“Any news on Claude?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Not yet, but he’ll slip up again. I’ll get him before anyone else gets hurt.”
“How’s your leg?”
He shifted until he was leaning back in his seat with one arm thrown across the back, his long legs stretched out in front of him. The dark look he gave her sent her stomach fluttering.
“Why don’t you pull my pants down and take a look?”
She choked on the bite of food she’d taken and swallowed hard over the lump of meat in her throat. As soon as it was down, she started laughing.
He sighed in defeat. “Forever laughing at me.”
She controlled her twitching lips, barely. “I can’t help it. You’re so funny!” He looked up as if searching for guidance. “I am not amusing, Christine.”
“Disagree.”
He jumped out of his seat in the closest thing to rage since the attack. The change was so sudden, she could only sit there, stunned.
“I am not funny!” Instead of his usual contained, seductive voice, he shouted. Christine pushed herself as far back in her seat as she could as she gaped up at him.
He started to speak, then closed his mouth and jabbed his hand through his hair several times. “I...” He shook his head, sending his long blonde hair slapping around him. “You...” After a moment, he seemed to get control over himself. He took several deep breaths then leveled a hard look on her. It was the only way to describe it, the look pierced her, rooted her in place as if she were frozen in ice.
“What are you trying to say, Dmetri?”
He flattened his palms on the table and towered over her. “I’ve had enough of this. I always get what I want, Christine. Always. When I want a woman, I have her. When I want a house, I buy it.”
Christine had a sinking feeling in her stomach, and at the same time her breathing quickened with an emotion that scared her too much to think about. As the protest formed on the tip of her tongue, he made a slashing move with his hand that silenced her.
“No, now you get to hear me talk. I want you, and I get to keep what I want. I’m going to bring Claude Phelans to justice, and then I’m taking you with me. Do you understand me?” Her mouth opened but no sound came out.
His frustration boiling, he rolled his neck and asked again. “I said do you understand me?”
Christine never had a problem with words yet in that moment, they failed her. He stood, waiting for her answer, the tic over his right eye growing more and more agitated.
“But you’re a vampire.”
He stared at her for a long moment. “Yes, we’ve established that,” he said slowly.
“But I need to mate with an Alpha. You’ll never be one.” He closed his eyes as if trying for patience. “No, I won’t. I’m better, stronger, wealthier, and I want you. That’s all you need to know.”
Tired of him towering over her, she stood too and glared back at him. “I have a duty to honor my mother and father’s wishes. I’m not going to ignore that for my own selfish reasons.
No matter—” she caught herself before she made the slip.
“No matter what, Christine? No matter what you want?” His point hit too close to home. Christine took a step back then another, when he followed she turned and ran for the door. He caught her before she’d taken three steps.
“No fair, you’re faster,” she said as he turned her to face him.
“We’re finishing this discussion now, Christine.”
But I don’t want to, is what she wanted to say. The topic was too sensitive, too close to home.
“Listen, I’m not changing my mind no matter what. I may not like what my mother wants me to do, but I’m going to do it. She deserves that much.”
“God dammit, Christine. I’m not asking you to mate with me—”
“No, you just want to keep fucking me.” Her crude words surprised them both, and the vehemence with which she said it took them both by surprise.
“This isn’t about your damn...body, Christine. You’re a puzzling woman whom I want to be around.”
Anger surged inside her, white-hot and quick. She embraced it because she understood it.
The anger was easier to accept.
“So let me guess, after you get the ‘puzzle’ figured out you can drop me off to the side like you did with Vera. Oh, wait, no, that was because she told you she loved you.” He stiffened like a board, his face turning into a dark mask. For some reason his response only riled her anger even more.
“So what happens then? What happens if I go with you against my mother’s wishes, and against what is right for me, and then I fall in love with you? Do I keep my mouth shut else you’ll dump me like yesterday’s paper?”
He scrubbed a hand down his face. “It isn’t like that.” She laughed, the sound hollow. “I’ve heard about you and Vera. I know how that went down, and now you want to do it with me. How am I supposed to look you in the eye and not say I love you every time I look at you? How can I ignore that? You know enough about me to know that I don’t hold my words for anybody. I’ll say it. I’ll say it until you maybe even start to feel a little something back.”
Her little speech came to a careening stop when he spoke. “You think you could love me?” he asked in a soft voice. He looked at her strangely, an odd light to his eyes.
A blush crept over her cheeks and she struggled to keep from looking away from his piercing eyes. “I...I, no. Of course not. Besides, what would it matter to you?” He looked away, the piercing connection broken. “Indeed.”
“Listen, I’ve got to go.” She reached behind her for the door handle, curling her fingers around it.
She paused before opening the door as if waiting for something. She was met with silence. She rushed out the door without a word.
Chapter 17
Christine ripped the carrots from the ground like a madwoman tearing out her own hair.
The leaves broke in her hands and the bundle of carrots only came out part way. She growled and grabbed hold of the vegetables one last time before giving a vicious yank. The soil gave way and the carrots burst forth, spewing clumps of soil on her face and clothes.
Christine sat back, panting, and spit a clump of dirt off her lips. Normally with a bright warm day like this she’d love to sit outside and enjoy the sun, but she was in no mood. Not today, not since her fight with Dmetri. For the life of her, she couldn’t understand why he’d gotten to her so badly. A fling while he stayed here was one thing, but going to live with him?
Impossible.
Why did the man have to be so...frustrating? She marched down to the row of herbs and began yanking on basil leaves.
“Stupid vampire,” she muttered.
She no longer knew what she was more angry at: that he wouldn’t budge on the matter or that she actually liked the idea of going with him. She had so much fun with him, well, when they weren’t being attacked. She loved how uncomfortable he got when she laughed at him or did something he thought was unexpected. He lived such a controlled life, and she got a huge kick out of knocking down his tough exterior.
“One kick at a time,” she muttered
Plus, he just made her feel good. She stood with her bundle of vegetables and came face to face with her problem.
“Damn, how long have you been creeping on me?”
Today Dmetri wore...casual clothes. She’d never seen him in anything other than a suit.
Even when he’d been helping to clean the bombed houses he’d done it in loafers and a suit.