When he held up a bag and jerked his chin towards the cabin, Gabi ducked away from the window, missing what he said to his brother.
The door opened a split-second later, and his eyes landed on her where she stood near the log burner, the mug of coffee in her hand.
“Drinking my coffee now?” He arched an eyebrow at her, and she ignored him, because he wasn’t angry with her.
No. There was a satisfied glint in his grey eyes that said he had wanted her to fall for the coffee trick and was sure she was going to fall for whatever one he employed next.
He held up the bag and waggled it. “Ivy and some of the females donated to your cause. Must make a change… being shown charity?”
He opened the bag when she didn’t respond and peered inside it.
“Ooh…” His shoulders trembled beneath his black woollen jumper as if he was shuddering. “All kinds of goodies. Clothes… candy… other necessities to keep you beautiful.”
That gave her pause.
Keep her beautiful?
Pig thought she was beautiful?
He didn’t seem to notice his choice of words, because she was sure that if he had, he would have been horrified by them—by finding a human of all things beautiful.
He pulled out a near-empty bottle of perfume, and some deodorant, plus a toothbrush and razor, and damn, she wanted them but she wasn’t going to let him see that. She wasn’t going to let him win.
She folded her arms across her chest. “Let me go. I’ve done nothing wrong. You can’t keep me here… like a prisoner.”
“Like a prisoner?”
She nodded.
He smiled coldly. “Little Bird, you are a prisoner… and I’m your jailer… and until you tell me what I want to know, you aren’t going anywhere.”
She planted her hands on her hips and glared at him. “You know this is illegal, right?”
“You’re trespassing on our land, you brought assault rifles and intended to slaughter us all… and you think you have a right to say what we’re doing is illegal?” he barked and she shrank back, but then rallied and stood her ground. He advanced on her, but she refused to let him intimidate her. “I can, and I will, do whatever it takes to protect my kin.”
Gabi set her jaw as her heart began to pound, anger trickling through her veins to heat her blood. “I swear, I’m not going to tell anyone. Who would believe me anyway?”
“Archangel,” he snarled and stepped into her, his huge body crowding her as she tried to hold her ground. “The people you work for. I’m sure they’ll believe you, and they’ll come back with more guns… more hunters… and I can’t allow that.”
“I told you… I don’t work for Archangel!” She squared up to him, which did nothing. He just glared at her, his eyes blazing gold, triggering an instinct in her that screamed at her to run because she was in danger. She had nowhere to run, so all she could do was fight. He had her backed into a corner but she was damned if she was going down without a battle. “So that’s it then… I’m just going to be your prisoner forever?”
“Unless you tell me what I want to hear, that’s pretty much the case, Little Bird.” He glowered down at her, his jaw muscles tensing beneath his golden skin.
“I’m not going to accept that,” she bit out. “I want to talk to Ivy.”
“You’ll talk to me.” He grabbed her arm, the press of his fingers hot and hard, making her aware of him and how close he was to her.
His body brushed hers, her breasts against his stomach, his thighs against her hips.
Her breathing quickened as his proximity wreaked havoc on her, had thoughts spinning through her mind that she damned well wasn’t going to entertain.
“Get your bloody hand off me.” She meant it to come out loud and forceful, but it left her on a whisper.
“No,” he muttered and his deep voice was as strained and low as hers.
His eyes darkened, but it wasn’t anger in them.
It was desire.
Fire that lit up the gold of his irises.
She was seeing things, her tired mind messing with her, because the pig didn’t like humans, he liked his women fast and forgettable, and she didn’t like her men going furry and feral.
But then his eyes dropped to her lips.
It was just the briefest glance, but she caught it and how his eyes darkened further.
Oh, cougar boy wanted her.
Gabi couldn’t resist tilting her head back, part of her wanting to lure him in even when she wasn’t sure whether she was doing it because she wanted to find a way to escape and gaining his trust in this way felt like the right move to make, or because she wanted to kiss him too—burned with the same fire that was in his eyes.
He glanced at her mouth again, and for a heart-stopping moment she thought he would kiss her, braced herself for it and found herself fiercely wanting it.
Fool.
His lips quirked in a cold smile. “You’re not my type. I prefer my females to have a heart behind their breasts and without a knife in their hand, ready to stab me in the back.”
Son of a bitch.
That hurt even when she tried to let it glance off her. It cut deep, his aim true.
“You flatter yourself a bit too much,” she bit out, venom in her tone, and he leaned back and frowned down at her. “I have a fiancé… one who will be looking for me… a very powerful man.”
One who she doubted was really worried about her since the match had been Alexander’s idea and she had only gone along with it at the time to help him out when he had needed an investor to save his business.
Her words had the desired effect though.
The man released her, looked at her through truly dark eyes for the first time, no flicker of light and warmth in them at all, and left, slamming the door behind him so hard that one of the glass panes cracked and she flinched.
She had the feeling she had upset him, just as she had wanted, but it didn’t make her feel better.
It only made her feel worse.
Gabi sat on the couch, keeping still and silent, lost in thought as she stared at the flames. Day drifted into night, and when he didn’t return, she settled in his bed and slept as best she could, expecting to wake when he came home and stomped around the cabin, making her aware of his mood.
Only she woke the next morning and there was no sign of him.
She padded across the wooden floor to the bag he had left on it near the kitchen, picked it up and emptied the contents one by one on the polished wooden counter. She glanced at the door, but didn’t bother to check it. The key was missing, and she had no doubt he had locked it while she had been busy flinching.
Gabi used the supplies he had given her to clean up in his small bathroom. The water was freezing. She hurried through washing herself, and used the deodorant but not the perfume, and dressed in the dark green t-shirt and the brown trousers that were a few sizes too large for her. Ivy’s?
She cinched them at the waist with the supplied belt and went into the kitchen, finger-brushing her blonde hair as she gazed out of the window at the woods and the strip of the clearing that she could see.
There were another three men she didn’t recognise today, together with two more women, both of them very pretty and both of them brunettes. They reminded her of Ivy, and she ached to see the woman she had come to think of as a friend, her heart heavy as she stood in silence in the empty cabin.
She just wanted to see a kind face.
She went through the process with the coffee machine, replacing the filter and grounds, and the water, only to realise the power was out again.
Had he disconnected it to punish her, because she had tried to punish him?
Tears filled her eyes but she sniffed them back. “Screw him. Bloody bastard. You can’t keep a good Gabi down.”
She rifled through his cupboards and found a steel kettle and a cafetiere, and grinned. She filled the kettle with water, set it on top of the log burner, and went back to the window as she waited for it to boil.
Pig appeared, dressed in the same black jeans and jumper he had been wearing yesterday as he crossed the grass, heading over to one of the women. He smiled as he spoke with her while they walked, following the path towards the woods and his cabin, each one a needle that pierced Gabi’s chest and made it sting for some reason.
His eyes remained locked on the woman as they stopped near the cabin, in full view of Gabi. The hunger in his gaze made her want to look away, even though it was a pale shadow of the way he had looked at her yesterday, before he had spent the night away from the cabin.
With one of the women?
She remembered what he had said to Flint—that he wanted in on the action.
He wanted these women.
He glanced in her direction, and smirked at her, and she looked away from him, refusing to let him win. He was doing it to spite her, to hurt her because she had hurt him.
She was sure of it.
He wanted the women who were coming to the area.
But he wanted her more.
And damn her.
She wanted him too.
But she wasn’t going to give in to him.
Never.