Sixx (The Stone Society, #7) (13 page)

Her coffee maker sputtered when the last of the liquid was being released into the carafe, and she poured her large travel mug full, not caring if there was coffee still coming out of the machine. It was supposed to close itself off when you removed the pot, but it was old, and it leaked a little. Not its fault she was too impatient to wait until it had stopped dripping. She added milk to the mug and sat down at the table, opening her computer to a game page. Every morning, Desirae started her day by working a crossword puzzle. She felt it helped to get her mind moving. Between that and the coffee, she was ready to tackle her work half an hour later.

When her backside began to ache, Desirae stood up and rubbed the muscles in her cheeks to get the circulation going again. The coffee pot was empty, as was her growling stomach. Instead of making more coffee, she decided eating was what she needed. Fuel for her brain. She threw together a turkey sandwich with chips and stood at the counter to eat, giving her butt a break. She opened her social media account to check out pictures from Desi’s show the night before. She had only seen him perform live one time, but she never tired of seeing the streaming videos fans posted after each show. The bite of sandwich Desirae had just taken came right back out of her mouth, which was now hanging open.

“Desmond Rothchild look-alike spotted at local California restaurant. Brother? Or just a lucky man with the same handsome face...”

Rae put her sandwich down and began clicking on every photo posted of the mystery man. Few showed him clearly, but they were clear enough for her to see this man did not look like Desi’s brother but Michael’s twin. While the folks posting the photos wondering who the man was wouldn’t have a clue, Desirae knew.

Shit
. That had to be the reason Desi was up so early. His phone had to be blowing up from all the posts. Oh, god! This man looked too much like Michael to not be him. This man was the same thirty-something that she remembered, not an older version of himself. How was that possible? Did he have the same condition she had? Crap! Had he passed it on to her through sex? Or was it when he bit her?

Rae had managed to suppress the crazy thoughts of Michael being something other than human for the most part. But now... No! There was a logical explanation for what she was seeing. Who she was seeing. It couldn’t be him. He was too young to be her Michael. This man was probably a relative. A brother or cousin. They had never discussed his family when they were together, so that was the logical explanation.

Not only was she wearing a hole in her carpet from pacing, but the buttons on her phone were getting a workout. Most especially the delete icon. How many messages had she typed out to her son? How many texts saying nothing more than “call me”? If Desi saw the postings of the man who resembled him, which she was sure he had by now, he would call her if he had questions. He would have called her instead of texting earlier. Desi knew how old his father was, so he had to know this man could not be him. This man was not Michael Gentry.

Rae put her phone down and attempted to eat. She needed to put something in her stomach other than coffee so she could finish the project she’d been working on. Half of the sandwich was all she could choke down. Tossing the other half in the garbage, she was ready to put thoughts of Michael out of her mind. Before she made it to her chair, the doorbell rang. “Shit.” She looked down at her clothes and decided she needed to throw on a robe. Even though more of her body was covered than what most women wore in California, she preferred to be modest, especially if it was the older gentleman delivering more flowers. Desirae was pushing her arms through the long sleeves of the thin robe when she looked through the peephole. A sea of turquoise filled the space.

S
ixx had never been nervous about anything in his life. Being a Gargoyle assured he was strong. Fit. Capable of doing most anything he put his mind to. Now, he was ready to crawl out of his skin. Instead of driving up to New Lomita first thing, he accompanied Uri to training. Sparring allowed him to get rid of some of his nervous energy. Some. Not all. The fact his picture was all over the news and social media had his nerves amped up even higher than they had been. What did Rae think about seeing the man who abandoned her back in town? What did his son think? That he had a lookalike? Or had Rae told him about his absentee father? He was about to find out.

After training, Sixx had showered and taken great care with his appearance. The photos going around showed a younger man with spiked hair. Another reason he looked so much like his son. The Sixx Rae remembered had more often than not worn his hair brushed away from his face. He wanted her to remember the man she allowed into her bed. The one she spent days at the beach with. The one who had fallen in love with her before walking out. Thankfully, men’s clothes hadn’t changed all that much in the past twenty years. A pair of shorts, a worn t-shirt, and flip-flops were what she was used to seeing him in, so that is precisely what he opted for now. He wanted to make a good impression, but he also wanted her comfortable at seeing a still young version of himself.

