“About your thoughts on our guests,” I said, expanding.
“Didn’t I?” He took a sip of his drink.
“I would remember.”
“Hm.”
“There you are,” a velvety voice said.
A woman approached, her eyes alive with laughter, dancing to a joke only she knew. She glided across the floor, the movement seduction itself.
“Sofia Davinish, you are breathtaking,” he said, appreciation in his voice.
He took the hand she offered and brought it to his lips.
Interest filtered through me at her name. This was the Davinish matriarch.I’d been to her clubs, met some of her vampires but had never met the woman herself.
She held herself regally, her head up as she flirted with Aiden—surprising given the depth of dislike Kat had always shown the patriarch.I’d always assumed that Aiden’s clan and the Davinish clan didn’t get along.
From the byplay between the two now, I saw I might have to revise that assumption.
“From the look on my protégé’s face, I can assume you’ve been tweaking her tail again,” Sofia said, amused.
“Your protégé is a shark given legs,” Aiden said, his voice light and airy as if he hadn’t just insulted someone from the woman’s clan.
Her laugh was throaty and husky as she threw her head back.
“One of the reasons I chose her. Even as a human she possessed few scruples.”
“Be careful her ambitions don’t turn in your direction,” he cautioned.
I glanced at the man and woman who had trailed behind Sofia. Unlike Aiden’s guards, these two made no attempt at blending into the crowd. They were dressed alike, their clothes dark and tight, while still managing to not seem entirely out of place in this glittering room.
The man matched Sofia’s coloring—they both looked like they were of Italian descent, or full-blooded Italian. His dark eyes surveyed the room, cataloging. The woman at his side was shorter than him by only an inch, her hair cut short and pulled back from her face. She had high cheekbones and plump lips, with skin the color of night. She was striking, and not just because of her bone structure. She looked like a sharpened blade, meant to cut through everything.
She met my gaze briefly, interest and curiosity there, before returning to watching the room.
Both of Sofia’s guards were powerful. Not as powerful as the two flirting beside me, but enough so that a small headache was forming.
“Is this Thomas’s wayward chargeI’ve been hearing so much about?” Sofia asked, her eyes bright and curious.
Aw, how nice. Being discussed as if I wasn’t standing right there, a thinking, feeling being.
I held my peace even as irritation bit at me. However, Thomas had been clear—seen and not heard.
It was a phrase I had to repeat to myself as Sofia drifted closer, reaching out and touching the lock of hair that curled against my cheek.
“Very pretty,” she said as if looking at a piece of art. The art being me.“And more obedient thanI’d been given to expect.”
I didn’t react, just met her eyes with a bland expression that said I couldn’t be bothered with responding to such ridiculousness. It was the avid interest in her eyes that told me she was testing me, poking and prodding to get my measure.
She’d have to work harder than that.
I turned to find Aiden staring at me. He knew what I was up to.
For whatever reason, he decided to take pity on me.
“Shall we dance?” he asked Sofia, holding out one hand.
