Elaina’s heart plummeted and cratered the floor of Tiffany and Co., where Alex knelt before her. The only person she’d ever cared about, and she’d have to hurt him.
He ignored her head shaking and pulled out a small case she hadn’t sensed on him because of the overwhelming stimuli everywhere. A case that explained both his rendezvous with James, as Alex must not have wanted her to sense it in the car during their shopping trips, and his earlier trip to the bank, where it had probably been in a safe deposit box.
“Elaina, I love you enough that I’d buy this whole store for you if you’d let me, but I’ll settle for spending forever with you.”
He opened the box and revealed a fourteen-karat white gold ring. She gasped. Two pear shaped diamonds flanked a round brilliant diamond, and their quality was near perfection: E color, IF clarity with a 3.98 total carat weight. It was beyond beautiful.
“This was my mother’s, and you’re the only one worthy to wear it. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I want you, and now I want you as my wife. Will you marry me?”
Time stood still as she debated her answer. If she turned him down, who knew how he’d react. Public humiliation was never good, especially for someone like him, with his history. If she accepted, she’d merely be delaying the inevitable.
Either way, the Tiffany’s employee hovered in the background, a silent witness. Hopefully Alex had paid off the woman generously enough to prevent her from squealing to the tabloids. Of course, that she wished for a bribe proved how screwed up the situation was.
Damn it, why had he put her in this position?
Because I’ve strung him along for months with my lies.
The odd combination of her selfishness and her refusal to hurt him meant he’d believed her increasing affection equaled love. And now she’d lost the opportunity to explain that her inability to feel that emotion wasn’t his fault. No matter what she said, he’d take it as yet another rejection by a woman he loved.
He must have seen her internal debate reflected on her features because he rose and moved closer. His voice was for her ears only. “I’ll give you time to figure out your answer, but I ask you to wear this in the meantime.”
She silently extended her left hand. It was the coward’s way out, continuing to encourage him, but she rationalized that it was better than hurting him in public.
Victory glinted in his eyes, his fearlessness at confronting uncertainty on display for all to see. Maybe he’d had this compromise in mind the whole time. A compromise in which she could give him almost everything he asked for simply by not saying no.
He slid the band onto her ring finger. Good manners prompted her to say “thank you” for his gifts even though humans would likely label the sickening sensation inside her ribs as nausea.
“Thank you for trusting me. And for not claiming this one.” He gave her a smile she couldn’t match. “I’m claiming you this time.”
His heartfelt words sharpened the ill feeling in her ribs. She knew what he was getting at. This ring wasn’t to be made invisible. This ring was for everyone to see.
The significance of this ring to him—its tie to his mother—and its stunning beauty placed it far outside of what she’d earned. She probably couldn’t claim the ring if she tried.
Her nod was meaningless, but he kissed her for it just the same.
Dragons didn’t cry. Whether it was a physiological or emotional thing, she didn’t know. Yet tears had leaked from her eyes twice in her life. Once after her mother died, and once after Alex first brought her to ecstasy. The moisture threatening to overflow today was closer to the first circumstance.
Ten years of stealing from humans and nothing compared to the self-loathing shredding her now, leaving her in wretched pieces strung together by lies. Before, she’d taken things humans valued mostly for vanity and monetary reasons. This time, she’d stolen something far more valuable—Alex’s heart.
At the thought of what she’d become, pain built in her chest until she nearly wished for death. He deserved so much better, so much more.
She could no longer justify or defend her claim on him. She had to let him go.
The tension in her chest yanked at the tangle of emotions between them until energy drained from her limbs. She had to let him go.
She broke off their kiss and stepped back. She had to let him go.
His thumbs smoothed her furrowed brows. “It will be all right, I promise.”
If only that could be true.
He thanked the employee, opened the umbrella, and led Elaina into the rain, which splattered in slushy drops like sleet. The cold wind worsened her mood, and she silently vowed to empty the store if the security video found its way online.
Their drive home passed in silence, Alex’s awareness directed to navigating the slick roads. The pendant made its presence known by strengthening her abilities more than any piece other than her talisman. She no longer wondered how her father had sensed when she’d taken the ruby from him.
A lonely diamond called out to her as they glided past the landscape. Instinctively, she summoned the gem. A diamond solitaire ring materialized in her palm.
While she stared at her accomplishment, open-mouthed, Alex noticed the hitchhiker in her hand. “Where did that come from?”
“I don’t know. It had been abandoned, but I’m not sure where.” She concentrated on the impression from the ring’s memory. “I think it had been lost inside a car at a junkyard.”
He peered through the wet gloom beyond the window. “There’s no salvage yard around here.”
“I...”
The size of her achievement stunned her into speechlessness. She’d never been able to summon anything farther away than a few feet. Yes, it had been abandoned, but still...
She stroked the pendant under her blouse. “The necklace gave me the strength to do it. Thank you again.”
She put the ring on her right ring finger to complete the bonding. Her deep inhale at the rush of energy garnered a smile from Alex—until he glanced over.
His fingers squeaked against the leather steering wheel, his grip tightening. He swore under his breath.
Her own emotions were in too much turmoil to figure out his. She’d thought he would be happy she was getting stronger.
At home, he burst out of the vehicle and smashed his door closed, rocking the lightweight sports car on its tires. As soon as she climbed out from her seat, Alex was waiting.
A boom echoed through the garage when he slammed her door. He loomed over her, sending her stumbling back against the car. “Why is it that you can wear that engagement ring without a problem, but I practically have to beg you to wear mine?”
Splashes from drips off the car’s underside almost drowned out her whisper. “You know the answer to that.”
“Tell me.”
She raised her right hand. “Because this one is meaningless other than being a trophy.” She lifted her left hand. “And this one is more than I deserve.”
A grimace etched his face, and he pounded on the car’s roof. “Why do you say you don’t deserve it?”
They were no longer in public. She had no right to string him along any more. Her heart ached with the pain she was going to cause him. But she had to let him go.
She touched his cheek and tried to memorize the angles of his jaw, the curve of his eyebrows, the smell of his body. Everything she would never have again.
She swallowed back the tears threatening to fall once more. Unable to resist, she gave him one last tender kiss. But even the usual tingles between them had abandoned her.
A moment later, she pulled away and forced herself to meet his gaze. Her throat closed up, unwilling to say the words.
He deserves better. He deserves to know.
“I don’t deserve this ring—or you—because I don’t love you.”
Her voice cracked, but not as much as her heart.