Sixx strapped Rae’s surfboard to the top of the Jeep and headed south. It was almost noon when he pulled onto her street. If she saw him out front of her house, she might not let him in, so he opted to park in the driveway of a vacant home a few doors down. He unstrapped the surfboard and carried it to her front door, placing the board in front of the peephole so she wouldn’t see his face. He rang the doorbell and took a deep breath. Footsteps sounded inside her small cottage right before a huffed “shit.” Sixx grinned. His mate’s footsteps hastened, disappearing into the back of the house. He was afraid she was hiding until her steps resounded, coming toward the door. Locks were disengaged and the door was opened.

“What the hell?” Rae squealed. He took a big chance and glanced around the board at his mate. Her eyes were huge as she took in the colorful surfboard he was holding, her fingers tracing the design she had described in great detail to the surf shop owner. She finally realized someone was holding the board and turned her gaze to him.

“Rae,” Sixx spoke softly.

“What the hell?” she asked again, only this time it was barely a whisper. Her hand went to her mouth. She stepped backwards, one foot after another taking her farther into the house. Farther away from him.

He didn’t wait for an invitation. Sixx followed her into the small but quaint living room and closed the door behind him. Gods, she was striking. She was still the beautiful little pixie he remembered. Her hair was shorter and she had more ink, but this was his Rae. His mate. The only thing that was really different were her eyes. They were just as green as he remembered, but there was no shine. No spark. He’d done that. Taken it away.

“Stay away from me,” she demanded.

“I can’t do that.” And he couldn’t. Now that she was there in front of him, he was going to do whatever it took to keep her there.

“Sure you can. You did it for twenty-four years.” The emptiness in her eyes was replaced with sadness.

His shifter was fully awake now, imploring him to take her to bed. To fuck her senseless until she had no doubt they belonged together. He didn’t think that was the best way to handle the situation, even though he wanted nothing more than to strip her down right then and there. “Happy birthday,” he said, hoping to ease into any conversation they were about to have.

“It’s not my birthday,” she corrected. Rae had stopped walking, only because her back came up against the wall.

“I know. Technically, it’s tomorrow, but I couldn’t wait. I wanted you to have your board, so here I am.”

“Here you are.
Here you are
? You think you can waltz right in my door twenty-four years later and announce
Here I am
like you didn’t walk out on me and never look back?”

Sixx leaned the surfboard against the wall. He wanted to have both hands ready in case she struck out. He needn’t worry, because Rae kept herself plastered where she was. Away from him.

“That’s why I’m here. To explain everything.”

“I don’t want your explanation. I don’t want the surfboard. And I don’t want you. I’ve done fine all these years without you, so you can just leave.”

“I’m not leaving, Rae. Not yet. There’s too much you and Desi need to know. Once I’ve filled you in, then you can kick me out. But not until you listen to what I came to say.”

At the mention of Desi, her eyes widened, but she just as quickly narrowed them. “Leave my son out of this. There’s nothing you can say to me that will change how I feel about you, Michael. The only thing I want to know is how do you look just like you did back then? How do I look like this?” Rae gestured down her body. “You aren’t surprised at how I look. Why is that?”

He didn’t miss the fact she referred to Desi as
her
son. They would deal with that later. “That’s part of what I need to explain. Please, Doll, give me one hour. I’ll answer all your questions and then I’ll leave you alone.”
Liar.
He would never leave her alone. Never.

“Do
not
call me Doll. You lost that right the day you walked out on me.”

“Fair enough. Can we please sit? You’re going to want to be seated when you hear what I have to say.”

Rae hesitated. He didn’t blame her. Not really. Twenty-four years was a long time, and people changed. He held his hands down to his sides, palms forward. It was his silent way of asking her to trust him. Sighing, she pushed off the wall and circled around to sit in the arm chair opposite the sofa. She curled her legs under her, but kept quiet.

