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Around the sa himself up at the round office The headache that served as his alarm clock was not from the port - it was from the fact that he&039;d skipped Last Meal Butin his skull He could have used the out that he&039;d been a total, sloppy, lost-his-, he withdrew his legs from the desktop and sat up His body was stiff as a board, aches blooht
Crap He was still naked
But come on, like the modesty elves would have snuck in and clothed him in his sleep? Just so he wasn&039;t re his shorts on, he shoved his feet into his trainers and then reached for his shirt - before re what he&039;d used it for
As he stared at the crumpled folds of cotton and felt the stiff places in the soft cloth, he realized that no ae the fact that he&039;d cheated on Saxton Physical contact with so infidelity - and yeah, that was the biggest divide But what he&039;d done last night had been a violation of the relationship, even though the orgasm had been caused by his brain, not his hand
Getting to his feet, he was half-dead as he went to the door and opened it a crack If there was anyone around, he was going to duck back inside and wait for a clear shot into the corridor: He so co out of this e like hell The upside to living at the compound was that you were surrounded by people who cared about you; the downside was that everybody had eyes and ears, and no one&039;s business was just their own
When he didn&039;t hear voices or footsteps, he exploded out into the hall and started walking briskly, like he&039;d been so to his roo he&039;d gotten aith it when he hit the tunnel Sure, he didn&039;t usually go shirtless, but a lot of the Brothers orunusual
And he really felt like he&039;d won the lottery when he stepped out froood dose of e by the sounds of china being cleared in the dining rooht He&039;d obviously missed First Meal - bad news for his head, but at least he had some protein bars in his room
His luck ran out as he took the stairs up to the second floor Standing in front of the closed doors to Wrath&039;s study, Qhuinn and John were dressed for fighting, their weapons strapped on, their bodies covered in black leather
No way in hell was he looking at Qhuinn Just having the guy in his peripheral vision was bad enough
"What&039;s going on?" Blay asked
We&039;ve got a ned Or at least, we&039;re supposed to Didn&039;t you get the text?
Shit, he had no idea where his phone was His room? Hopefully
"I&039;ll hit the shower and be right back"
You ht not have to rush The Brothers have been sequestered for the last half hour I don&039;t have any idea what&039;s going on
Next to the guy, Qhuinn was rocking back and forth in his shitkickers, his weight shifting like he was on a walk even as he went nowhere
"Five minutes," Blay muttered "That&039;s all I need"
He hoped the Brotherhood would open those doors by then - the last thing he wanted was to get stuck passing ti as he went, Blay jogged down to his roo ready, especially if Sax was in theto be a wham-bam, thank you, ma -
As he opened his door, he froze
What thehell?
Duffels On the bed So many of them he couldn&039;t see -size duvet - and he knehose they were Matching Guccis, in white with the navy blue logo and the navy blue and red cloth strapping - because according to Saxton, the traditional brown-on-broith the red and green was "too obvious"
Blay shut the door quietly His first thought was, Holy shit, Saxton knew So center
The male in question came out of the bathroom with an armful of shampoo, conditioner, and product He stopped dead
"Hi," Blay said "Taking a vacation?"
After a tense moment, Saxton cal, and turned back around As always, his beautiful blond hair ept off his forehead in thick waves And he was dressed perfectly, in another tweed suit withjust the right accent of color
"I think you knohat I&039; to say" Saxton smiled sadly "Because you&039;re far from stupid - just as I am"
Blay went to sit down on the bed, but had to recalibrate because there was nowhere to put hie, and, with a discreet lean to one side, he tucked the wadded shirt under the skirting Out of sight It was the least he could do
God, was this really happening?
"I don&039;t want you to go," Blay heard hihly
"I believe that"
Blay looked across all those duffels "Why now?"
He thought of the pair of the hard sex They had been so close - although if he were brutally honest, maybe that had just been physically
Take out thewith you like this - but I can&039;t It&039;s killing me"
Blay closed his eyes "I know I&039;ve been out a lot in the field - "
"That&039;s not what I&039; about"
As Qhuinn took up all the space between theood would that do: it appeared that he and Saxton had gotten to the same difficult corner at the same sorrowful e "I&039;ve just finished that assignood time to make a break, move out and find another job - "
"Wait, so you&039;re leaving the king as well?" Blay frowned "However things stand between us, you need to keep working for hier than our relationship"
Saxton&039;s eyes dipped down "I suspect that is far easier for you to say"
"Not true," Blay countered grimly "God, I&039; - you need to know that I&039;ry at you, or bitter You&039;ve always been honest, and I&039;ve always known that things were going to end like this I just didn&039;t know the timeline - I didn&039;t knowuntil I reached the end Which is now"
Oh, fuck
Even though he knew Saxton was right, Blay felt a coht for them "Listen, I&039;ve been really distracted for the last week, and I&039;, and you and I will get back to normal - "
"I&039;m in love with you"
Blay shut his mouth with a clap
"So you see," Saxton continued hoarsely, "it&039;s not that you have changed It&039;s that I have - and I&039;m afraid my silly emotions have put us at quite a distance froed to his feet and strode across the fine-napped carpet to the other ot to his destination, he was relieved to the point of tearing up that Saxton accepted his eainst hihts and sne, part of hiave in and kept trying
But that wasn&039;t fair
Like Saxton, he&039;d had the vague notion that things were going to end at some point And like his lover, he was also surprised it was now
That didn&039;t change the outcome, however
Saxton stepped back "I never et emotionally involved"
"I&039;m so sorry, I&039; out of histo be different I wish I couldbe different"
"I know" Saxton reached up and brushed a hand down the side of his face "I forgive you - and you need to forgive yourself"
Whatever, he wasn&039;t sure he could do that - especially as, at thisusual, an emotional attachain robbing hi curse to hiuy really was
About fifteen miles south of the Brotherhood&039;s mountaintop corand master suite of his mansion on the Hudson Above hi, his naked body was gleahts installed around the base of the onal room beyond was dark, the interior shutters still down, the fallen night hidden
As he considered all the glass in the house, he knew so many vampires would have found these accommodations unacceptable Most would have avoided the ht hours
Assail, however, had never been bound by convention, and the dangers inherent in living in a building with so ed, not bound by
Getting up, he went over to the desk, signed into his computer, and accessed the security systerounds Alerts had sounded several ti the earlier hours of the day, notifications not of an i attack, but of soed by the security systeray to be overly concerned, an unwelcon that he needed to feed -
Assail frowned as he reviewed the report
Well, wasn&039;t this instructive
And indeed, this hy he&039;d installed all his checks and balances
On the iure dressed in snowfield cah the forest, closing in on his house fro the pines for the e points for approxi the westerly border of trees, crossing into the neighbor&039;s property, and going down onto the ice Two hundred yards later the ain, and stared at Assail&039;s home Then he circled around the peninsula that jutted out into the river, reentered the forest, and disappeared
Bending in closer to the screen, Assail replayed the approach, zoo in to identify facial features, if possible - and it was not The head was covered with a knit mask, with cutouts only for the eyes, nose, and mouth With the parka and ski pants on as well, theback, Assail s in territorial response
There were but two parties who ht that had reigned during this recon, it was clear the curiosity was not generated by the Brotherhood: Wrath would never use hu other than a last-resort food source, and no va into a torch
Which left sole man with the interest and the resources to try to track him and his whereabouts
"Enter," he said, just before a knock sounded on his door