“No,” she said, shaking her head and causing her tangled locks to sway with the movement, “I don’t think you understand.”

“Then make me understand,” he said through gritted teeth, forcing himself to stand there when they should be moving their asses.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she said, her spine rigid as she walked away from him. He watched as she stopped by a large oak tree and leaned against it, keeping her back to him as she picked up a leaf and played with it.

“Oh?” he said in a deceptively calm tone as he walked over to where she stood and leaned against the tree next to her. Grinding his jaw, he focused all his attention on the foliage that she apparently found fascinating. “And why is that?”

“It’s time to move on,” she said, sounding bored and a little irritated at having to explain this to him.

“From what exactly?” he asked, reaching down and grabbing a leaf of his own to toy with.

“From everything,” she said with a heavy sigh.

He chuckled without humor as the real meaning of her words sank in. “You mean from me.”

“Yes,” she said after the slightest hesitation as though she was trying to spare his feelings. He appreciated the sentiment, he really did, but he knew that she was lying her beautiful ass off.

If her scent hadn’t clued him in to what she was really up to, then the fact that he’d tried the same bullshit with Marta after their escape definitely did. When they’d reached England he’d tried to leave her at an orphanage, telling her that it was for the best. When that hadn’t worked, he’d told her that he was sick of her and that he didn’t want to be tied down with a little kid.

Marta had listened with her little arms folded over her chest. When he’d finished lying his ass off she’d nodded, picked up a stick that she’d found on the ground and proceeded to chase him around the dimly lit street cursing him out as she left welts on his arms, back and legs until he’d finally had enough. He’d promised never to try to leave her again, threw the stick away and gave her a swat on the bottom for hitting before he’d thrown her over his shoulder and carried her away from the orphanage.

“So, this is your way of telling me that you’re not interested?” he asked, biting back a pleased smile, because he’d seen this little scenario play out a hundred different times in those corny made-for-TV movies that Marta used to make him watch. God, how he’d hated those damn movies, but Marta had always insisted on making him watch them with her. Most of them shared the same plot, the same one that Cloe was currently trying to feed him.

She wanted to push him away, probably for his own good and while he appreciated the concern, he wasn’t going anywhere. Especially now that he knew that she cared for him.

“I don’t do relationships, Christofer. I’m sorry if you thought this was leading somewhere,” she said, absently staring off as her fingers continued to toy with the leaf in her hands.

“I see,” he said, letting the pieces of leaf fall from his hand before he grabbed another leaf and began toying with it while he enjoyed himself.

“Good,” she said, nodding slowly as she looked off.

Biting back a smile, he sighed heavily. “I understand.”

“Good,” she murmured after a slight hesitation and a nod. “That’s good.”

“Well,” he said, absently scratching his chest as dropped the leaf and pushed away from the tree. “I guess that’s it then,” he said with a shrug as he walked away.

*-*-*-*

She absently nodded as his words registered and when they did…

“Wait, what?” she asked as he walked away. “What do you mean that’s it?” she demanded, annoyed and more than a little confused that he could walk away so easily after everything that they’d gone through. She hadn’t expected or wanted begging, but a word or two to try to convince her to reconsider would have been appreciated. Her anger had her walking after him.

With every step that she took over the rock and twig laden ground, her annoyance and confusion morphed into irritation and anger. While she’d been trying to send him away as gently as possible to keep him safe because she loved him, he’d taken her words as an excuse to ditch her ass.

“I appreciate you letting me down gently,” he said with a shrug and a barely-there glance over his shoulder as he continued to walk away.

“Yeah, I can tell,” she said dryly, wincing when a twig snapped beneath her foot and bit into her skin.

He pointed to his right. “If you’re looking for the main road, you’ll want to head that way.”

“And where are you going?” she demanded, rushing to catch up with him, but just as soon as she did, his long strides quickly put space between them once again.

“Oh, I don’t know,” he mused as she struggled to catch up with him again, tempted to kick his ass as another twig broke beneath her foot. “I was thinking that it might be time to take a vacation.”

“A vacation?” she repeated back, sure that she’d misheard him.

“Yeah,” he said, letting out a sigh as he reached back and rubbed his neck, “I could really use a vacation. Somewhere tropical.”

“A tropical vacation,” she repeated back suspiciously as a thought occurred to her.

Christofer would never abandon a woman that needed him. His sense of duty was too well ingrained too ignore. He’d move heaven and hell to take care of a woman that he felt responsible for and she knew damn well that he felt responsible for her. It wasn’t flattering to be considered a responsibility, but to him, she was one. He would never just walk away like this, not this easily and certainly not to go on a vacation, which meant…….

The bastard was toying with her.

She hitched her blanket up higher, narrowed her eyes on the bastard and quickened her pace until she’d caught up with him and then she kept going, deciding that she had way too much shit on her mind to play this game. If he wanted to be an ass**le then that was more than fine with her. Here she was trying to give him an out to keep him safe and he was toying with her? Seriously?

Oh, he could go f**k him-

“In a rush to get away from me, mein Schatz?” the bastard asked teasingly as he easily caught up with her.

“Fuck off, ass**le,” she snapped, quickening her pace yet again, but it was pointless since the bastard’s long legs made it easy for him to keep up with her.

“Ouch,” he said with a mock wince, further pissing her off. “What happened to the gentle let down?”

“It went on vacation!” she snapped, wondering how she’d ended up falling in love with the big jerk.

Out of all the men that she’d known in her life she had to fall for the one that drove her insane and pissed her off. Then again, this could just be a side effect of Stockholm syndrome, which at this point she was ninety-nine percent positive that she was suffering from. How else could she explain the fact that she hadn’t kicked his ass yet? Not only that, but she’d actually slept with him!

God, she was pathetic.

Maybe the bastard was onto something with his asinine vacation plans. Since she apparently had some deranged shifter, leagues of vampires, demons and shifters after her, she might as well go away and hide out on some tropical island until this whole thing blew over. She’d never been on a real vacation before. At least, she hadn’t been on one since she was a kid.