Claimed by Sarah Fine

got warm. “He seemed really aware, I guess. I don’t know how else to say it.” All she knew was that, from the moment sh e’d met him, h e’d given her space when he sensed she needed it. H e’d touched her without making it about him. H e’d been nothing but respectful and gentle. Oh, and also gorgeous. She could have sworn, for a few minutes last night, h e’d been flirting with her. “Yeah. He just seemed aware. Of me,” she said lamely.
    Plus, he was a known , and all the other faceless men were not, and that made them a lot more terrifying.
    Eli ran his thumb along the back of her hand. “Okay. Fair enough. He seemed aware.”
    “But he also said no.”
    Eli stared at their joined hands for a few moments, and she could tell he was thinking about something, but she was afraid to ask what. This was awkward enough. Finally, he patted her hand and edged off the bed. “If you want to do this, I’ll support you. Every step of the way. I just want you to be careful with yourself. You’ve been through enough.”
    Tears burned her eyes. Eli had been through it right along with her, and he was still by her side. “I’m so lucky that you’re my brother,” she said in a choked voice.
    She opened her arms, and he hugged her, accidentally knocking her towel turban off in the process. He stepped back and grabbed it, then laid it flat over the top of her head. Like she was a nun or something. “Love you, Sis,” he said, his eyes shining, determination set in his square jaw. “We’ll get you through this. Trust me.”
    He disappeared.
    Galena lay back on the pillows. If trusting Eli were all that was required, this would be a piece of cake. Too bad that getting through this required entrusting herself, body and soul, to someone else.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    D ec poured himself a few fingers of Jameson and set the bottle back on the counter. H e’d gone through half of it in the last hour but still didn’t have the numbing buzz he needed. In fact, his thoughts were sickeningly lucid.
    Walking out on Galena and the rest of them had been a dick move, but h e’d been short-circuited by Cacy’s suggestion that he marry Galena. What the fuck. He wondered if Galena was actually considering it, just to have the immortality that would make it possible for her to save the world.
    He didn’t know whether he would respect her for that or not. On the one hand, it was so unselfish. On the other, it was too unselfish.
    A knock on his door had him glancing over at his entryway, cluttered with a couple of pairs of work boots. He reached over and tapped the door monitor, fully expecting to see Cacy, all pissed off, on the screen.
    But it was Eli. “Hey, Chief, can I come in?”
    Dec sighed and hit the “Unlock” icon. He held up the Jameson bottle as Eli walked into the apartment. “Drink?”
    Eli shook his head. “Rough night, I guess.”
    Dec chuckled, bitter and low. “What can I do for you?”
    Eli looked around, and Dec did, too, trying to see his place with a stranger’s eyes. His weights and gym equipment took up about half of his massive living room, along with a couch and a videowall. The kitchen was about as basic as it comes: sink, stove, fridge, stainless steel counters. No pictures on the walls. The massive windows along the far wall offered a nice view of downtown, but they were tinted, no drapes. Dec wasn’t really into decoration.
    “I wanted to talk to you about what happened tonight,” Eli said as his gaze returned to the counter, to Dec’s glass.
    Dec took a long sip. “I can’t remember half of it, and I’m trying to forget the rest.”
    “That’s too bad.” Eli sank onto a barstool next to him. “Because I really need your advice.”
    Dec gave him the side-eye as he emptied his glass, the whiskey burning in his throat in a vaguely pleasurable way. “Shoot.”
    “Galena’s determined to do this marriage thing.”
    “Will she be able to go through with it?”
    “It seems better to her than