“And you found some other shiny opportunity that would make you evenmoremoney, as if you don’t already have an obscene amount of it.”
“No.” His measured tone didn’t change, but his eyes flashed. “I wanted to be part of the original idea, and I wasn’t interested in the new one. That’s it, Claire. You can tell yourself whatever you want—about me, about money—but I’ve never lied to you, and I’m not lying now.”
They faced off for a long moment, the waterfall roaring behind her, both of them treading water so smoothly beneath the surface they appeared motionless from above it.
Tai shook his head. “Do what you want. Avoid me all day or don’t.”
She rolled her eyes. “You don’t care one way or another, is that it?”
“If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t have mentioned it.”
She couldn’t argue with that. She couldn’t argue with him at all most of the time; he was so consistent, so deliberate, and at least some of his account was true. He’d never pushed back when she decided to go for what she really wanted—a community space made by vampires, for vampires, a place they could be themselves…a place Claire could be herself.
But she’d had no way to predict that instead of pushing back, Tai would pull away. Entirely, overnight, refusing even to meet her at her first appointment with a vendor. She’d bounced on her toes in anticipation of building her tasting menu, texted him the address, and this man she’d thought was becoming a close friend… He simply said no. Completely and finally, not about the vendor but about the entire concept.
And all the things she admired and enjoyed about him charred in the flame of her humiliation at being so thoroughly abandoned by her first business partner. Humiliation and…hurt.
“We’re not friends,” she said.
“You’ve made that very clear.”
“But I guess there’s no reason to avoid each other.”
“Okay.”
“Small talk only. For Ryker and Leslie. So their day isn’t awkward.”
“Okay,” he said.
“Okay.”
As she ducked beneath the water to swim back through the falls, Tai submerged too. Claire was already changing direction and nearly missed his abrupt posture shift. Tai’s body balled up, knees pulling to his chest, and one of his hands shot down to grab the side of his foot.… No, to grab the jaws of the snapping turtle latched onto the side of his foot. Of course his grip was stronger than the turtle’s, and in seconds he’d pried his foot free.
When the turtle tried to bite him again, Tai caught it by the shell and shoved it away, gently enough not to injure it but hard enough to give a clear message of superior strength. The turtle glided off through the water, toward a shelter of overhanging rocks, while Tai relaxed in the water, his arms floating out to his sides. Then he jerked his head up, and his eyes met Claire’s. He must have thought she’d left the cave.
Tai shot away from her underwater, toward the darker depths. Claire pursued with no idea why or what she wanted to say. Even for a vampire, he was a fast swimmer. She had to work to keep up at all, much less catch him. But she kept after him, all the way to the back wall of the cave. When he had nowhere else to go, he bulleted to the surface with a single powerful thrust of his legs and arms.
Claire followed, and they surfaced closer than she’d meant to, only a few feet apart.
Water dripped from his black hair, clung to his thick eyelashes, formed droplets on the sharp points of his cheekbones and the indentation above his upper lip. His steely eyes held hers.
“How long was that turtle latched onto your foot?”
“A few minutes.”
“The whole time we were talking?”
He still hadn’t looked away from her. “About half the time.”
“You idiot, why didn’t you say something?”
“We were having an important conversation.”
“Are you bleeding?” She ducked beneath the surface. No blood in the water, but the side of his foot already bore a sizable black bruise. She surfaced in a splashing burst. “Tai, seriously. If you wanted to be all tough and unfazed, you could’ve pried it off you without me knowing. Our feet are plenty strong enough.”
“Strong enough, but less precise than our hands. I could’ve injured its jaws.”
She slapped the water with both hands. “You are unbelievable, Tai Kristiansen.”
