Looked like the mysterious Carly had accomplished what she’d wanted.
The other women nodded and Ana automatically did the same.
“I say we reconvene for group mani-pedis in a week,” Justine piped up. “Show of hands?”
Ana looked at her short, uncolored nails. Plain. Simple. Boring.
When she looked up, the other women were watching her with different expressions. Gentleness—Collette. Amusement—Justine. Challenge—Barrett.
The vote was unanimous.
“I know a red that will look fabulous with your coloring,” Justine said as they all left the stable. Feeling slightly dazed, Ana simply nodded.
But when she was alone in her room, she showered and fell into bed with a smile.
CHAPTER
NINETEEN
Two days after Carly had Ana bond with the other women over horse shit, Ty stood on the upper story of the Belladonna training facility and looked down at the paddock, watching as Ana got dumped off the gray horse yet again. She cussed first at the horse, then at Barrett, who was teaching Ana to ride. Barrett responded with a cool smile, and gestured for Ana to get back up on the horse. Although she hesitated at first, Ana gathered the reins, and apparently her courage, and launched herself back into the saddle.
When Ty’s cell phone rang, he answered it.
“How’s our ghetto girl doing?” Carly’s sultry voice queried.
“Don’t call her that,” he snapped out even as he kept his gaze on Ana, who’d gamely pressed the horse into a canter. She bounced a bit in her seat, but held on.
“Sticking up for the masses?” Carly taunted. “So magnanimous of you, ignoring class.”
“There is no class system in America,” he responded, hitching in a breath as the horse took the jump.
Carly laughed bitterly. “So goes the lie. So how’s Ana’s training going?”
“Quite well. She’s handled everything we’ve thrown at her. Before today, she’d never ridden a horse, but she’s getting the hang of it.”
“Why the hell does she need to ride a horse?”
“The compound has a few horses, so riding just might come in handy. Plus, the lessons are another teambuilding experience more than anything else,” he said.
“Ty, we need to push forward,” Carly said. “We have less than a week left before the fund-raiser. If Miguel takes the bait, things could move quickly. We need to tell her.”
Ty stiffened. He understood what Carly was getting at.
Tell her what I am. A freak of nature. A monster.
Instinctively, he resisted. “I don’t want to tell her. Not yet.”
“She’s done everything you’ve asked of her, Ty, and that’s been plenty. She’s proven she’s invested in the mission. Peter and I will be talking to the others. Tell Ana or I will.”
As the line went dead, Ty cast his gaze below, focusing again on Ana. She’d dismounted, and stood next to the horse, stroking its shoulder as she spoke animatedly with Barrett. And smiled.
After Carly’s little bonding exercise, he’d put Ana through hell all over again, but she’d done everything he’d asked without complaining. More than that, she’d started to take pride in her own achievements and the small connections she was making with the rest of the team. She’d been smiling more and more easily. And, God, but Ana smiling was something to look at.
Too bad he had to wipe that smile right off her face.
Fifteen minutes later, Ty leaned against the paddock fence and watched Ana exit the barn. She was still smiling, her expression soft, her chin tipped up so the afternoon sun stroked her cheeks. Happy.
Once again, her visible joy took his breath away.
Then she caught sight of him, leaning against the whitewashed boards, and she frowned.
“So, I pretty much sucked, didn’t I?” she asked, gesturing with a thumb over her shoulder to the barn behind her.
“You looking for a phony compliment?”
She frowned. “No. I was looking for agreement.”
He kicked off from the paddock fence, and with his hands still dug deep into his pockets, came to stand a bare two inches away from her. “Won’t get that from me. You actually have a good seat.”
Now her frown turned to a scowl. “Stop blowing smoke up my ass. That’s the first time I’ve ever been on a horse. Of course I sucked. What you’re doing is patronizing me, and I don’t like it. Don’t want it.”
A smile edged its way across his lips, slow and steady. “As I told you before, I never—”
“Only a liar says they never lie.”
“And only a fool won’t face the truth. Were you perfect on the horse? No. You held your shoulders too high and didn’t dig your heels down deep enough. Were you good? Yes. After getting dumped a few times, you ended up with excellent balance, and you kept control over the horse. Now get that chip off your shoulder and stop acting as if I’m your enemy.”
He expected her to say, “Everyone is the enemy,” but she didn’t. No matter. All of a sudden, he felt like her enemy.
Her neck was exposed, her heartbeat thrumming through the visible vein there.
Aching, his fangs reacted along with his cock. The scenery—the red barn and its white trim, the lush willow trees lining the long paved drive, the green grass of the meadow and the golden brown sand of the paddock—grew dull and gray … a roaring in his ears sounded … hunger ate at his belly, gnawing, clawing, screaming, demanding …
Feed.
Suck.
Drink.
Blood. Punctured skin. Throbbing veins opening up under his fangs.
He jerked backward. Their surroundings slowly swam back into focus. In front of him stood a perplexed Ana.
“Ty? What’s wrong?”
He worked to calm his breathing. To reduce his heart rate. He hadn’t given himself away. She hadn’t seen him for what he really was. Hadn’t seen the beast that lived inside him. The thing he hated.
“There’s quite a few things wrong at the moment, but we need to focus on what’s important.”
“And what’s that?”
“The truth. The full truth,” he said. “There’s more that you need to know, Ana. A lot more.”
“What is it?”
He didn’t want to tell her. He truly didn’t.
But his reasons were selfish.
He wanted her to continue looking at him with desire. He wanted to hold her and kiss her again. But he’d known this day would come.
So he told her the truth. Starting with what he was.
She didn’t believe him, of course. She laughed.
“You’re a vampire. Right,” she said.
She moved to walk past him, and he gently took her arm.
“I’m not joking, Ana.”
“Of course you’re not. And of course I believe you. Did I ever tell you I’m a fairy? At night, I fly around sprinkling fairy sparkle dust over the world.”
Ty shook her, not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to get her attention. “I’m a vampire. I wasn’t born one, but I was turned into one. Six months ago. By born vampires called Rogues.”
“Rogues? As opposed to what? Lawfully abiding vampires?”
“That’s right.”
She threw her arms wide, breaking his grip. “Of course. And does everyone know about vampires—that you are one—but me?”
“No. Hardly anyone does. Just us—”
“Us?”
“Carly. Peter and I. And a select few people in the FBI.”
“Oh, so it’s a government conspiracy. Kind of like UFOs?” Her expression was still mocking. Her tone still laced with disbelief.
“No conspiracy. Not like UFOs. Just … just a discovery the government’s not ready to share yet.”