And the idea that she’d half expected him to put her first, abandon whatever business he had here and go back to California with her…that was more than startling. It was unacceptable.
Kristen had definitely picked up on her mood, and she’d had no trouble deciding where the lay the blame.
“It’s fine. We just need to talk,” Rachel said, shooting Charles a glance over her shoulder. The vampire seemed to be doing his best to look harmless.
Kristen crossed her arms, obviously unimpressed.
She gave her sister a tight smile. “It’s fine, really. I just need some privacy to get out some…thoughts.”
Kristen murmured something indecipherable, but some of the tension faded from her shoulders. “Are we still on for dinner and a movie later?”
“Sure thing. I’ll meet you back here in a couple of hours.”
“Call me if you need anything.”
“Will do.” Doing her best to ignore her sister’s glowering disapproval, she headed down the hallway with Charles trailing closely behind.
The second the door shut behind them, she whirled on him. “What the hell were you doing in there?”
He cocked his head at her, brows drawing together. But he didn’t look upset at her outburst. If anything, he seemed amused. “Are we already to the cursing-at-each-other stage of this argument?”
She forced a breath into her suddenly too-tight chest. Damn. Yelling at him. Cursing him out. Ready to throw the nearest item she could lift at him.
This wasn’t her.
“I’m sorry,” she muttered. “That wasn’t the right way to start this conversation. I just—” She turned away. What could she say? That her anger at him had built all day long? That he’d hurt her terribly this morning? Might as well add that her frustration with her sister and her beau had been building for weeks, and he’d pressed all her buttons at exactly the wrong time. No. She couldn’t say any of that. It was all so irrational.
And revealing.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“I’m fine.”
“Liar.” His arms came slowly around her, as if he were giving her a chance to escape. The solid feel of his chest pressed softly against her back, then he hugged her close to his body.
A sigh escaped her. “Okay. I’ll be fine. Sorry for biting your head off.”
He buried his face in her hair and breathed deeply. “I hurt you. The way I left things this morning.”
She shook her head, an automatic denial. “You were just playing along.”
“Yes. But I’m still sorry. I was just playing along, but I should have made sure you knew that.”
“I’m being silly.” The words came out in an unsure whisper.
“No, you’re not.”
Tension faded from her body at his words and she allowed herself a few seconds to lean back against his solid body before pulling away and turning around to look at him. “Why were you in their room?”
He slid his knuckles down her jawline, his intense gaze capturing hers. “First things first.” Then he leaned in and kissed her softly.
Face heating, she stepped back before he did. Focusing around him when he was being sweet was difficult. When he was being passionate it was nearly impossible. She couldn’t lose control. Not now. Not when she needed answers.
Definitely not while she was feeling this vulnerable.
“Okay. No more kissy face until you’ve fessed up.”
He grinned. “Kissy face?”
She poked him in the chest lightly. “Now.”
“Fine. But this is just between us. You can’t tell anyone—not even Kristen.”
“Doesn’t that go without saying?” Come to think of it, it probably didn’t. So why did every cell in her body seem to scream that it did? That they could trust each other in a way that she’d never trusted anyone?
God, she was in so much trouble.
She had to stick to the plan. Stick to what they’d agreed to. That meant that last night was a one-time deal between almost-friends slash current allies. And it couldn’t be repeated.
“I trust you.” His smile faded, and his brows knotted together. “I do,” he added, but his gaze had shifted, as if he was talking to himself, not her. A quick shake of his head, and his attention was back on her. “I’m not staying close to Brent for the sake of anything as unimportant as a business deal.”
“Okay. Then why are you staying close to him? His awesome personality?”
Charles barked out a quick laugh before his expression sobered. “Not exactly. I’m here for Alice.”
“Who?” Her mind blanked for a moment, and then an image came into focus. Pretty. Blond. Green eyes. A smile that brightened a whole room, and a personality that made everyone around her feel at ease. “Wait. Kristen’s best friend, Alice?”
“Kristen’s former friend, Alice,” he corrected.
A sudden rush of possible explanations ran through her mind. Was Alice his girlfriend—God, that couldn’t be, could it? No. Charles wasn’t that much of a bastard. Maybe Alice hired him to hurt Brent somehow? That didn’t fit either. Alice wasn’t that kind of person, and Charles didn’t strike her as a hired thug, or a thug of any sort.
“I know Alice,” she finally managed.
“Then you understand what kind of person she is.” A tender expression touched his face, and she jerked back, suddenly unsure of all of her assumptions.
But, no. Alice was with some man named Noah. A man she distinctly remembered Kristen describing as having dark hair.
“She’s sort of like my sister.”
“What?” She had met Alice’s brother once, and he wasn’t Charles. “Wait. You’re Noah’s brother?”
His brows pinched together slightly. “I am. You know Noah?”
“I know of him. Kristen mentioned him. I guess he was on that cruise with Alice. Brent’s brother married Alice’s sister in a weird twist of fate. Kristen said Noah was a hunky guy, but I’m guessing he’s a hunky vampire?”
