Chapter Thirty Seven-The Gallery

For most of the afternoon, I explored the little shops that lined Main Street. Since he was essentially king now, and he’d been on the receiving end of one of my tantrums, Logan let me wander the town alone.

No one would dare say an ill word to my face, and if I acted up, he’d be the first person they ran to. They hated me, and not one of them would think twice about turning me in.

I was getting my needs filled several times a day, every day by the two most beautiful men in the world, and I lived right across the property from my brother. There was no way in hell I was messing up that arrangement.

By the time I got to the little gallery at the end of the row, the owner was boxing up his inventory, and I noticed the closing sign on the window.

The only thing I like more than pretty things that sparkle was haggling over something that didn’t really matter to me, and his failing business seemed like as good a place as any to throw my money around.

I had a house full of my parents' ancient, lovely things back in Savannah I could fill our home with, but I left Haldir my house. I just couldn’t entirely give it up. I was born there and almost died there. Something inside me told me that connection wasn’t quite over yet.

The shop owner was an artist who just couldn’t make it in the big time and was forced to move back to his hometown here in the backwoods. His sexual preferences made him a bit of an outcast in this narrow-minded village, and he hardly ever sold anything as a result.

It burned me to hear it. My people were tolerant to just about anything, and I never once felt ashamed when I was with a woman or two. That’s the moment when I knew that my new life was a lie, and their hold on me was an illusion.

I’ve given up every shred of my dignity to this family who’ve given up nothing at all for me, and as I heard the doorbell, I rubbed his shoulder then threw my arms around him.

After I’d had a good cry myself, I cupped his cheeks in my hands and wiped his tears away with my thumbs. “I’ll take it all. Everything. Full price. Just deliver it tomorrow on your way out of town.”

I envied him. He was breaking free, and I’d allowed good sex to chain me to this place. “Don’t ever look back. You’re doing the right thing. These people are crazy.”

While I dug through my bag of holding for my emergency stack of cash, I noticed the doorbell ring again and bright red hair walking away. Her evil green eyes glanced back at me through the shop window, and my nose twitched. I should have listened to my body’s warning, but she was hardly someone to be scared of. Even a full-grown Lycan couldn’t handle my magic.

The drive home was hard as I thought about the art dealer and how my life has turned out. I tapped my thumb against the steering wheel and almost kept going instead of pulling into the driveway.

When I appeared through the doorway without one shopping bag, Logan crossed his arms, and his nostrils flared as he searched me for clues. Getting married didn’t change his jealous ways. “I thought you went shopping.”

I dropped my bag to the barstool and stood on my toes to kiss him. “I did. It’s coming tomorrow.”

His hand was in my hair before I could back away, and he spun me until I was pressed between the wall and his body. His eyes closed, and he inhaled deeply as his face passed over my neck. “I can smell his cologne. Who the fuck were you with?”

My hands pressed his chest. “Calm the fuck down. I bought out the gallery, and the owner hugged me.”

His eyes scanned my body before he shook his head. “I don’t want other men putting their fucking hands on you. Not even that guy.”

I yanked my sweater down my arms and laid it over the back of the chair. “Well, you got nothing to worry about; I’m hardly his type.” My finger pointed into his hard stomach. “I decide who puts their hands on me, Logan. In case you’ve forgotten, that person is you. You keep this shit up, though, and I promise you that will change.”

My soul was crying for leaving. But when his arms were around me, and he lifted me to his chest, I shut her out again. His touch overrode every good sense I had. “I’m sorry, but I have to share you with enough people as it is. I can’t stand it.”

With his cheeks in my palms, my eyes bounced back and forth between his green eyes. “I’m here with you now, Logan. I always come home to you. If that doesn’t tell you I’m committed to this thing, I don’t know what else to do to prove it to you.”

It was an “our” night, and after they’d loved every inch of me, I ended up wrapped in muscular, marked-up arms and legs. Thanks to my body’s indifference to toxic things, the venomous body fluids they’d tied me down with started to lose their potency. The connection grew a little thinner each day that went by, and Logan’s grip on me loosened.

I breathed a little easier knowing he wasn’t in my mind every second of the day, but he was about to choke me to death anyway.