“Sure, sure,” Maurice says, amused. “Put yourVladdyon, would you?”
I cast my eyes heavenward, resolutely refusing to look at Vlad as I hand over the phone. Knew that one would come back to bite me, even if it was hilarious at the time. And more a joke on Vlad than me. I was pissed off at him for not telling Maurice about me.
What’s more concerning is that Maurice didn’t know what nudes were a week ago, but there was a salacious tone to that last line. Someone’s been letting him on the internet unsupervised, which, in my experience, is never a smart idea where vampires are concerned.
“That is probably for the best, yes,” Vlad is saying when I look at him. His fingers are still threaded through mine. “As long as you are up for it, of course. Yes. Yes, I—we will await your arrival. All right. Goodbye.”
He hangs up and slips the phone into his pocket. “Maurice will be arriving tomorrow night. He will not make it before sunrise today.”
“Okay, yeah.”
Vlad’s eyes narrow as he studies my face. “What did he say to you?”
“Nothing that—He knows there’s something different between us.”
“You did not want him to know?”
“No. No, I told you Ido. I just didn’t want to have that conversation on the phone.”
Or to have him sound kind of smug about it. I mean, I get it. Doesn’t mean I have to like it.
“Will it be a problem?” Vlad asks, stepping in closer. “I will tell him not to mention it if you prefer.”
“It’s not that. I think I just imagined telling them all at the base, at the same time. It’s weird like this.”
Vlad presses his lips to mine. Just once, for a second, but my head reels that he did it at all. We’ve been on a job the entire time, of course, but right here and now, we’re in the thick of it.
I sigh and press my forehead to his shoulder. “Sorry. I’m being weird. It is fine. And he’s going to tease us both, so that’s fine, too.”
“I will not allow him to tease you,” Vlad growls, and that gets a faint laugh out of me, the strange, uncomfortable feeling fading away. Things have changed. I wanted the change. It’s going to feel weird at first, but that’s fine, too.
“I absolutely deserve it,” I reply and pull him out of the kitchen. “Don’t ruin his fun.”
“Whose fun?” Asher asks. He’s sitting on the sofa. Between him, Quinn, and Margot, it’s a tight fit.
“Maurice’s,” Vlad replies. “He will be arriving tomorrow. We will see what information we can get from our captive during the day, but Maurice should be able to get more should we fail.”
“Sounds good,” Asher says, then leans around Quinn to look at Margot and Rachel, who is still standing, kind of hoveringaround the lot of us. “Is it okay for us to keep him here that long? We’ll have him out of your hair tomorrow night.”
The women exchange a look and Rachel nods first, shaky. “Yeah, sure.”
“Looks like we’re in for a long day then,” Asher says.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Vladimir
Grantrefusestogoand rest. He at least remains on the other side of the curtain as Asher and I move in and out of the kitchen, but he sits stubbornly on the sofa the entire time.
Quinn is napping, as is Margot. They spent five minutes whisper-arguing about who should take the bed and who should take the floor until Quinn shifted and curled up by the doorway, making Rachel let out a startled shriek. Asher gave his mate astern look for that, but from the way Quinn huffed at him, then yawned and showed all his teeth, I doubt that it means much to him.
It is not my concern. My concern is that the bodyguard is just waking up.
It is already almost noon. Rachel helped me block up the window in the kitchen so that I do not need to worry about the sun, though the curtains in the living room are thin. No matter. I do not intend to move this vampire from this space. He is to be nowhere near Grant again.
Rachel is sitting out with Grant, I believe. She clearly does not wish to be in the same room as him for long, but this is a one-bedroom flat, so there is little space to hide.
“Where the fuck am I?” the bodyguard growls when he comes to. Harold—Grant never bothered to get his name. We checked his ID hours ago.