“Gods, you are so pretty. You’re hair’s shorter, but you look just like you did. Just exactly as I remember.”

Rae blanched when he mentioned her not aging. “Stop with the compliments and get on with whatever it is you came here to tell me.” She shoved her hands under her legs. She might have done it to keep her hands steady, but for Sixx, it only brought attention to the bare skin of her legs. He knew how soft they were, how they felt wrapped around his waist. How the muscles of her calves and thighs worked beneath the skin as she maneuvered her surfboard through the water. “Michael?”

“My apologies. It’s just so hard to sit here and not touch you. I want you to know that I’ve thought about you over the years. Being in the position I’m in within the... within my family means I do a lot of traveling. I purchase real estate. I’ve been to various islands, and one look at the water was all it took to transport me back here, to our time together.  I’ve never loved anyone else. If I had known about Desi, I’d have come back.”

Rae scowled at him, but didn’t comment.

Sixx knew he was going about things the wrong way, but sitting here this close to his mate, was killing him. Time to let his feelings and the past rest and get on with the easy part. She might not believe the truth of the Gargoyles, but telling her about the shifters would be much easier than dealing with the hurt. “What I’m about to tell you is going to be hard for you to believe. I promise what I say is the truth. I have never lied to you, and I’m not going to start now. When I left, it was the hardest decision I’ve ever made in my life. The day I left, I told you my job was being transferred to the East Coast. That much was true, but it happened because I requested it. I had fallen in love with you, and at the time, it was something that couldn’t happen.”

“Were you married? Was there someone else?”

“No, Rae. There’s never been anyone else. Yes, I dated over the years, but never did anyone make me feel what you did. What you still do. The reason I left is because I bit you.” At the mention of that night, she placed her hand on her neck in the exact spot he’d sunk his teeth into her soft skin. Rae’s breathing sped up. He reached out with his mind to see if she was scared, but he found she was more confused than anything. “I’m sure you are aware of the Unholy. Those creatures were created in a lab using the blood of a certain
non-human.
This non-human was a shapeshifter.
Is
a shapeshifter. He is from a line of shifters dating back millennia. These shifters are known as Gargouille. Over the years, the term has been modernized into Gargoyle. There are thousands of these shifters all over the world. They were put here to protect humans.”

Rae’s eyes were wide. “You mean shifters like werewolves? Like these Gargoyles come out at night and turn into a beast?”

Sixx cringed at the way she said beast. Yes, he had a beast inside, but not like she meant. “Not exactly. Gargoyles retain most of their human features when they shift, or phase as they call it. It is voluntary for the most part. Only when a Gargoyle’s mate is threatened do their shifters take over and come to the forefront.”

“And you know all of this how?”

Sixx bit the bullet and came right out with it. “Because I am one, Rae. I am a five-hundred-forty-four-year-old shifter. Once a Goyle reaches maturity, they stop aging. The reason you stopped aging is because I bit you.”

“Let me get this straight. You’re one of these shifters, yet in all the time we were together, you never looked anyway other than the way you do now. You bit me, and I stopped aging. What about the other women you bit? Have you had this conversation with them, too?” Jealousy was coming from Rae in waves.

“I’ve never bitten another female, Rae. Only mates are bitten.” He waited for that to sink in, even though she didn’t know the truth of what it meant.

“I’m your mate? As in life partner or some crazy shit like that?”

He hadn’t expected this conversation to be easy, nor had he expected her normally sweet attitude to turn bitchy. “Yes.”

“Then why did you leave? Was I not good enough to be your mate? Or is it some fricked up test to bite a girl then leave her to fend for herself just to see if she’s worthy? Tell me Michael, was I not worthy?” Her voice was louder and angrier the more Rae spoke.

Sixx scooted to the edge of the sofa and leaned his forearms on his thighs. He blew out a breath and continued. “That’s not it at all. There is no test, Rae. Back then, Gargoyles mating with humans wasn’t heard of. Even though I had fallen for you, I had no idea you were my mate. That it was even a possibility. I thought I had lost control of my shifter and you were in danger. I left to protect you from myself.”