“You’re really going to stick around after everything I already said?”
“Maybe I like it here,” he said as he slid his hands into his pockets. “It’s warm, there’s no snow, there’s dragons soaring through the sky all the time…and beautiful women. Well, one beautiful woman, besides that bar maiden you were checking out.”
“You meanwe.”
“Nope,” he said. “That was all you. And not to worry, doesn’t bother me at all.” He winked.
I had to admit that Viper got my mind off my misery better than anyone else. His jokes successfully distracted me.
“The night doesn’t have to end here. I suspect you’ve got some bottles of wine that have our names written all over them.”
I was tempted to keep the distraction going. We could talk until I passed out on the couch and then he would leave, and I might actually sleep through the night. But a distinct wave of guilt washed over me. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
He cocked his head slightly. “I like my dick, so trust me, I’m not going to try anything.”
“I feel like having you over alone in the evening, even if there’s nothing between us, is still disrespectful to Callum.” I wouldn’t like it one bit if he spent time with a woman who wanted him in her bed, even if he’d denied her advances repeatedly.
“My intentions toward you are entirely pure, Lily.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I mean it,” he said seriously, his expression growing hard and focused like he was actually wounded by the insinuation. “At least tonight, that is.”
“Alright.” I unlocked the door, and we stepped inside my vacant villa. I moved to the hearth to make a fire.
“I’ll do that,” he said as he came near. “Get the wine.”
I let him handle the fire, sad thinking about the way Callum used to handle that all the time, and grabbed a couple of wine bottles and some glasses and sat in the living room.
He took the armchair as far away from me as he possibly could, his body mostly facing the fire.
I was in my favorite corner of the couch, curled up with a blanket, while my glass of wine remained untouched. “Do you have wine in your kingdom?”
“Yeah,” he said before he took a drink. “Not as good as this stuff, though.”
“Is it always cold there?”
“No. The harbor where you docked is, but where Kingsnake and I live, it can get pretty warm in the summer.”
“Have you ever been in love?”
He turned to look at me fully. “You’re really curious all of a sudden.”
I shrugged. “You don’t have to answer it.”
He turned back to the fire. “No, not really.”
“And you’re, like, hundreds of years old?”
“Just never found the right woman. Kingsnake was married to someone else before, but that was a mistake. Cobra hadn’t loved anyone either. Aurelias had someone, but she died. Love doesn’t come easy for us.”
“Because you’re vampires?”
“Because we’re assholes,” he said as he looked at me again.
“I think you canbean asshole, but I don’t think youarean asshole.”
He smirked before he took another drink. “Thanks for the compliment.”
