Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
DARIUS
The elevator doors slid shut while I gaped in pure shock.
Bria was gone. She’d disappeared behind them, barely holding it together as she appeared to fight tears. That look of pain on her face burned me, searing onto my brain.
And me? I stood there like an idiot, still staring. Wondering. Confused.
What happened?
A tightness burned in my chest.
My dragon snarled, clawing inside, desperate to get out. Follow her.
No…not yet. I couldn’t react on instinct, despite everything urging me to race after her. Not until I figured out what the hell had just happened. I hated seeing her like that—so troubled, so distressed.
Fix it, my dragon roared.
Yes. I agreed with him there. But I couldn’t fix anything without knowing the reason why she was so hurt.
Everything had been so perfect between us.
So magical. We’d spent the last two nights in my bed together, both reluctant to leave it during the day.
Which left the question—what had I done to ruin it?
“Excuse me,” a man said as a group stepped beside me, waiting for the elevator.
I stepped back, disoriented, as I blinked around me. My legs took me back toward the bar as if functioning without me.
A man said my name. I turned and blinked as I focused on Cedric, now standing near our table with his brows furrowed.
“Darius, are you all right?”
No, I was far from all right. I was losing Bria…
Disbelief twisted around my ribs as panic began to simmer. Losing my wife had nearly destroyed me. I’d vowed not to love again.
Losing Bria…
My true mate.
I gulped. A dull blade twisted, piercing deeper with each ragged breath. No, I’d never recover if I lost her. I couldn’t, wouldn’t…
Think! I fast-forwarded through the past few days, zooming through the first night I’d met her in the Celestial Lounge and I’d made her an offer.
The shock cracked. I think I figured it out. She thought I was still pretending, that everything had been part of an act.
Dumbass. My dragon snorted. I told you to claim her as ours!
I winced. Maybe he was right. But everything between us had grown hard and fast, merely over days, and I didn’t want to go all caveman on her and declare she was mine, when that was certain to scare her away.
Which I’d ended up doing anyway. Why? By continuing to pursue this partnership, even after I’d gotten what I’d wanted with Cedric agreeing to look over my proposal after the holidays.
Even he had told me not to focus on business while on the cruise, to celebrate with my loved ones, and I couldn’t let my need for control and growing my empire get the best of me.
It was all my fault. She thought it was all just a game and that I was using her. No wonder she ran away from me.
“The proposal’s off the table,” I said flatly, voice hollow.
Cedric recoiled, his eyes wide with surprise. “Excuse me?”
I shook my head and spread my hands to the side. “All of it, done.” I seethed, my dragon’s fury piercing through. “It’s not worth it.” My voice cracked.
“What happened?” he asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
I couldn’t answer at first, not with so many emotions soaring inside me, twining with my dragon’s growing despair.
“You were right,” I admitted with a bitter taste on my tongue. “I should have been spending time with Bria, not thinking about business this week. I screwed up.” I raised my hands to my temples and stared at the floor. “She’s my mate and I messed up everything.”
Before he could respond, I walked away, desperately needing to get away from everyone so I could think. Air. I needed air.
Shoving the door open, I stepped out onto the pool deck, and the cool breeze rushed over my skin. I gulped, inhaling the salty taste of the sea. The moon hovered in the distance with a faint glow. I yearned for the sky, to break free into it with my wings soaring.
My dragon was barely contained by the time I ascended to the Gargoyle’s Perch. I shrugged out of my clothes and stashed them while memories of my last time here soaring with Bria tumbled through my brain.
Bria…
The shift rippled through me in a burst of scales and claws. As soon as my claws pawed the deck, I ran forward and burst into the sky as my dragon unfurled his wings.
The sky welcomed us into the cool, dark night. My dragon beat his wings and we ascended as the ship’s lights appeared smaller over the silvery waves. An ache followed.
Although flight usually brought me solace, now it drew me farther from my mate. Flashes of soaring with her from the island came to me, alternating between bringing me comfort and pain.
I’d built my empire on being analytical, sharp, and in control. On being patient and waiting for the perfect opportunity. But waiting had cost me. And now nothing else mattered but her. All I cared about was the woman who’d set my entire being on fire.
My dragon released a low wail. Let’s go back to her.
His yearning to return to Bria mirrored my own. I ached to be near the woman whose pained eyes had told me how much I’d hurt her. Agony sliced like turning a sword in my gut.
Yes. For once, we were of the same mind.
I’d do whatever it took to win her heart.
I had to find a way to make it right. Tell her how I truly felt.
I should have told her right away when she’d confronted me talking to Cedric.
Now she was somewhere on the ship, and I was haunting the skies, trying to get a grip on my emotions. Forget all that.
Forget pretend. Forget the deal. Something else was far more important.
My mate.