call it male pride or jealousy, he didn’t care.

“First off, your ass belongs to me, Munchkin,” he said, punctuating his words by snaking a hand behind her and squeezed and caressed her ass, loving the way she felt, but loving that little gasp of pleasure that she tried to hide more.

“No, it doesn’t,” she said, trying to move away from his hand, but between his body and the car there was nowhere to go.

“Oh, but we both know that it does,” he whispered as he pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose. “Deep down, Munchkin, you know that you’re mine, don’t you?”