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After agreeing to attend one of Tristan’s fights, she retreated to her bedroom in Gabriel’s house to dress. Things between her and Gabriel were a bit tense.

They’d had such a happy companionship in her last life, until she’d run off to heal Tristan like a love-sick puppy and returned to Gabriel with flashing eyes.

He hadn’t been mad at her, but he’d been disappointed. And maybe even a little heart-broken. So in this new life of hers, she didn’t know what to think about Gabriel. Especially with Tristan being as standoffish as he was.

She dressed herself—she was becoming rather good at the whole corset thing—and made her way back downstairs where Nate and Gabriel waited to take her to Tristan’s fight.

Her stomach filled with butterflies. And not the pretty kind.

**************

“Alex,” Tristan shut the door behind them so it was just she and him in the small back room of the fighting hall. “I need a favor.”

She turned to him, eagerness in her eyes. “A favor for Tristan? Yes, please.”

“Cut it out. I’m being serious.”

“You are always serious.” She pouted her lips.

Tristan turned to leave. This was a mistake.

“No, no. I’m just kidding.” Alex reached for his arm and turned him back around, desperation in her voice. “I will behave. I promise. What is it you need?”

He sighed. “I need a woman.”

A hungry look came over her face. “Then consider me yours. Shall I undress right here?”

His jaw flexed. “Could you, for one moment, cease to be obvious? I do not need your body, Alex. I need your assistance.”

“That sounds like the same thing.”

Tristan glared at her.

“Fine.” Her sex-laced voice disappeared. “What do you need?”

“I need you to put on a convincing show of your affections for me in front of a particular person.”

She narrowed her eyes. “A person? Or a girl?”

“A girl.”

“Ah.” Alex smiled. “This would be the girl that has your heart all to herself, no?”

Tristan didn’t answer.

“I will be happy to fawn over you,” Alex said. “And who knows? You might even enjoy it.” She winked.

He clenched his jaw at the thought of breaking Scarlet’s heart.

“I will hate every second of it,” he said, sinking deeper into his self-loathing as he explained to Alex what he wanted her to do.

***************

Scarlet watched the fight and the butterflies in her stomach grew uglier.

While she understood there was something liberating about fighting—she had invested good time and money into learning to fight—she hated every fist that crashed into Tristan’s body and drew blood from his torn skin.

Her eyes skimmed him over, lingering on his bare chest. At the sight of his tattoo—his piece of Scarlet forever inked into his skin—the butterflies in her belly fluttered wildly. The tattoo was very faded and Scarlet figured immortal bodies could only hold a tattoo for so long before healing it away. She wondered how long it would be before her drawing disappeared completely from Tristan’s body.

Gabriel and Nate sat on either side of her. Apparently, not many women came to these fights and Gabriel was being extra protective of her. She reached for Gabriel’s hand and held it with her own, squeezing it gently. He turned and smiled at her as the bell rang to signal the end of the last fight.

Thank God. She didn’t think she could handle watching more of Tristan’s blood spill.

She watched Tristan, covered in sweat and blood, walk to the outer ring to where a short man with a cigar was making broad hand gestures and visibly spitting as he spoke.

Tristan turned around, as if he were looking for someone, and soon his eyes landed on his target.

A beautiful redhead stood off to the side, watching the ring from the contestant’s area as if she were an organizer of some sort. The redhead saw Tristan and desire lit up her eyes.

Scarlet had been watching women react to Tristan for centuries, so the women’s interest in the green-eyed fighter was not surprising. Tristan’s reaction to her, however, was shocking.

He smiled and the redhead came up to him without any hesitation, slowly wrapping her sexually sculpted body around Tristan’s hard muscles and tight skin.

Scarlet blinked.

Tristan did not refuse the woman, but embraced her back, his mouth coming down to the woman’s neck as he murmured something below her ear while the woman ran her hands up his back and into his hair.

That was Scarlet’s Hunter. That was hair only Scarlet could run her hands through. Those were green eyes only Scarlet could look at with such lust and want.

Scarlet’s heart began to pound as she watched in horror as the woman turned her outrageously beautiful head to the side and caught Tristan’s mouth in a kiss. An intimate, wet kiss that spoke volumes of how very comfortable the two of them were with each other and Scarlet stopped breathing.

Beside her, a muttered curse fell from Gabriel’s’ mouth and Scarlet tried to get control of her emotions. Every single piece of her wanted to jump from her seat, charge over to the woman whose hands were laced around Tristan, and rip her lips from her face.

Gabriel’s mouth was suddenly at Scarlet’s ear. “Let’s go.”

Scarlet blinked again and realized she’d been squeezing the blood from Gabriel’s hand as she watched the exchange between Tristan and the redhead.

“Why would we leave?” Her voice cracked.

Gabriel looked at Scarlet with a pained expression, searching her eyes for the truth. “Scarlet…” He looked her over like he wasn’t sure what to do with her.

“Why would we leave?” she repeated, feeling hot tears behind her eyes.

Gabriel stroked a strand of hair from her cheek and she could tell he was trying to come up with something to say.

“Why would we…” Scarlet tried to finish her repeated question, but a tear fell from her eye and her throat closed off.

Gabriel cursed again and, rising from his seat, gathered Scarlet up beside him and shuffled her through the crowd and to the back door, Nate right behind them.

Everything was blurry and hot and suffocating as Scarlet blindly let Gabriel usher her outside and into the carriage that awaited them. No one said a word as the three of them rode in silence back to Gabriel’s home.

Scarlet bit the inside of her cheek, dug her nails into her arms, curled her toes…anything she could think of to keep her tears at bay. But soon the pressure was just too much and she no longer wanted to fight.

She had lost Tristan.

Scarlet began to openly cry. Because, before this night, there had never been a doubt in her mind that Tristan loved her. But now….