? the devil incarnate ?
Something came up that I need to take care of.
Nadine’s stomach went into freefall as he stalked into the hall, reminding her of a large, angry panther.Me, she thought, gripping the doorhandle to keep from falling.He means me, oh god.
“Nadine. Thisisa unique surprise. What are you doing here? I know you didn’t come all this way for a consultation.”
“You’re a . . . lawyer now?”
What a stupid question. And the way she asked it was stupid too—high and breathless. Clearly he thought so, as well, because his smile widened in a way she found unsettlingly predatory.
“Don’t look so worried. I only bite my clients.”
“W-what?”
“It’s an old joke. You haven’t heard it?” He stepped into some loafers he’d apparently left in the hall when he had decided to start his phone call. Even without shoes on, though, he still topped her by a good six or seven inches, and in those black driving moccasins, he didn’t make a sound.
She took a self-conscious step backwards, her old Converse squeaking on the wooden boards.
“The difference,” he said, cutting off her path down the hall with a neat side-step, and a feint from the hip, “between a lawyer and a vampire is that vampires can only suck your blood at night.”
Something hot and electric shot down her spine and pulsed through her fingers like a live current.
He smiled again, but this one was slower to come. Cold and seductive, laced with an esurience that was as heady as poison, she felt that smile all throughout her body when he said, quietly, “Do you want me to bite you, Nadine?”
“I—n-no, what?” Her pulse was knocking around so frantically she wondered if he could see the beat of it in her throat. “I—I got a note from Noelle. She didn’t sound like herself and I was worried so I came here, a-and the, um, maid . . . just left me in the hall? So I came . . . here.”
Some of the intensity drained from his features; it was like watching iron cool. “What did the note say?”
“Nothing.” She said it too quickly. His eyes narrowed again. “R-really. It was more how she said it. Is she here? Is she all right? Can I see her?”
“I really wish you’d written,” he said. “We could have made arrangements.”
“I tried to call my sister.” It came out like an accusation.
“That was a mistake. Reception is terrible here.” He saw her eyes flick accusingly to his phone, which he slid back into his tight jeans. “Oh, we have wi-fi. But it’s not reliable. We’re very old-fashioned here in Argentum. When storms hit, we’re reduced to candles and carriages.Holly.”
Nadine jumped, but he was speaking to the maid behind her, who had miraculously popped up again after abandoning her in the foyer. “Yes, Mr. Cullraven?”
“Make up the bridal suite for our guest. See to it that she’s treated like family.”
The bridal suite?“That’s not necessary,” Nadine said quickly, before Holly could complete her circuit down the hall. “I’m staying somewhere else. Nobody needs to make up anything for me.”
“Ridiculous,” Cal said. “Where are you staying?”
Nadine decided not to answer that. It suddenly didn’t seem like a very good idea, having him knowing where she slept at not. Not with Helena’s warning still throbbing in her ears.
“Where is my sister?”
A look of impatience flashed across his face. “Not here.”
“Whereis she?”
He folded his arms and the muscles beneath his shirt bunched with the movement. “I sent you a letter—several letters. I assumed I had the wrong address when I didn’t hear back. But I didn’t, did I?”
Bastard.“Letters get lost. You could have called.”
“So could you,” he said pointedly. “In any case, she’s not well, and hasn’t been for a while.”
