Spencer immediately made a move to avoid him, but it was too late.
She was trapped once again, her body caged between his the steely wall of his body and the balustrade which his fingers were now gripping to lock her in.
"Let me go," she gritted out.
"Never."
"Why?" Hazel eyes flew up to him in stony challenge, but even that, Etienne saw, wasn't enough to mask the pain he had unintentionally inflicted in her. "I've been working for you for years, and you always leave the moment a woman thinks she's in love and gets a little too clingy---"
"Is that a promise you'll start clinging?"
"It's a promise that I won't be an idiot," she hissed, "just because I'm in love with you. I know what you're doing here. The only reason you don't want to let go is---"
"Because I'm in love with you, too."
Chapter Ten
He had to be joking. The words played over and over in her mind even as Spencer found herself following Etienne to his car, where they were supposed to talk in private. He insisted on driving, too, and this only made things feel more surreal. And weird. It didn't seem right that it was her boss behind the wheel while she sat next to him with nothing to do.
"Where exactly are we going?"
"A friend's party---" And seeing the look of surprise on her face, he said silkily, "So that lovely dress of yours won't go to waste."
"But you said you wanted to talk---"
"Isn't that what we're doing now?"
While speaking, Etienne reached for her hand without warning, and before she could even react, he was already bending his head to place a small kiss on her knuckles.
Oh!
The sensation of his lips against her skin immediately had Spencer catching her breath...and holding it as his smoldering gaze met hers. "Is it really that hard to believe, mi vavli?"
Her mind said yes, her heart begged to differ, but it was her body that ended up crying and aching when Etienne slowly released her hand, and her breath whooshed out of her.
"You...I..." Spencer was finding it increasingly difficult to think. "Never...not one...clue..."
She felt his gaze narrow at her, and when she turned to him, he said calmly, "It was the same for me, don't you think? You've been in love with me for a long time---"
Even though Spencer knew it was already pointless to feel bothered, she still couldn't help flinching at hearing the truth from Etienne of all people.
"But you never gave a clue either, did you?" Now that he had a role to play, the words came easily, and his mind was already leap years ahead in strategizing and putting plans into place to ensure the words he had uttered earlier would come off as the truth...even if it wasn't.
"I just can't..." Spencer shook her head. "You're not the type to fall in love---"
"And you are?"
She had to bite back a smile at the drollness in his tone. It almost felt like there was an insult hidden somewhere behind his words. But even so---
"Just give us a chance."
Oh no. She had never heard him hear use such a coaxing tone before. Never. The moment any of his dates had started making demands, he hadn't wasted a single second in getting rid of them. It had always been his way of making things clear about where women stood in his life, which was somewhere below obligatory appearances in gold tournaments (his hatred of which she now understood) and slightly more important and enjoyable than having to personally shop for his clothes (men were just men, apparently, with or without fangs).
"Spencer..."
"You know..." Spencer was unable to meet his gaze as she heard herself say, "I wasn't lying about what I said."
The unease in her voice made Etienne's grip on the steering wheel tighten. He knew right away what this was all about, and he knew just as well it was a subject he needed to tread carefully on.
"I did sell my virginity."
"I see."
"That's all you're going to say?"
"Why did you do it?" Etienne forced himself to ask. "Was it for money?"
Spencer squeezed her eyes shut, and in a barely audible voice that he couldn't have heard if he had been human, she whispered, "It was because of you." And the rest of the words tumbled out in a stilted fashion. "I wanted to prove to myself that I can get past my feelings for you, so I..."
Things started to click in his mind, and Etienne could feel his face whiten as he remembered her conditions, which at that time he had considered eccentric but thought nothing more of.
At that time, all he had cared about was discovering for himself if the purported qualities of chemically compatible sangferia were real. So if the woman whose virginity he had bought wanted him to fuck her like some anonymous gigolo who wouldn't take no for an answer---
It had been nothing to Etienne.
Only this time...he realized too late that all those conditions were proof of just how much---
"That night, I think...we only did it once, and he was good. Extremely good." Like you, she added silently. "But maybe it was because I was also stressing over things, I ended up passing out, and when I woke up the next morning he was gone. And it was then I realized..." She sucked her breath. "I realized that it didn't work. I thought having a night of wild sex would change me," she confessed jerkily, "and I could start dating other guys, but when I saw you again---"
"You were still in love with me."
She couldn't help turning towards him at the hoarse way he had uttered the words, but Etienne's handsome face, despite its sudden pallor, remained terrifyingly unreadable.
Did he see her differently, she wondered painfully, now that he knew the truth?
None of the women Etienne previously dated were virgins, but what if he held different standards for the woman he was thinking of spending the rest of her life with? What if it was a vampire - no, a Caro thing? What if the old bloods had rules about their kind ony being allowed to take virgin brides?
The thought made her feel sick with dread, and she turned to him in unconscious entreaty. "Etienne..."
He heard her voice break, and Etienne instinctively slammed his foot on the brake.
Spencer couldn't understand why they were suddenly pulling over and Etienne was abruptly unbuckling his seatbelt. "W-Why---"
The rest of her words disappeared under his mouth, and she could only gasp against his lips, unable to pull away even if she wanted to, with his fingers driving through her hair in a forceful grip. His kiss was hard and downright possessive, demanding and impossible to resist. But most of all...
Oh, most of all...
And Spencer found herself squeezing her eyes shut as the kiss gradually gentled and faded.
It was a kiss that said...
Her lips started to tremble the moment Etienne lifted his head and gazed down at her.
"You still love me?" she whispered uncertainly.
"Always will." And he knew, even if it meant damning his soul to Hell, he had been right to lie, with the way her eyes started to shimmer and turn radiant with joyous tears.
Spencer pressed trembling fingers to her cheek. I'm crying, she realized dazedly. She had been crying a lot lately, but this was the first time that she felt like she was crying for the right reasons, and it scared her to think that none of it might be real. Gazing at Etienne imploringly, she asked, "Tell me I'm not dreaming of this?"