Jewel rolled her eyes at her mate, then looked at Kara. “What are we going to do?”
Kara sighed. “Try not to worry about our friends and wait.”
Jewel leaned back against Dalton. “Waiting sucks.”
“No fun facts to share about waiting?” Kara smiled.
“Oh, I could give you loads of stuff on the psychology behind waiting.” Jewel sat back up again and suddenly looked eager. “There are several studies on how waiting for prolonged periods of time affects the aging process, anxiety—”
“Little Dove, we don’t car—” Jewel held up her hand and placed it over Dalton’s mouth.
“I can even tell you how it affects a person’s sexual health.”
Both males froze as they looked at Jewel.
Jewel winked at Kara and then looked at her mate. “You were saying?”
Dalton cleared his throat. “I was just going to say we don’t have any food to enjoy while you share this enlightening information.”
Nick laughed, shaking Kara in his lap. “As far as saves go, that was pretty weak.”
Kara nodded. “Yeah, it was.”
“Where’s the male solidarity?” Dalton narrowed his eyes at Nick.
Nick shook his head. “It goes out the window when it might negatively affect whether I get to explore the information your mate’s about to give us. Jewel”—he motioned with his hand to the room—“you have the floor. Please, enlighten us.”
Chapter
Fourteen
“It’s frustrating when a person crawls out of the hole you’ve put them in—and no, I don’t mean that literally. But seriously, how dare they? You’ve got them shoved into a nice little box, and then they come along and tear down its walls, challenging everything you thought you knew. I mean, c’mon. What the hell?” ~Alice
“You’re an asshole. And since you’re so freaking old, I bet you’ve been told that many times in your life. And, if you’ve been told that many times, one would think that you’d work on that massive personality flaw. But my observations tell me you haven’t even acknowledged it. You realize that acceptance is the first step to overcoming a problem, right? It’s not like—”
“Are you done?” Cain snarled, his fangs on full display.
Alice raised a brow at him. “Considering I was still speaking, that answer should be obvious. Which means you’re not just an asshole, but you’re also an idiot. Idiot-asshole is not a great qualification if you’re looking for a female friend.”
Cain paced the room, his room, where he’d forced her to stay with him. He scraped his fangs over his bottom lip several times and shot her a scathing look.
“You know, I could stay in a different room,” she suggested. “It’s obvious you don’t really want me here, and if you’re worried I’m going to run off, you don’t need to be.”
“Stop!”
Alice’s mouth snapped closed. She sat up straighter in a chair that occupied the far wall of the room. An enormous bed covered in a dark black comforter and a plethora of red satin pillows, which were artfully arranged, took up the middle of the room. On the opposite wall, a partially opened walk-in closet held rows of suits—all identical, from what Alice could tell.
“You said you wanted to talk.” Cain turned to face her. He slipped his hands into his black slacks. She’d noticed black was a common theme with the vampire king. “I was in the middle of dealing with some important matters, but I dropped them to accommodate you. If I’d known you were going to insult and berate me, I would have had Willis give you a sedative and continued on with my business. So, if you have nothing relevant to say, I will take my leave, and you can go to bed.”
“Take your leave?” Alice tried to hide her smile. “How old are you? Do you break your fast in the morning, too? Or break bread in the evenings?”
Cain rolled his eyes. “You obviously know what those terms mean, so how old are you?”
“I read.” She leaned back in the chair, relaxing a little now that he wasn’t hissing at her. “And I like to watch television. Both of which afford a person an opportunity to learn about the past, including the vernacular of the age. You, however, use ancient phrases as a matter of course.”
He stared at her, his dark eyes seeming to see past her face and into her mind. Alice really hoped he couldn’t read minds. That was a thing on some vampire shows, wasn’t it? Who knows if that myth held a kernel of truth?
“Why do you suddenly look scared? You were just chewing me up, and not in a good way. Now you appear to be ready to run away like a rabbit.”
