Garrick went stiff as a board. "If you're trying to piss me off, you're doing a pretty good job of it. Now get dressed so we can leave."
He obviously wasn't going to apologize for the way he had spoken. All Nika's insecurities when it came to men rose inside her. It was almost like David all over again.
It started off with him not telling her the truth about where he'd disappear to, and when she'd caught him lying, he'd turned it back on her. It had always been her fault, and if she had kept her nose out of his business, none of it would have ever happened. This situation with Garrick wasn't exactly the same, but it was too close for Nika's liking.
Keeping secrets from her would only have her trusting him less and less.
"I think you should leave, Garrick," she said in a tight voice.
"What?"
"You heard me. I want you to go and not come back until you're prepared to say what you're keeping from me."
He took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair. "Don't do this, Nika. I apologize for the way I spoke to you. It's just . . . you don't understand."
"How can I understand when you keep refusing to tell me what it is?"
"Let's forget I said anything and stick with our plans for the day."
She shook her head. "No. I meant what I said; either you tell me now or don't come back until you can."
Garrick's face lost all emotion. "All right, I guess that means I'm leaving. I'll come back tomorrow night just before closing. I'm going to need that time to figure out what the hell I'm going to say to you that won't have you pushing me away even more than you are now." He grabbed her by the arms and kissed her hard, then let her go. "Just remember, I was the one who wanted to wait until we had grown a bit closer before I sprang it on you."
Garrick spun on his heel and walked out of the flat. At the sound of his car starting outside her window, Nika slowly realized she still stood half naked with her clothes in her arms. So much for the wonderful day she'd planned to spend with Garrick in her bed.
She walked to the bathroom, the evidence of their quick lovemaking still on the inside of her thighs. How could it have gone wrong so fast? Had she been a little too bitchy with Garrick? Probably. Shit, she was screwing everything up, but that didn't stop how she felt about him not trusting her enough to lay things all out on the table.
After she cleaned up in the bathroom, Nika went to her bedroom to change out of her blouse and jeans. She pulled on a pair of yoga pants and a loose T-shirt. Her sexy under things had gone into the wash, and she'd donned a workout bra and cotton bikini panties instead.
Regretting the way she'd handled the situation with Garrick, she went to the kitchen and took out a carton of ice cream. She took a spoon out of one of the drawers and sat down at the table to drown her sorrow in the frozen treat.
Chapter Nine
Garrick slapped the steering wheel while he cursed up a storm inside his head.
So much for spending the day with Nika. The situation had gone from being exceptionally enjoyable to fucked up hellishly fast. If only she hadn't pushed him to tell her the truth about himself. He had wanted to wait at the very least a few more days, preferably a week, before he told her. Now he had to tell her tomorrow or risk the chance of her shutting him out. Not that he didn't expect some kind of reaction from her when the truth finally came out.
The lousy thing about it all, he saw where Nika was coming from. Her ex had cheated on her before he'd bailed on her and the pub. No wonder she was hesitant to trust another man. He understood that, but his telling her he was an immortal werewolf warrior was far different from his cheating on her. He couldn't exactly sit her down and say he was well over a thousand years old, and that an Anglo-Saxon god had chosen him to fight the bad werewolves that liked to stalk mortals at night. And he doubted she would react well to the news she was his mate, and that Tiw would grant her immortality as well once she fully accepted Garrick.
He drove around for a bit before he went home. The next twenty-four hours, spent without Nika, would be hell. Every time they made love, he fell for her harder. He wanted her near him, and hated when he had to leave her. For someone who had never known if he was capable of actually falling in love with a woman, Garrick was finding out he could. After over a century of being alone, he yearned to share his life with the woman who was worming her way inside his heart.
Finally arriving at the house, Garrick parked his car in the detached garage. He headed for the front door, but when he heard the sound of feminine voices coming from the back garden, he turned and walked in that direction. Both Lexi and Kamryn sat at the wrought iron patio table. They looked in his direction when he approached.
"You're back a lot earlier than I expected you to be," Lexi said.
He pulled out the chair next to hers and sat. "My plans for the day took a bit of a wrong turn." Garrick looked at the women. "I need both of your advice."
"Something happened between you and Nika," Kamryn said.
"Yeah, it did." He blew out a breath. "She knows there is something different about me."
Lexi chuckled. "I'm going to take that to mean that you've slept with her, and she's noticed some of your wolfy traits. Such as what happens when you reach your climax."
He nodded. "For awhile, I had been able to avoid answering her questions, but my luck ran out today. We ended up having a bit of a tiff because I refused to tell her the truth about me."
"And did you tell her?" Kamryn asked.
"No." Garrick blew out another breath. "I promised her I would tomorrow night, not that she has any clue as to what I'm going to say to her. She just knows I'm keeping something from her, and she doesn't like it. She told me I can't keep secrets from her or we're through. Her ex screwed around on her, and Nika has trust issues because of the wanker."
"So you want Kamryn and me to give you advice on how to tell Nika the truth without scaring the crap out of her," Lexi said.
"Correct. You took the news fairly well, Lexi. No offense to you, Kamryn, but you completely freaked out. I want to avoid that with Nika as much as possible."
Kamryn had indeed freaked when Algar had told her what he was. Only here at Norwich for a holiday at that point, she'd screamed at Algar to stay away from her.
She'd had Lexi drive her back to her hotel, where she'd stayed hidden for a week before Brand had dragged her back to the mansion to put Algar out of his misery, and everyone else's since he had been driving them all nuts with his pinning over Kamryn.
"No, I can see why you wouldn't want that happening," Kamryn said with a laugh. "I didn't take the news all that well."
"So how should I break it to Nika so that won't happen?" he asked.
Kamryn spoke first. "First of all, and I can't stress this enough, don't shift into your werewolf form to prove to Nika you're not feeding her a line of shit about you being a werewolf. Algar's doing that to me wasn't such a smart move on his part. Your wolf form is so much easier to handle."
"All right. No werewolf form until she accepts the truth, and is ready to see me like that."
"I know it may be hard for you," Lexi said, "but tell Nika what she means to you.
Don't just demand she accept you as her mate without letting her know you truly want her by your side forever."
"I told her that I would never leave her the day after I met her."
"And did she believe you?"
"Well, not really, I don't think."
"I wouldn't think so. If she has trust issues like you've said, and she really didn't know you at that point, I can see her thinking you're just feeding her a line of bull."