Charles gave her a mock scowl, and amusement danced in his eyes. “I’m a hunky vampire. Noah is just a vampire.”
“If you say so.”
“Not hunky.”
“Uh-huh.”
He pulled her close and kissed her soundly on the lips.
Giggling, she pushed him back. “Okay, so what do Alice and this…”
“Non-hunky,” he supplied.
“What does this non-hunky vampire have to do with Brent? I mean, I know that Alice and Brent used to be engaged, but I don’t get what that has to do with you needing to stay close to him. They haven’t dated in over a year. Not since—” She scowled. Not since Alice had caught Brent cheating on her with Kristen. It had been singularly the most painful experience in Kristen’s life—probably Alice’s, too. Meanwhile the jerk who lied got through it all mostly unscathed.
A darkness fell over his expression, and he crossed his arms. “A few weeks ago, Alice started getting threats.”
“Threats?”
“Vague warnings that if she stayed with Noah, she would be hurt. Killed.”
“Jesus.” She tried to imagine anyone wanting to hurt Alice Shepard, and she couldn’t picture it. The woman was like sunshine made human, kind and bubbly and practically radiating goodness. “Alice is so…”
“I know. And that’s why we have a pretty limited suspect pool.”
“You’re investigating Brent. Why not just force him to tell you what you want to know?” She made magical finger motions at her head. “You know, mojo it out of him or whatever.”
“The person making the threats knows about vampires—knows what Noah is. I don’t know for sure that my powers would work on him. Chances are, if he knows about us, he’s resistant. Some humans are, though I’ve only met one able to fully resist me. Or very nearly.” His gaze weighed heavily on her.
Something clicked into place in her mind. “You’ve tried to use your powers on me.”
“Tried and failed. The night we m
et, when you caught me feeding by the Dumpsters. And again when we were on the lift together, although that was a slight push, hardly worth mentioning.”
She thought she’d felt something odd that night, and again on the lift, but she’d attributed it to the weirdness of situation. The cold. Anything else. Anger filled her, overwhelming the numbness. Stepping forward, she crowded him, hands clenched so hard at her sides that her arms shook. “I can’t believe you’d do that to me.”
“I didn’t know you.” His voice was rough, but he didn’t back away. “Try to see it from my perspective.”
“But you did something to me, didn’t you?” It made perfect sense. Of course he’d done something. She’d been confident enough to blackmail him—a vampire—for crying out loud. How hadn’t she seen it before?
Maybe because she hadn’t wanted to.
“I only made you a little less afraid of me.” His eyes begged her to understand. “That’s all. Just a tiny push to keep you from running away and screaming ‘vampire’ at anyone who would listen.”
The anger drained from her, and she slumped on the bed. She could understand why he’d do such a thing, but the idea that he’d manipulated her emotions wasn’t something she was certain how to even begin to deal with.
Gingerly, he sat beside her on the bed, leaving a foot of space between them. Silence filled the room for several minutes while she processed everything.
“Have you done it since?”
“Never,” he said, voice low. “And I never will. I swear it to you. I’m sorry, but it was necessary.”
He’d never broken her trust before. Never reneged on a promise. Sure, he hadn’t been totally honest with her, but could she really blame him for that? In his situation, she would have done the same.
But it still hurt. And the idea that she was so easily manipulated was more than a little terrifying.
“How much could you influence me…I mean—”
“Not much.” He snorted. “I’ll admit, I gave it my best. And right after feeding. I’ve never seen anyone resist like that before.” He leaned to his side and bumped her shoulder with his upper arm playfully. “You have a very hard head.”
“So I’m told.”
A few more moments of silence between them, then he added, “I wish we’d met under different circumstances, but I’m not sorry we met.”
“Me, either.” That much was true. He might have her insides torn up with confusion, but she wasn’t sorry she knew him. Stupid probably, but she wasn’t even sorry they’d slept together. “You really care about her, don’t you?”
“Who?”
“Alice,” she said drily. “Do try to keep up.”
A soft laugh escaped him. “Yes. I care about her. She’s family to me, and I don’t have a lot of family.”
The vampire with a soul, with a heart, go figure. Charles might seem shallow to the casual observer—with his lighthearted attitude and playboy smile—but he wasn’t. He had the ability to care deeply. Earnestly.
For some reason that scared her more than if he’d been a straightforward jerk who didn’t feel bad about trying to hypnotize her, or whatever they called it. She knew how to deal with jerks, but she wasn’t sure how to deal with him.
“How did that even happen? Noah and Alice, I mean.” A vampire and a human, that’s what she wanted to say. But that question was far too revealing, even though she burned to know the answer.
A short laugh escaped him. “It’s a long story. But the short version is Noah needed to get out of town to avoid an arranged bonding—”
“Wait. A what?”
“Think arranged marriage, but tougher to get out of. It’s something we—vampires—do once we hit a certain age. Keeps us from getting too…tired.” Pain touched his expression.
“You know someone who’s needed a…bonding, I take it?”
“Noah didn’t need it but the council was insistent, so he had to get out of town to give Alex and me—that’s our other brother—a chance to change the council members’ minds. Alice was his solution to that. A week of fun in the sun together on a cruise ship, and they’ve been a couple ever since.”
