Page 73 of Dozer

“He loves you. I never thought I’d see him fall head over heels in love, but he has. Be gentle with his heart, little Daisy.”

He opened the door and left, and a few seconds later, Dozer walked in, closed the door, and stood by it.

“If you’re afraid of me, I don’t want to make it worse.”

I shook my head. “You haven’t morphed into a werewolf and eaten me yet, so I assume you aren’t going to do that today. Please come sit and talk to me? Brain explained you couldn’t tell me until after the wedding, but I still feel as if you’ve lied to me.”

He sat in a chair across the coffee table from me, but I needed to touch him, so I stood and went to him. I sat in his lap, facing him, and he wrapped his fingers around my hips, but they were loose. He was still trying not to scare me. Still being gentle with me.

It warmed my heart, but it wasn’t enough. He was so big on trust, and it felt like he’d broken it. “The Piña Colada song. So many people think it’s romantic, but I can never get past the part where they were both going to cheat on each other. From the beginning, you’ve demanded honesty, and I guess I had this romantic notion that you’d have to keep the worst of the illegal club stuff from me, but you were going to be mega-honest about everything else.”

“There’ve been a lot of things I couldn’t tell you because of supernatural rules, and because of the hoops I had to jump through to get authorized to indenture a human. Most of those, I still can’t talk to you about. Because of the way our contract was written, legally, I wasn’t able to get permission until we were married.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I should’ve told you sooner, the following afternoon, and I regret not doing so. I was deciding whether to tell you after our big ceremony wedding, or maybe at the…” He sighed. “I’m sorry. I was only looking at it from my side, a supernatural who’s been coached all my life about the importance of secrecy, and not from yours. As soon as I did, I called Marco’s assistant and asked for an appointment.”

“I think I need some time away from you.”

I loved him with all my heart, and I didn’t want a divorce, but I also couldn’t go home with him and act like nothing had happened.

“How much time?”

* * * *

Dozer

Marco’s voice came inside my head.You should offer her a couple of thousand dollars in cash, and suggest she stay with Brain and Harmony. Time with the horses will do her good. Alternatively, I can erase her memory of knowing, which fixes this, or I can implant suggestions so she’s more understanding of you taking so much time to tell her.

“I don’t know,” Daisy told me. “A week? I just need time to wrap my head around this when you aren’t sticking your dick in me every chance you get, and punishing me for shit.” She looked down and away, and then met my gaze. I saw pain in her gaze, and it broke my heart, and then shattered it when she said, “I don’t think I can kneel to you right now.”

I could hear the unshed tears in her voice, and I wanted to kick myself for hurting her, but there’d be time for that later.

“Brain and Harmony have a couple of spare bedrooms,” I told her. “I’ll give you two thousand in cash, to make sure you can buy whatever you need while you’re with them. You can tell Brain what you want to do about working at the restaurant. I’ll move to another facility to work. I don’t usually stay so long in one place, so it’s time for me to show my face somewhere else anyway.”

She shook her head. “Why are you being so agreeable?”

“You need some time to sort through your feelings. I was wrong, and I don’t know how to fix this, so all I know to do is try to give you what you’re asking. The wolf wants to lock you in the basement and just not let you leave, but the human wants to see you find fulfillment, and that’s never going to happen if I keep you locked up. I love you enough to let you go and trust you’ll come back to me, my little flower.”

Her eyes were full of moisture, but I could scent her determination, and I assumed that meant she wasn’t going to let me see her cry. But then she bit her bottom lip and my heartbroke all over again — I’d have given the world to make this go away.

“I don’t want to move out,” she told me, “but I don’t want to go home with you, either.”

And with that, she burst into tears. I pulled her to me and held her, because what else could I do?

“I’ll stay in the clubhouse then, and you stay home. It’s your house, too.”

“Can I put new curtains in the living room?”

Tell her yes, Marco said in my head.You want Daisy to put her imprint on the house, so it feels like hers as much as yours.

“You can put new curtains up in any room you want, just make sure the ones in the bedroom are room-darkening curtains. I’ll leave you with enough cash you can buy new furniture, too, if you want. I like the setup in the game room, and I’m kind of attached to the kitchen table and chairs, but change anything else in the house you want. If you want to paint the walls a different color, I’ll send prospects to paint them.”

I turned my phone on to look at my calendar, and noted her dentist appointment was a week out. “I can still take you to the dentist next week.”

She bit her lip but then shook her head. “I’m capable of taking myself to get my teeth cleaned.”

One thing, Marco’s voice came into my head when she stood and walked back towards the office,I’ve already put some of my blood in her wine because I believe she will balk at drinking my blood. To stave off problems with her donating a few drops of blood, I’m going to make her catatonic long enough for you to pierce her finger with a needle and put a few drops of blood into my wine. I’d merely take a sip from the source if I hadn’t promised her I won’t touch her on this day.

Chapter 56

Daisy

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