Tressa winked. “A girl’s gotta have her priorities.”
Okay, her appearance had never been anywhere near the top of her priority list, but she couldn’t help the tingle in her abdomen at hearing her mate was attracted to her. It wasn’t a declaration of undying love, but it was an improvement over his initial dismissal of her.
“Don’t do that,” Ethan said, his annoyed tone dampening her brief moment of joy.
“Do what?” she asked.
“Act like a ditz,” he replied. “I’m not sureif you’re trying to convince me or yourself with that shallow, happy-go-lucky crap, but it’s clearly just an act. I can see it in your eyes.”
Tressa went full on fish out of water for a moment. Who the hell was this guy that he saw through her carefully curated persona in less than twenty-four hours? Not even the cadre noticed how much pain she buried underneath her wide smile and forced optimism.
“There’s nothing wrong with being happy,” she told him, though her voice lacked a bit of the conviction that would have existed before Ethan called her out on the lie.
“Not if it’s real,” he replied. “But I don’t see the benefit in putting on a show to please the people around me. So how about we try some truth instead? Drop the friendly neighborhood counselor act and be honest.” He shifted forward, locking eyes with her. “Who are you, Tressa? Really?”
It was almost unsettling, the intense way he stared at her. Nobody had ever looked at her the way Ethan did. Like he really saw into the heart of her and wasn’t put off by the darkness lurking inside. He gazed straight into her soul and didn’t even blink at the suffering hiding under her sunny exterior.
“I’m…”
She trailed off. What should she even say? If she was being honest, it was the perfect opportunity to tell him the truth. To admit she was a vampire and deal with the fallout. They were mates, so even if he’d been attacked by a rogue, surely he could overlook that and accept all vampires weren’t the same. Right?
“I’m…”
Shit.Tell him what she was and risk it? Or lie and buy herself some more time to convince him that her kind weren’t inherently evil?
Truth or lie. Truth or lie.
Truth, she decided. Lying was the coward’s way out, and she was athree-hundred-year-old badass vampire. She was no coward.
“I’m… a… vampire…”
Ethan’s eyes widened.
“...hunter,” she finished. “I’m a vampirehunter.”
Okay, maybe even three-hundred-year-old badass vampires could still be cowards.
Chapter eight
Ethan
“You’re a what?”
There was no freaking way this skinny, adorable, perky woman was a Van Helsing in disguise. Not possible.
He’d been thinking maybe she worked for a rival pharmaceutical company and was going to offer him a new job. It would make sense to send a hottie to entice him, even though he was rarely swayed by a pretty face and was still bound by a strict NDA with VieTek. But he was a fairly well known entity in the pharmaceutical research world, being one of the few expert botanists who willingly worked in corporate America, so any smart company might see it as an opportunity to seize his vulnerable moment and lock him under a new contract.
Hell, he might have even believed she was a vampire herself showing up to finish the job. It would have made sense too, given how preternaturally beautiful she was. But a vampire wouldn’t have the pain he’d seen in her eyes. And they wouldn’t have Tressa’s all-too-human nervous ticks—the way she picked at her cuticles or how she went all guppy-mouthed when she found herself in an unexpected situation.
No, there was no way she was a soulless demon. Still, it made moresense than the excuse she had gone with.
“Iama vampire hunter,” she repeated with more confidence and a little defensiveness creeping into her voice. “You don’t believe me?”
Ethan laughed and tucked his hands behind his head. “Sweetheart, it’s not a matter of me believing you. Even if you are some kind of Buffy wannabe, it doesn’t mean you could actually take down a real vampire.”
She arched an eyebrow, but he just shook his head.
“I’ve seen one, remember? Up close and personal when it was tearing my throat out. And I was helpless. Completely unable to do anything but die a painful death. There’s no way you’re a hunter. Sorry, not to be a dick, but no.”