“And he got out of his bonding thing?”
“Yep. They’re giving Noah and Alice enough time to get there on their own.”
She opened her mouth to ask more questions, then closed it. Anything she’d ask would make it more obvious that she wanted to know how things could work for a human and a vampire, long term. And that wasn’t something she needed to know about, no matter how much part of her wanted to. “So, did you find what you needed in Brent’s room?” she asked instead.
“Nope.”
“Guess that means you’ll be sticking around a bit longer.”
Shifting his weight, he turned to look at her. Gently, he tugged a sheaf of her hair from her forehead and tucked it behind her ear. “Are you so eager to see me go?”
She wasn’t, and that was scary. But she was too on edge to talk about her feelings right now—or even figure them out. “Then maybe you’re up for another try with Brent.”
“I’m already on it.”
Surprised, she blinked at him. “You are?”
“Yep.” He grinned. “And this time, I’m taking no chances.” The edge of his smile faded. “That is, if you’re okay with me taking a bit of a shortcut.”
“Your powers?”
“Vampire mojo.”
She took a breath to ask him the details, then released it. Did she really want to know? Probably not. At least, not right now when she was feeling so wobbly about everything. “No one will get hurt, right?”
“No one you didn’t already commit to hurting.”
She winced, but his gaze didn’t falter. It was the reality she’d have to face. Ignoring or tiptoeing around it would just make it that much harder to face when the shit hit the fan. And she had no doubt it would, at some point. “When?”
“Tonight. Right after we get back from the dogsled ride.”
Chapter Eight
Miraculously, Charles held back the laugh at her immediate double take. It took every bit of his decades of practice at keeping his true emotions close to the chest to make it convincing.
“After we get back from the what?”
He quirked an eyebrow at her, playing innocent. “You didn’t hear me?”
“Do me a favor and repeat it,” she ordered drily.
“We’re going for a sunset dogsled ride. Followed by fondue or something. I’m going out with Brent afterward. That’s when I think I can get him into the position we need.”
She groaned. “Kristen? She did this, didn’t she?”
“Who else?” He coughed back a laugh. “She asked me not to come—actually told Brent to tell me it was canceled. The scamp of course told me, and I insisted on showing up. It’ll get her riled up, and might even get me more into Brent’s good graces.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea. If she’s angry with you, it might distract her when we need her to be pissed at him.”
“I don’t know. It might help her to see you making shitty decisions when it comes to men. Maybe a mirror will show her what she’s doing.” He shrugged, knowing that there was no definite, logical reason for him to push to go, but wanting to anyway. “Maybe I’d just really like to go dogsledding with you.”
“You ever been?”
“Nope. You?”
“Yeah,” she said, sarcasm dripping from her tone. “I dogsled all the time.”
“Well, I’m not letting you sled with Cole.”
“You’re not?”
“No. And I already told him so.”
Her beautiful hazel eyes narrowed at him. “I see. You are aware that I don’t like being told what to do, right? And that I find caveman bullshit to be something less than sexy?”
God, he loved riling her up. “It’s for your own safety.”
“Hah. I can’t wait to hear this.”
He leaned in close to her ear and murmured, “I’
ll be able to keep you warmer than he ever could.”
Heat flooded her cheeks and he grinned at her. She looked away to hide her embarrassment. “Whatever. Let’s go.”
The snow was no longer falling, but the recent flurry had left a layer of fresh, clean powder which covered everything as far as the eye could see. Combined with the sunset and the stunning terrain, it set a very romantic picture. One Charles could have enjoyed with Rachel by his side, if not for her glaring sister and a smug Brent.
“I still think this is a terrible idea,” Kristen whispered to her sister, out of the range of a normal man’s hearing, but not a vampire’s. “It’s not too late to cancel this. I can’t believe he got Cole to stay in.”
“He’s very convincing. Not that it seems super tough to get Cole to avoid the lot of us this trip,” Rachel said. “And don’t worry. Sitting with Charles on a sled isn’t going to make him irresistible.”
“On him. You basically have to sit on him.”
Rachel hesitated, then muttered a curse word that—if he heard her properly—was most unladylike and descriptive. He was pretty damn sure he’d heard her just fine.
“Why don’t you ride with Charles?” Kristen called to Brent, apparently desperate for a solution that wouldn’t leave her sister in the arms of a man who’d hurt her feelings. If only she were as protective of herself.
Brent shot her a glare. “I am not cuddling with Charles on a sled.”
“Or anywhere else,” Charles added, and Brent laughed.
They met with the two professional mushers, who explained the gist of riding in the sleds to them. It all came together into a list of what Charles would define as a perfect date if he’d come here alone with Rachel. They were all to keep their body parts inside of the sleds—check; he was fine keeping all his body parts as close to hers as possible. They should stay under the warm blankets. Under warm blankets with Rachel?—check, check, and bonus points for getting to stay warm. And then they would be served some beautiful views, finger food, and wine. Check, check, check.
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