Read Online Love Beyond Loyalty by Rebecca Royce - Free Book Online Page B

weren't related before she started to pay attention to the questions Gabriel had been raising about him.
    "Tell me what you're thinking about." He reached out to brush a strand of her long black hair off her shoulder. She looked down at his hand as he did. That's right, little human, notice me .
    "I was thinking that Gabriel came to see me today at the shelter, and he had a girl with him."
    "Jealous?"
    As a true Outsider she shouldn't be. Gabriel wasn't her soul mate. Still, it seemed the kind of thing a guy who didn't know what she really was, which was what he pretended to be, would ask.
    "No, just surprised, I guess. Even though I suppose I shouldn't be."
    She smiled at him, and he could see uncertainty in the way she narrowed her eyes.
    "Did you think Gabe was gay?"
    She shook her head and laughed lightly. "No, I just never thought much about Gabriel and women at all."
    He nodded like he didn't already know what she was going to say. Alexa was less predictable than most of the people he encountered. Still, he could play her like a piano.
    "Did you wish he had been interested in you?"
    "No." She shook her head. "Why are you asking me all these questions?"
    "I'm trying to get a sense from you what your feelings for Gabe are before I confess how I feel about you."
    There he'd said it. If she took the bait, then she'd be his. If she didn't take it, he'd have to keep working. He was clearly a patient demon. He'd put up with this nonsense for thirty years. He could take a few more weeks.
    She sucked in her breath. "How you're feeling about me? How are you feeling, Bastian?"
    "I've always been in love with you, Alexa. You must know that."
    Well truthfully he wanted to fuck her hard, and then eat her soul but that was neither here nor there at the moment.
    He continued. "Are you in love with Gabe, Alexa?"
    "No." Her eyes were huge as she took two steps away from him, her arms crossed protectively in front of her. "You're both my family."
    "We're never going to be all together as a family again, Lexie. Those days are over. Gabriel has crossed too far into the direction of evil. He cannot return to us."
    She put her hands on her hips. "How do you know that? You can't know that."
    "I can know. Can't you feel it when you're around him? Doesn't he feel different to you? Changed?"
    Alexa would have had to feel it when Gabriel accepted his Outsider heritage. Sebastian knew he had. The acknowledgement of his heritage had ramped up his power level by at least ten degrees.
    Sighing, she ran her hands through her hair. Sebastian had to restrain himself from eating her soul right then and there.
    "He's not coming back to us, Alexa." He paused for dramatic effect. "Can you at least think about what I said?"
    Meeting his gaze for the first time since he'd made his fake declaration of love, she looked so sincere he wanted to puke.
    "Listen, Sebastian, I think there is something seriously wrong with me."
    He hadn't expected that response. "What do you mean?"
    "I think the things that happened to me before I came to live with your family damaged me in some way."
    He leaned against the window. Really, he wasn't in the mood for this kind of declaration. However, if he was going to pretend to be in love, he supposed he had to act like he cared. "Damaged you physically?"
    "No, emotionally."
    She crossed away from him to the other side of the room. Sitting down at the bench adjacent to the grand piano, she pushed gently on the keys making nonsense sounds that didn't amount to music. Sebastian knew she'd never learned to play.
    Finally, she continued speaking. "I just can't seem to have those sorts of feelings for anyone. I can't remember ever being molested. I can't really explain it. But I've never wanted anyone to kiss me, touch me, or hold me. It's not that I find it repulsive. I just find the idea completely uninteresting. I feel the same way about men and women. I simply feel nothing at all."
    If he were not a demon, he might feel inclined to