"There is no us, Kateri. There can never be an us."
Kateri held her breath as those words kicked her in the teeth. What? You had to know this. Why are you so surprised?
He was an immortal warrior. She was a geologist. Other than hot sex, what did they really have in common?
Not a damn thing.
He tilted her head so that she could look at him. "Are you all right?"
Refusing to let him see the depth to which she'd been hurt, she nodded. "Fine. I'm a big girl, Ren. I'm not one of those doe-eyed romantics who expects a ring just because we slept together. At least I wasn't your one-night stand." She got up and headed for the bathroom.
Ren ground his teeth at the pain he'd seen in her eyes. You're the only woman I have ever loved. She was the only woman he would ever love.
But love wasn't for mongrel creatures like him. And it shouldn't be. He'd destroyed too many lives. He didn't deserve happiness after he'd taken it from so many others. He didn't even deserve to have had what little she'd given him.
Draping his arm over his eyes, he tried to banish his emotions and thoughts. Instead, he went back to when he'd been a teenager with Coyote.
"Did you hear? Choo Co La Tah is getting married."
Ren had frowned at his brother. "Already?"
Coyote nodded. "Her parents arranged it with his. I heard she's beautiful. Not as beautiful as my bride will be, I'm sure, but I'm happy for him."
"I would th-th-think there are-are-are-are more important th-th-things than just looks."
Coyote burst out laughing. "Don't th-th-think, Makah'Alay. It's embarrassing. What could be more important than her looks?"
He always hated whenever Coyote did that. It was bad enough when it came from others, but it stung worse when it was his own brother. Unwilling to be mocked further, he shrugged.
Coyote sighed. "Can you imagine having a beautiful woman in your bed every night who belonged to you? One you could screw all night long for as many hours as you wanted, and she couldn't say no because she was your wife? Oh, sorry. I keep forgetting you're still a virgin. We really need to take care of that. You want to try the brothel again?"
Horrified, Ren shook his head. The last time he'd made that mistake, the prostitute had turned him away. We don't serve retards here. Take him somewhere else.
For weeks after that, he'd had to endure comments from Coyote about how no one knew whores were picky, and how awful when you were so pathetic you couldn't buy a bargain-priced whore for an hour.
Coyote had slapped him on the back. "Poor Makah'Alay. But have faith, brother. I'm sure there's a whore out there who'll have you one day."
Ren sighed. In over eleven thousand years he'd only found two women who would sleep with him. One had been an immortal slut who had stolen his humanity.
The other was a lady who had given him her heart.
Wanting to ease whatever pain he'd given her, he got up and went to the bathroom. Her sobs while she showered stopped him dead. They kicked him so hard that for a minute he couldn't breathe.
Unable to stand it, he went to the shower and pulled the curtain aside. She gasped, then cried harder.
Ren took her into his arms and held her tight. "I love you, Kateri," he whispered. "You're the only one in this world that I have ever really loved. I would sell a kidney to shoe your feet and I'd sell my soul, if I still had one, to make you smile."
Kateri trembled as she heard the sincerity in his voice. He meant that. "Then why did you say-"
"Because I can't be with you. Once we reset the calendar, I have to go back to what I was ... and so do you."
"Why? Sundown was a Dark-Hunter. Talon, too. Now they're married. Why can't that be us?"
Because they were luckier than he was. And they hadn't sold their freedom to buy back their wives' lives.
"Please don't cry, Kateri. I can't stand to see you sad."
"I'm sorry." Stepping back, she pulled him into the shower with her. "I love you, too, you know."
He savored the sound of sincere words he'd never thought to hear. They were even more beautiful when spoken from the heart.
Sniffing back her tears, she soaped her cloth, then used it to bathe him. "Were your eyes always blue?" she asked as she lightly fingered the bow-and-arrow tattoo on his left hip.
He nodded. "They thought for the longest time that I was blind. It took me years to make them understand that I could see perfectly."
"I take it they're from your mother."
"Yeah, and my father hated them. He said it was just like looking at her all over again and that they made his skin crawl with revulsion. Sometimes he'd just walk by and slap me for having them."
"How awful!"