Zane's Tale Read Free Page A

need, frustration – to the
forefront.
    And fucking Noah Gideon got to touch
her every day. Got to kiss her and run his hand through that messy
hair. Got to push her down to the bed and fuck her until she
wrapped her legs around him and called out his name.
    Zane’s hands clenched. He wanted Noah
to die, all for simply being the one that got to touch her while
Zane could not.
    Her low chuckle made his cock harden,
and Zane willed his body to calm, the need raging inside him making
him irrational. His body tensed as his ears strained, desperate to
focus on her soft voice.
    “ We leave tomorrow,” Jackie
said to the phone. “Yep. Eight months in the wilds of Mexico. I’m
so excited! Noah says that it’ll be totally primitive but I don’t
care. My first real archaeological dig. I can hardly wait.” A
pause. “I know! It won’t be so very long, though. You’re welcome to
come with us.” Another pause, then another throaty laugh. “I
figured you’d say no, but it never hurts to ask. Noah’s paying for
everything, you know.”
    Ask about
me , he wanted to say. Think about me . His fingertips pressed
on the glass, hard. He wanted it to crack under his fingers, to
shatter into a thousand pieces so he could swoop into the room and
carry her away. It didn’t, though. Bulletproof and reinforced, it
saved him from making a mistake.
    He couldn’t have her. He’d given her up
to save her, and he couldn’t go back on it now.
    He removed his hand from the glass,
making a mental note to warn Barnabas about the bulletproof glass.
Or maybe he wouldn’t. His brothers needed to be taken down a notch
in their arrogance, especially Caleb.
    Jackie didn’t notice him on the
balcony. Her back was to him and she laughed into the phone, still
chatting with her fellow succubus. “That’s not funny,” she said
after a moment, her laughter dying. Phone cradled against her
shoulder, she crossed the room and pulled something out of a
dresser drawer.
    The conversation paused, and then
Jackie spoke again. “I’m not going to answer that.” Annoyance
clouded her voice. “You don’t want to hear if I miss him or not,
right? So don’t ask me, Remy. I can’t talk about him.”
    His entire body stiffened, and he
strained to hear what she would say next.
    “ No, it’s not that. Noah’s
great. It’s just…let’s drop it, okay? I don’t want to talk about
this anymore.”
    She turned and Zane saw her
holding a shirt. One of his shirts – a Spinal Tap black tee. He hadn’t
realized she’d had it. As he watched, she cradled it to her face,
inhaling the scent of it. Her eyes closed and a look of pain
crossed her face.
    He staggered backward as if
struck.
    He’d wanted her to miss him, but seeing
the pain on her face? That hadn’t been what he wanted at all. He
wanted her to be…happy. Her happiness came before his. There was no
question in his mind. He’d do everything he could to keep her
happy.
    The thought was a sobering one. When
had he become such a selfless bastard?
    “ Noah?” She said into the
phone, interrupting his thoughts. “Oh, he’s here, but he’s asleep.
It’s night and all.”
    Shit. Noah.
    The Serim dickhead the three of them
were about to off.
    His most hated enemy.
    Zane swore, alighting back onto the
railing of the balcony and thinking hard. Jackie was leaving New
City tomorrow with Noah, she’d said. She needed to fuel her Itch
every two days. If they killed Noah tonight, not only would the
archaeological dig she was anticipating never happen…but she’d be
forced to find another man to fulfill her needs.
    For some reason, the thought of her
being driven to another stranger’s arms instead of Noah’s didn’t
fill him with the satisfaction he thought it would. Jackie would be
devastated by the death of a master, he knew. She might even have
feelings for Noah. The thought made him clench his hands in anger.
Her world would be ruined if Noah was destroyed.
    And Zane couldn’t be there to pick