Some people might have described the effect as hypnotic. To me, he was the supernatural equivalent of a carnivorous plant.
I turned my gaze to the crystal tumblers sitting within holders at the bar. “Are you going to lie about this being a short conversation, too?”
“You’re the one who said it would be brief,” he replied. “What I need to explain to you will take time.”
I ground my teeth. The bloody bastard was correct. “There’s such a thing called lying by omission.”
Valentine chuckled. He probably thought he was several steps ahead of me. Maybe he was, considering he’d been born a century before William I had conquered England. The vampire had had centuries of practice honing the art of seduction and probably thought that toying with the hearts of magicless girls was an art form or a sport.
“Were you stalking me last week?” I asked.
He grabbed my hand. “Are they following you already?”
I twisted around in my seat and met his solemn gaze. “You know what’s happening?”
Valentine inhaled a deep breath, his eyes seeming to drink me in. “I didn’t think it would be possible, but you’ve grown even more beautiful in the years we’ve spent apart.”
Somewhere deep behind the mental barriers, the black tourmaline I wore around my neck, and the Dharma salt I always carried in my pockets, my heart wanted to melt. But that was just the effects of his words. Words like that could make a girl throw her senses out of the window, desperate to hear more from those beautiful, lying lips.
Not me. I was no longer that girl.
“Are you responsible for the firestone bracelet?” I murmured.
He lowered his lashes, his gaze drifting to my right hand. Valentine’s large fingers caressed my skin, sending pleasure skittering up my arm and straight into my heart.
A breath caught in the back of my throat, and my traitorous eyes fluttered shut. It felt like an eternity since I’d allowed any man to touch me except for a perfunctory shake of the hand. The mere touch of Valentine’s skin against mine made my pulse flutter.
I hated this man, yet his touch brought back the memories of our last day together and how he had kissed every inch of my skin, teased me to submission, and lavished me with words of adoration as we had made love. Right now, I felt like his bloody instrument. My body was playing along with Valentine, even though my mind screamed at it to stop reacting.
He pulled back the sleeve of my white coat, and the pad of his thumb brushed over my pulse point. “The enchantment worked perfectly.”
My eyes snapped open, and all traces of pleasure vanished in an instant. “You sent the firestone bracelet.”
“No,” he replied with a furrowed brow.
“But you know who did?” I screamed.
Valentine didn’t answer.
“Did you hire a witch to enchant the stones to sink into my skin?” I held my tattooed wrist in front of his face.
“Inamorata,” he said.
“Don’t Inamorata me,” I snapped. “Answer my damned questions.”
Valentine exhaled a long breath. “Mera, your life is in danger.”
Chapter Five
I twisted around in the limousine’s leather seat and glowered into Valentine’s dark eyes. What kind of game was he playing? Last week, I felt the presence of a vampire following me through Grosvenor Square—one of Valentine’s bloody subjects.
He admitted to knowing about the firestone, even though he claimed he hadn’t sent it. Every piece in this incomplete supernatural puzzle added up to a bored Vampire King looking to spark things up with an old flame.
“Is this a bet?” I asked.
His brows furrowed. “Did you hear what I said?”
“I suppose this is the point where I stare into your eyes and beg you for help?”
I retreated back along the leather seat, trying to put as much distance as possible between myself and the manipulative vampire. I wasn’t in any danger whatsoever. That vampire who had followed me through the park had probably come from Valentine.
“Tell me why you’re really here,” I snapped.
“We think you’re being watched,” he said.
“By?” I folded my arms across my chest. “And is this the royal ‘we’ or do you have an accomplice?”
His nostrils flared, a sign that I was wearing out his patience. I clenched my teeth. If Mr. Tall, Dark, and Brooding Vampire King wanted a sycophant, he was fishing in an empty pool. The only thing he would get from me was belligerence until he started sharing some facts.
“Well?” I asked.
“It’s best for your safety that you change location—”
“No,” I shrieked.
He reared back. “Mera.”
“Prove it.”
The limousine turned right at the traffic lights between Park Street and Upper Brook Street and paused in the traffic. To our left was the leafy expanse of Hyde Park.
At this time of the year, most of the leaves had changed into the glorious oranges and yellows and crimsons I associated with autumn in Britain, but the lush colors were shades of dark blue through the limousine’s tinted windows.
My fingers twitched toward the door. If I’d been in a limo with any other man, I’d have taken the opportunity to leave, but Valentine loved to hunt, and I wasn’t in the mood to play Jerry to his Tom. Besides, Valentine had already predicted I might bolt, hence the central locking.
As the vehicle continued alongside the park, Valentine said, “You want me to find your assassin?”
My skin tightened with annoyance. The way he said the words made me sound like I was too stupid to live and wasn’t prepared to take precautions until someone had made an attempt on my life.
The girl who had once believed in him had been stupid, gullible, and naive, but even she had grown up and wouldn’t put her trust in Valentine’s cold cruel heart.
I met his curious gaze with a hard glare. “I’ve lived in Mayfair for three years, and the only supernaturals we’ve seen have been customers.”
“Except for the person who stalked you through Grosvenor Square,” he replied.
“A vampire who was probably working for you,” I said.
Valentine turned his gaze away from mine, and a muscle in his jaw flexed. Clearly, our reunion wasn’t going as he’d planned.
I stared out of the window into Hyde Park, wishing I was alone and taking a stroll in the fresh air. Anything was better than sitting next to a man who hadn’t acknowledged having sliced through my heart with his cutting words.
It wasn’t like I was being stubborn. That vampire stalker only appeared once and could have followed me into the shop or attacked me on the doorstep when I’d dropped the keys. Instead, he remained on the other side of the road and never returned.
There was no reason to uproot myself and move away from my apprenticeship with Istabelle and my friendship with Beatrice. Especially not on the say-so of the vampire who had already proven himself a liar.
“Your ten minutes are over,” I said without looking into his face. “Take me back to the shop.”
“I can’t do that,” he murmured.
Anger flared in my chest. Who did he think he was, the police? “Why not?”