57. Edgar

As Edgar helped Negal and Julian maneuver the second stasis chamber into his and Jasmine"s hotel room, he felt like crap.

Why did he have to be such a jealous ass?

Jasmine hadn"t promised him exclusivity, and usually, it wouldn"t have been an issue because he didn"t expect that from his hookups. But he"d hoped for more with her, especially if she was a Dormant.

There weren"t many of those just hanging around, and Jasmine was a catch. She was beautiful, upbeat, and open-minded. He"d had more fun with her in bed and outside of it than with any of the other women he"d been with, and he"d even thought that he was falling in love with her.

Was he, though?

Maybe. He"d thought he was, but what Jasmine said was true. If he"d been so taken with her, he should have sought a way to be with her before Amanda offered the opportunity to Max. The truth was that he had barely thought about Jasmine before Amanda had mentioned her.

Still, his feelings for her had grown over the short time they had been together, and he could easily see himself mated to her.

He hated that she was now mad at him and probably complaining to her girlfriends about him. Hopefully, she wasn"t talking shit about him and besmirching his reputation.

Jasmine wasn"t malicious, or at least he didn"t think she was, so he didn"t believe that she would do that, but who knew?

How did the saying go?

Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.

Except, in this case, he was the scorned one.

Well, they both were.

Was that right, though?

Jasmine acted like she had done nothing wrong, and he believed her. So, she had every right to be mad at him for insinuating misconduct on her part.

Perhaps one of the gods had bitten her without her knowledge?

Edgar cast a sidelong glance at Negal, who would be the prime suspect. The guy had induced Karen, who hadn"t been his mate, so biting Jasmine to make her heal faster was just the kind of thing he would do. The difference was that when he had bitten Karen, he hadn"t been in a relationship with Margo yet.

Now that he was bonded to a mate, he shouldn"t be able to do such an intimate thing with another female, but Edgar had already conceded that gods might be different in that regard.

As they settled the chamber into place and released the ropes, the dull thud of its base against the worn carpet sounded unnaturally loud in the room"s stillness.

"It"s a tight fit," Negal said. "But it will have to do."

Edgar regarded the coffin-like chamber with a grimace. "I don"t know about you, but I"m not happy to have a corpse in my bedroom while I"m making love to Jasmine."

Negal chuckled. "I hear you. I wouldn"t want this thing in my and Margo"s room either, but your lady seems attached to it." He looked around the room until his gaze settled on the colorful extra blanket draped over the single chair. "Maybe we can put this over the chamber." He shifted his gaze to Edgar. "Do you want to do that?"

"Yeah. I do." He reached for the blanket, draped it over the oval chamber, and turned to Julian. "You should do the same with the one in your room."

Julian waved a dismissive hand. "I don"t mind, and Ella doesn"t either. We are careful to leave the alarm on the door so if anyone tries to open it when we are not there, the noise will chase them away."

"Unless they are Chinese military," Edgar murmured. "The faster we can get out of here, the better."

"I"m not worried about that," Julian said. "I"m just grateful for Kian"s paranoia and William"s genius for creating devices to counteract it. I would have never thought to booby-trap my hotel room door." He turned to Negal. "Don"t you guys have a cloaking device? What with all your technological knowhow, you should have a way to hide yourself and your stuff."

Negal opened the door. "We do. It"s called shrouding. But you are right. We should have developed a way to hide our belongings when we are not around."

As the two launched into a discussion of how a cloaking device might work, Edgar closed the door behind them and activated the alarm.

He needed to find Jasmine and apologize to her even though his suspicions were valid. She was right that the lack of trust was offensive, and for that, he owed her an apology. He had basically accused her of being a dishonest person, and that had been uncalled for.

"I"m heading to the restaurant," he told Negal and Julian. "Are you coming?"

Julian waved a hand without even bothering to look his way. "Yeah, in a bit." He went back into his discussion with Negal.

For a physician, Julian knew a lot about science fiction, and the arrival of the three gods from an alien planet had fueled his obsession with alien tech.