I jumped and whirled around, my skirts hitting Blackthorn’s legs with how close he had gotten to me. Regardless of the situation, I wasn’t able to erase the broad smile on my face. “I love it.” I glanced around, my brows furrowing. “I’m surprised this place has been kept up with the way the outer garden looks.”
Blackthorn stepped into me, his chest brushing against my shoulder. “With so few servants, I thought their efforts were better served elsewhere.”
My head tilted back to meet his fathomless gaze. “Why do you have so few servants?”
His jaw tightened at my question before smoothing out. “A very long time ago, someone close to me showed me that I cannot trust everyone in my home.”
Compassion filled me with his words.
His lips twitched at the edges. “See? Even now, you do not know the whole story and yet you are sad for me.” His fingers brushed my cheek, and I found myself leaning into his touch.
“It must have taken something particularly bad for you to only keep a few trusted servants and lock down your castle.”
Blackthorn’s eyes dipped to my lips and then back to up to my eyes. “Yes,” his voice soft as his thumb brushed my chin to lift my face higher. “I never thought I’d trust anyone else again.”
“That’s unfortunate,” I murmured. Somehow, our bodies gravitated toward one another until his chest pressed against mine. My hands came up, fingers grasping at the lapels of his suit.
Time slowed. His face lowered toward mine. My lashes fluttered, my heart racing in my chest. I knew without a doubt that he was about to kiss me. The vampire I’d saved, the monster who had kidnapped me, and yet, a part of me wanted him to do it, curious to see where this warm feeling in my gut would lead me.
When his mouth pressed against mine, it wasn’t the sloppy rushed kisses I’d received in the past from when I was a teenager. It was light. Barely a brush of lips before he pulled away, My face chased after his, not satisfied with just the build-up to a kiss.
To my disappointment, his presence moved away from me. My eyes fluttered open, meeting his probing gaze. Realizing what had happened, my face heated, and my eyes darted down to the cobblestone floor.
Blackthorn put more distance between us, taking my hand in his as he bowed over it. His lips — those lips that had touched mine — brushed over the back of my hand, lingering enough to cause my heart to jump.
“Thank you for letting me share this with you.”
I didn’t get a chance to respond before the vampire was walking out of the garden, his jacket billowing behind him.
My fingers brushed my lips as I stared after him. What in the world just happened?
Chapter 20
I sat in the garden for a long time, staring off into the distance.
My heart still raced in my chest, pounding a rhythm that I hadn’t felt since I was a teenager. Except the one making my heart race wasn’t a freckle-faced boy whose ears turned red with a mere kiss. The one causing this was in every definition of the word... a man. A large menacing man to most people. Dangerous. Definitely someone I shouldn’t be kissing.
No, Blackthorn was most certainly not a boy.
A cursory glance around the garden made a fist squeeze around my heart. There was more to my captor than I initially thought. Though it didn’t change the fact that I needed to get back to the factory. It did make things more difficult, knowing he had trust issues.
It made what I had to do even worse.
So far, annoying him into kicking me out hasn’t worked. The only other choice was to gain his trust and somehow convince him that he could trust me to come back if he let me go.
I was not a manipulative person. Pretending to get close to him so he would release me wasn’t something I felt comfortable with. It made me sick to my stomach just thinking about it.
And yet...
If I didn’t do something and soon, I had no doubt that Rumple’s spell would make me regret it.
But how did I go about gaining Blackthorn’s trust? I hardly knew anything about him. The only way I was going to make this work was to get closer to the vampire. I hated to admit that it sent a small thrill through me.
“Mistress?”
My head jerked toward the voice. “Fran, I’m sorry, I was lost in thought. Did you need something?”
Fran watched me for a long moment, her eyes seeing something more than skin deep. Instead of calling me out on it, Fran fluffed her skirts and laced her fingers in front of her.
