Part 15 (2/2)

She looked out the window, suddenly wanting to be anywhere but here right now. 'Well, stop it. I don't like it.'

'You just don't like it when someone gets close to the truth.'

Her gaze shot to his, anger replacing the pulses of joy from a few moments ago. 'I don't pick on your psyche, Derek. Leave mine the h.e.l.l alone.' She slipped off the bed and padded over to the door, grabbing her dress and tossing it over her head.

'Where are you going?'

'Back to my room.'

'What about fun and exploration?'

She shot him a glare. 'I think I've had enough of that. I'm tired now.'

'Coward,' he said, not even budging from his spot on the bed.

'I am not. I just don't want to talk about my past.'

'Because you're afraid.'

'Because I don't want to. This is stupid. I'm going to bed.' She turned and walked out, slamming the door behind her and storming back to her own bungalow.

She closed and locked her door, took off the dress and threw it in the corner, then crawled between the sheets of her bed.

Dammit, she wasn't at all tired.

Now she was just irritated. She and Derek had had a wonderful time, right up until he wanted to talk about her past, about feelings and emotions, things she wasn't ready to get into.

Like fears.

s.h.i.+t.

So much for getting any sleep.

Derek stared up at the darkness and drummed his fingers across his chest, wis.h.i.+ng he could take the last twenty minutes back.

Great. Why did he have to open his big mouth and start asking Gina questions? Couldn't he have left it alone?

No, he couldn't. Not when she'd started talking about not having relations.h.i.+ps, not having much s.e.x, and not having fun with men.

h.e.l.l, a woman who looked like Gina, a famous actress, gorgeous. He just didn't get it. She should have had a string of lovers by now. But his sixth sense or intuition or whatever the h.e.l.l it was told him she'd barely had a handful, and the guys she'd been with just hadn't melted her b.u.t.ter.

Yet she'd come apart for him tonight. And the other night. So it wasn't like she didn't know how to respond. She sure as h.e.l.l responded to him.

Which made him feel like king of the world.

But it also meant mystery, and he just couldn't let a d.a.m.n mystery go, could he? Why him and no one else?

So instead of spending the next few hours wrapped up in her arms and losing his mind inside her, he was staring up at a dark ceiling, coiled up tight with tension and p.i.s.sed as h.e.l.l at himself.

Because he had to go and ask questions, probe her, demand answers she clearly didn't want to give.

Because he had to go and start caring about her.

Chapter Thirteen.

I nteresting development between the two of them,' the second said. nteresting development between the two of them,' the second said.

The Master nodded and smiled, his chest expanding as he breathed in. 'I felt his power. It energized me. It's raw and untapped, but we can use it to our advantage.'

'Soon, I hope?'

The Master pondered, then shook his head. 'Not yet. Let's give this time to develop and see where it goes. Do you see the potential here? We could have them both. Use one to obtain the other.'

'Ah,' the second said, nodding. 'A bargaining chip.'

'If necessary.' He didn't think it would be. Not once the offer was made. No one turned down power such as this.

'Their hunters are mighty,' the second said.

'But no match for us.'

'They killed many.'

'I'm not worried, and you shouldn't be, either. We will take care of them all, in good time.'

Almost all of them, anyway. He had a plan.

Okay, she was avoiding Derek. Not really the most mature thing Gina could do, but right now her emotions weren't steady. She didn't want to put herself in the position where she might end up alone with him and possibly be forced to have a conversation about what had happened between them.

Wasn't it men who never wanted to open up and talk about emotions? Derek was the last man she'd thought would go all sensitive on her and start questioning her about her past.

She just wasn't going there, no matter how good the s.e.x had been. No matter how she felt about him.

Since they fought at night, they slept at dawn and during the day. After she woke, she spent the early part of the day sparring with Olivia, then the afternoon on target practice with Dalton and Linc, which helped get her mind off Derek. Learning the subtle nuances of the weaponry was important, after all. And Derek didn't have to be the one to teach her everything. The other hunters were more than adept at weapons training.

It was almost like prepping for a film, learning the ins and outs of weapons, deciphering how they worked, how to handle them, the actual mechanics of each piece. Something they hadn't had time to do before they'd gone out hunting. And Ryder and Shay had joined her, working tirelessly dismantling these weapons.

Dalton and Linc were expert teachers, patiently showing them how the weapons worked on the demons. Before long, Jake, Olivia, and Trace had joined in, as well as two other hunters, Rico and Mandy. They had a full cla.s.s in session.

'Who created these things?' Jake asked, playing with the liquid UV light.

'We have some wicked brilliant scientists in our corner.' Mandy, an incredibly gorgeous Amazon with long raven hair and legs a mile long, demonstrated the ten-second approach to loading the liquid UV into the chamber. She didn't look like a demon hunter. She looked like a fas.h.i.+on model.

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