“I expect a little trust here, Coya,” he said darkly.
Anya snorted at that. “Get her out of my bedroom.”
Her fists were clenched, her teeth ground together.
“The next time you need to meet with someone, find a room other than my bedroom if you don’t mind.”
“Jealous?” Sofia gave a soft, tinkling little laugh. “Really, Del-Rey, don’t tell me you’re still sleeping with her?”
“Enough,” Del-Rey snapped, his expression growing forbidding. “I apologize for this, Anya.”
“Get out!” She jerked her door open and glared at Sofia. “Now!”
“Oh dear.” Sofia blinked back at her as Ashley growled behind her. “Del-Rey, perhaps I should leave. We can talk later.”
“I think I have everything I need,” Del-Rey snapped. “Ashley, take Sofia down the east tunnel.
She has an escort waiting there. And be nice.”
“I’m always nice, Alpha.” Ashley’s smile was all teeth. “Come along, Ms. Ivanova, I know the way. Boy, whoever did your hair sure messed up. Bad dye job?”
Sofia’s lips tightened at Ashley’s “dumb blonde” routine. Anya didn’t even bother to warn her or Del-Rey that Ashley was going to make sure Sofia suffered before she left the tunnel. Even if it was only with words.
Watching the bodyguard warily, Sofia edged around the room and out the door, leaving Del-Rey and Anya alone.
“Your arms were around her.” Anya closed the door. “Doesn’t hurt to have another woman touch you, huh?”
“Just like a thousand needles slamming into my flesh,” he bit out. “Dammit, Anya, you know I wouldn’t touch her willingly.”
“What about before?” She stared back at him furiously. “She was an informant within the Council. She was part of your network even before I came to you, wasn’t she?”
She watched his jaw bunch. “Yes.”
“You already knew about the facility, and you still waited?”
“Sofia wasn’t in a position to do anything but get information out to me. We couldn’t have breached it without your help.”
“Too bad for me.” She smiled tightly.
God, that bitch had been right, she was jealous. So jealous it was eating her inside. She wanted to push him into a shower and wash the touch of that woman from his flesh.
“Because you really wouldn’t give a damn if I were fucking someone else, would you, Anya?”
“Should I?” she retorted. “Yeah, it was really pleasurable. Mounted, fucked and knotted, then left to figure out what the hell was going on by myself. I’m really anxious to repeat the experience.
Can’t you tell?”
Del-Rey stilled.
He couldn’t believe the words that came from her lips. She had refused to discuss that single night they had been together. She hadn’t spoken to him afterward. In the intervening months she’d only spoken when she had no other choice.
He could feel a curl of shame in his gut.
“It’s not always like that.” He stared at her, feeling the lash to his pride as it seemed to shrivel beneath her withering glare.
It would bounce back easily enough. Del-Rey had immeasurable pride and he knew it. Simply because he knew himself.
“It would never be like that again, Anya.” He would damned well make sure of it. “Do you think that was enough for me? That it was anything close to what I needed?”
She smirked. “Well, you were the one that flipped me on my stomach and decided on the position. Have you learned something since then?”
He snarled silently. “Mate, you’re pushing my temper.”
“Oh come on, Del-Rey.” Dampness glittered in her eyes. “Tell me, those years Sofia was helping you, did you ever fuck her?”
He wasn’t going to lie to her. He couldn’t lie to her, not about this. Something unimportant, something that got him what he knew they both wanted, that was different. Harmless. This wouldn’t be harmless.
“Briefly.”
Her chin lifted and he could smell the tears that sparkled in her eyes. “Did you spend more than a few thrusts and grunts with her? Or was I just the anomaly?”
“Anya.”
“Answer me, Del-Rey.” Her voice was calm, though it throbbed with pain. “Come on, Coyote Man. Tell me. Did you spend hours with her or minutes?”
“What I did to you was unconscionable,” he stated heavily. “And I regret it, Anya, with every fiber of my being.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.” Her lips trembled before she firmed them quickly. “Hours or minutes, Del-Rey?”
“Hours.”
She was breathing roughly. Pain emanated from her with a scent that was mixed with more than just pride.
“Well, can’t call you a liar now, can I?”
“Anya.” He shook his head. “I would give my life to go back and make that night what it should have been. I lost control, and when it was over, I had no idea how to deal with it, or what I felt coming from you. The mating heat cheated us, together. I tried to explain that to you afterward, after we arrived here. It would never be that way again.”
She stared at him accusingly. “I was a virgin.”
“I know that, baby.” He ached with that knowledge. Ached with a fire and a fury he couldn’t quell, hadn’t quelled since the moment he realized what he had done.
“Leave me alone.”
Anya knew she was going to cry. She had never imagined Del-Rey had slept with a woman she could possibly know, let alone spent hours pleasuring her body. Touching her. Stroking her.
“Anya, we need to talk about this.” He pushed his fingers through his mussed hair. “Ignoring it isn’t going to work. I won’t let you go.”
She shuddered at the sound of his voice, part growl, part rasp of anger.
“You should have cared!” she cried. “You should have cared enough to at least hold me when you finished. You left me, Del-Rey. Cold and alone, and suffering that damned heat as though something were inside my body tearing it apart. You couldn’t even hold me.”
Oh God, don’t let her cry. Don’t let him see how bad this hurt her.
“You fucking bastard!” Her fists clenched and there was nothing to hit. “You screwed her? The slut of the Chernov facility? You spent hours fucking her? Or just hours giving her pleasure?”
“Enough of this!” He crossed the room, gripped her arms and gave her a firm shake. And she wanted to hate him. She wanted to hate him so bad it ate into her soul like acid, and all she could do was hurt, because one of the few people in this world that she did hate had fucked the man she loved.
“Listen to me, Anya, what happened that night will never, ever happen again. I swear it to you.
The next time I touch you it will be in gentleness. Hours, baby.” One hand cupped her face as his expression twisted.
Anya couldn’t stand it. She didn’t want to see gentleness on his face now. She didn’t care.
“You break your promises, remember, Del-Rey?” she whispered painfully. “Did you break your promises to Sofia?”
“I made no promises to Sofia,” he rumbled. “Stop this.”
Her head jerked up as she forced herself to contain the pain rising inside her. It hurt. It hurt to the bottom of her soul to see that woman in his arms, to know he had pleasured her, spent hours doing so, and she hadn’t deserved so much as a few moments of foreplay.
“I’ll be more than happy to stop it.” Her breath hitched with the pain. “As soon as you leave my room. I have a party to get ready for, remember?”
“You do not order me, Mate,” he growled. “Don’t make the mistake of believing you do.”
Anya watched his eyes flash, the black deepening, showing a hint of raven’s blue as his expression tightened, his hands flexing on her arms as she felt herself backed into the wall.